Who is

Ruby Roy

/ The World Traveller

Since my childhood, the only thing I ever wanted to do in life was to travel. With 151 countries under my belt and counting where I have lived, worked and travelled. My travel is not an Instagram post. I immerse myself in the local life and culture.

/ World Cultures

My passions for cultural awareness, diversity, discoveries, flavours, music dance, art, life styles and especially language began in my own upbringing, home and environment. I devoured National Geographic magazines, documentaries, biographies of world leaders. I excelled in history, geography, languages and music. They continue to be great passions of mine. I give talks, workshops on cultural
awareness around the globe.

/ The Language Collector

I really enjoy learning languages. Both my parents spoke several. Having grown up surrounded by diversity and cultural wealth it was easy to enjoy the gift of language. My favorite language is Italian, my second favourite is Egyptian Arabic. From elementary to university and beyond I studied several. French, Russian, Spanish, Hindi, Urdu, and Italian of course. Each language I work in, I speak, understand or communicate in has a story. My love for the language begins with the music, dance, food and art and my encounters with people. My method for retaining a language is listen, hear, understand, speak, read and write. It takes four years to be fluent in a language with complete and total immersion. Language is truly the heart into a culture. For me the key the opens so many doors.

/ The Comedian

Surrounded by close friends, family with great sense of humour. Laughter is such an important part of my daily life. I am an amateur stand by comedian. I include humour in my work and tours. I am best known for imitating accents from around the world, especially cabin crews on airlines, that still makes my family and friends burst in to tears and fits of laughter. My favourite festival is the Just for Laughs festival. My favourite comedians of all time: Montrealer Sugar Sammy, Torontian Russell Peters and British Michael McIntyre.

/ The Hockey Fan

A huge hockey fan. When playoff season begins, everything shifts to ensure I don’t miss any games. The Montreal Canadiens also known as the Habs are the oldest hockey team in the NHL, one of the oldest continuously existing sports franchises in the world, and also one of the most successful in all of sports. The Canadians have won 24 Stanley Cups, 24 division championships, and have 64 players in the Hockey Hall of Fame. Naturally my team. Go Habs Go!!

/ The Artist and Art Lover

Visual Arts are also a great passion of mine. I have been a photographer since the age of 12, I adore cinema, film studies and enjoy making my own video and photography. Studying both. My love for film and photography is the reason I worked for 25+ years with film crews and photographers in media relations. I have several favourite works of arts and artist. I also appreciate the talents of street art and graffiti art, as well as public art. Fashion, design and architecture are also interests of mine. With one of my favourite periods being Art Deco. (1920s to 1950s).

/ The Mermaid

An avid swimmer, I could spend the entire day in water regardless if it’s a lake, river, sea, ocean or Olympic size swimming pool. When the water is frozen, it’s skating season.

/ The Sci-Fi Geek

Star Trek, Next Generation, definitely my favourite. I am torn between DC and Marvel. My favourite superheroes are Superman, Wonder woman. We all need heroes. A fun way to escape for a few hours…

/ The Foodie, Gardner and Home Cook

Fortunate to have grown up with parents with green thumbs, nothing I enjoy more than growing my own fruits and vegetable. Living minutes away from the largest market in North America. I adore gardening and discovering culinary delights and flavours from around the world. I have taken many cooking classes, learned from home cooks around the globe. From May until October my garden is a wonderful paradise. I have the privilege of also discovering many wonderful chefs and restaurants around the world and at home. In 1992 I become Canada’s first culinary expert guide and the only one with food safety certification. Food is the soul of every cultural and destination.

/ My Wings

I have never lost my childhood love for airplanes, fighter jets, helicopters, space travel. I used to spend Saturdays at the airport watching planes land and take off. When the Concord began its first flight, my father took me to the newly opened Mirabel airport to fly on that first Concord.

/ The Dancer

I fell in love with classical ballet on my first visit to Russia, then Soviet Union, while studying Russian. The Kirov, Bolshoi and Baryshnikov where magical. I am also a dancer having studied Flamenco, Tango, Latin dances, Indian classical dances, Bollywood. My most favourite is Oriental dancing also known as Raks Sharqi or Egyptian dances from every region. I also enjoy Gulf Arab also known as Khalijee dancing. The two latter I studied intensely for more than 15 years, even lived in Egypt to study with the masters. I become a dance teacher in 2005. When the music comes on I just move. I have also performed on stages at festivals.

/ The Singer and Music Lover

I am a massive music lover from classical music, Italian opera, heavy metal, pop, and rock n roll. I especially love British rock. Some favourite artists Queen, Journey, Pink, Lady Gaga, Madonna, Peter Gabriel, Leonard Cohen to world music especially Italian, Greek, Spanish, Hindi, Bengali and Arabic… I am a singer and have been singing all of my life. I have had vocal coaches, singing teachers and have performed. I am known to simply break out in song in public if the mood hits me Have a listen to the podcast on Montreal music tours.

/ The lifelong volunteer

Volunteering and giving back to my communities was in integral part of our school life and family life. I have volunteered for non-profit organisations. From my primary school to my university I was on committees, board, associations. I began volunteering with the Liberal Party of Canada when the Prime Minister of Canada was Pierre E Trudeau.
Then returned to volunteering more activity in 2006 when Justin Trudeau decided to be nominated. I especially enjoyed volunteering at Liberal conventions and during Federal elections. It is exciting being part of shaping the country. From 2015 I was elected to the board of the Liberal Party of Canada riding of Papineau representing our Member of Parliament, the Right Honourable Justin Trudeau prime minister of Canada. I am an active volunteer and donate. I also volunteer for several other Members of Parliament.
From 1992 to 2019 I volunteered actively with our local Tourist Guide Association called the APGT Montreal with a wonderful group of volunteers and members who have become lifelong friends. I was president twice for the organisation. My legacy to the organisation was putting our local association on the world map and organising the 1997 WFTGA World Convention among many projects. From 1992 to 2022 I was involved, as well as elected 6 times on the international board including being president of the World Federation of Tourist Guide Associations. My legacy was increasing memberships from Asian, African, Arab and Spanish speaking countries. I created the associations’ first website, created a marketing plan, media relations director, helped in international relations. However my most important legacy was creating the organisations professional RFP / bidding documents, coaching bidders, hosts from 1997 to 2023. I included dance and exercise breaks, unique events, tours, culinary adventures and more. Attracted international speakers and workshop presenter from around the globe. Some of WFTGA best attended, fiscally responsible and successful conventions were the ones I was involved in from start to finish from 1997, 1999, 2001, 2003, 2007, 2009 and 2017. I am currently President Emeritus of the WFTGA.
Mentorship for Women/Tourism Educational Institutes and Non-profits is important to me. I also give my time as a motivational speaker, workshop presenter and trainer for non-profit organisations with little to no budget to mentor women, youth and marginalized members of society I volunteer and donate to several other organisations assisting those in need. I keep private from the public.