Welcome to CBRC’s Summit 2026: Building Our Futures!
As co-chairs of this year’s conference, we are delighted to host you for a Summit which, in many ways, is larger than ever.
We’ve seen a record-breaking 250+ proposal submissions – innovative ideas from across the country on how to improve the health and wellbeing of queer, trans and Two-Spirit people. We’re hosting the Summit in Toronto, Canada’s most-populous city, for the first time, meaning it’s never been easier for many of you to attend. And we’ve taken a programming approach that packs a diverse, overlapping set of sessions and activities allowing everyone to pursue their interests without extending the length of the daily schedule.
Yes, Summit is bigger than ever. But at the same time, it’s the little moments that we are most eager for you to enjoy.
It’s bumping into someone you haven’t seen in years while in line for lunch, catching up on your lives and latest projects. It’s meeting someone you’ve followed and admired while waiting for an elevator, finally getting to express your respect – and learning that it’s mutual. It’s learning about a new service or organization from people you randomly sat next to. It’s sharing a hug, a laugh or a story with a group of new friends and old at a reception. No matter how big the Summit gets, it’s these little moments that continue to make the event special and worth attending, year after year.
Summit has been an anchor for both of us since joining CBRC in the spring of 2023. Not just as a major CBRC initiative, but as a reminder of the relevance and impact of the work we do. This year, we’ve each endeavored to improve on an already milestone annual gathering in our own unique ways.
For Adam, it’s been about ensuring that growing into a new venue, host city and size capacity isn’t followed by a decrease in quality and that, instead, we rise to the moment: offering concurrent programming and welcoming new partners, meaning there is something to learn or someone to meet at any given moment.
For Marie, it’s been working with the Summit Planning Committee and CBRC staff to select presentations that speak to today’s challenges and opportunities, platform underheard voices and offer tangible, relevant insights. It’s also been about continuing to integrate the French language so speakers of both official languages are engaged throughout the event.
As two people originally from Ontario – Adam from Unionville, and Marie from Plantagenet – we also are keen to reconnect with local groups and collaborators, sharing the energy, culture and creativity of metropolitan and rural Ontario with all Summit attendees.
Taken together, these efforts have produced a program we’re immensely proud of. Our keynote speakers alone reflect the kind of dialogues we’re motivated to create. Dr. OmiSoore H. Dryden brings a Black, feminist lens to what 2S/LGBTQIA+ liberation demands in healthcare, beyond representation and inclusion. Manon Massé has been an elected member of Quebec’s provincial government for more than a decade and affords us a look at community-building within and outside of government halls. CBRC’s own Jad Sinno reflects on what reparative and transformative research approaches can look like, and how we can confront oppression without reducing queer life to harm. These are in addition to our keynote panels on harm reduction and cancer equity, as well as dozens of breakaway sessions on a sweeping range of topics.
We’d like to thank the Summit Planning Committee for diligently assessing hundreds of proposals to find such exemplary presentations and posters, and our core CBRC staff Summit development team for tireless efforts – since the very beginning of 2026 – to make this year’s Summit one to remember.
Our ask for you is simple: take advantage of everything Summit 2026 has to offer. It is not hyperbolic to say you will spend these days surrounded by brilliance and empathy – two powerful tools in our effort to improve the lives of queer, trans and Two-Spirit people. Do not let them pass you by. Find local relevance to national research. Share contact information with people in your neighbourhood and across the country. Take a deep breath, knowing you are surrounded by people who see you.
Let’s build our futures together,
Adam Jalali Co-Chair, Summit 2026 |
Marie Geoffroy Co-Chair, Summit 2026 |
