Where are you from, and why there?
I was born in Quebec City, Quebec. The first three years of my youth were thereafter spent in Abidjan, Ivory Coast. After this, my family returned to Quebec City. I believe that the love of different cultures and an international perspective continues to run in my family. For example, my sister has worked for the UN Refugee Agency since she was 25 years old. Since my early 20s, I have also traveled to over 25 countries in Africa, the Middle East, Central and South America and Europe in the context of youth exchange programs, my research and legal work. I would love to continue traveling and discovering the world once the pandemic (hopefully) subsides. In my heart, however, I still maintain a profound connection with the French language and its art, culture, and literature in Quebec and in Canada, as well as the multicultural city of Montreal, where I currently live with my husband and three children.
Which issue(s) do you work on/care about, and why?
The issues that are most central to my work relate to human rights and gender equality, democratic and intercultural dialogue in pluralistic systems, critical legal theory, and leadership.
As a law professor at the University of Ottawa Faculty of Law, my research focused on the migration and application of minority religious laws by the courts and their effects on Jewish and Muslim women in the Middle East, Northern Africa, Western Europe, and Canada. It employs a “story-telling” approach to highlight the voices of minority religious women expressed through interviews. In analyzing the results of these interviews, I employ a distributional justice analysis lens in family law to examine gender equality in relation to bargaining power and wealth. One of the most prominent examples is my book, “Muslim Marriage in Western Courts: Lost in Transplantation” (Ashgate Publishing, 2010), translated into French as “Mariages musulmans, tribunaux d’Occident. Les transplantations juridiques et le regard du droit” (Les Presses Sciences Po., 2013). The book demonstrates how litigation concerning Muslim marriage has resulted in quite diverse approaches and interpretations both within and across jurisdictions, although each appears to share underlying concerns about equitable protection for women and recognition of religious norms.
As a lawyer, I have also acted as an expert witness for numerous cases before Canadian and US courts to comment and provide information on the application of Islamic law in divorce cases of parties originally from countries of the Middle East or North Africa. I participated in several training seminars of the judiciary in Canada and abroad on the migration of religious minority laws to Western legal systems to address complex transnational disputes. I acted as an expert consultant with the United Nations Development Programme on legal reforms and the interaction between Islamic law and women’s legal experiences in Malaysia, Nigeria, Tunisia, and Egypt. In 2013, I was also invited by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East to give a conference in Beirut, Lebanon on the impact of a legal reform that would introduce family law mediation. In 2015, the National Assembly of Quebec appointed me as Commissioner to the province’s Human Rights and Youth Rights Commission, where I occupied a quasi-judicial role in relation to complaints of discrimination.
Currently, I serve as the President and CEO of the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation, a non-partisan charity that offers doctoral scholarships and leadership development opportunities to some of the most exceptional and brightest students across Canada and internationally. This leadership approach is framed within a context of profound change in Canada and internationally, along with resulting and positive evolution in the academic community. It is based on the development of healthy relationships with oneself, with others, and with society and the natural environment.
How did you get involved?
During my bachelor studies in Law in the mid-1990s, I participated in a youth international exchange programme of Canada World Youth (CWY). The mission of this organization was to increase young people’s active participation in the development of just, harmonious, and sustainable societies. A part of my internship took place in Moncton, Canada, where I worked with the Acadian Aberdeen Cultural Centre to promote their cultural activities. I completed the second part of my exchange in Egypt, where I had the privilege of sharing the day-to-day life of an Ismaili family while teaching English in an elementary public school as a volunteer. The learning techniques that we used were based on integrity and respect of differences between cultures. This experience was an eye-opener at the beginning of my career. It motivated me to use my education to analyze how my country addresses multiculturalism and whether its policies encourage respectful and peaceful intercultural relationships and dialogue.
After graduating from law, I worked as a law clerk for the Honorable former Chief Justice Claire L’Heureux Dubé of the Supreme Court of Canada in Ottawa, who inspired me to think critically, responsibly, and creatively on the law and its fair, balanced, and just application in society.
As a lawyer, I returned to the Middle East in 1999 to work on issues of gender equality in Egypt, Lebanon and Israel, in collaboration with the Secrétariat à la Condition Féminine. During this mission, I met many women and listened to their personal stories of exclusion and disempowerment. I chaired a televised public debate in which Egyptian members of the International Rotary Club of Alexandria presented their viewpoints on the position of women in Egypt. Upon returning to Canada in the summer, I organized and chaired a lecture on “Women’s Rights in the Middle East” for gender equality representatives of ministries of Quebec. These experiences taught me that issues of human rights and inequality can and should be criticized and changed for the better and that, often, law trails behind social change.
Another significant influence has been my involvement on the Board of Directors of the Fondation Gérin-Lajoie in Quebec. This not-for-profit is committed to supporting basic education in lower-income countries. Its founder, Paul Gérin-Lajoie has in fact devoted his career to the emancipating power of education as a human right. My own academic and professional vision has blossomed out of this brand of responsible citizenship in Canada and the world.
After completing my PhD from 2002 to 2007 at Harvard Law School under the supervision of the esteemed Professor Janet Halley, Royall Professor of Law, I worked as a volunteer with Adalah, the Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel on a program for the protection of equality rights for Palestinian women. This volunteering experience resulted in a research paper on the implications of compound discrimination, based on race and gender and two conference presentations at the Sixth International Conference of the Arab Women’s Solidary Association in Cairo, Egypt and the Islamic Legal Studies Program at Harvard.
Finally, in 2003, I became the project leader of a field mission organized by Harvard University’s “Direct Action” to fund elementary schools Port-au-Prince, Haiti. This project was not only personally rewarding, but also gave immense meaning to my life and career.
What are the biggest challenges for the issue(s) today?
The world faces innumerable challenges, from climate change to socio-economic disparities, to fragile states that face security and humanitarian crises, to gender inequality, racism, and many others. In the past two years, we are facing an unprecedented pandemic that has plunged us into a worldwide health crisis, and the disruption of global supply chains, testing the limits of interdependent global economies.
There are many advantages that could be derived from living in this digital age with increased circulation of information and democratization of knowledge. On the other hand, online platforms are simultaneously revealing a significant amount of socio-political polarization, spread of mis/disinformation, bullying, harassment, surveillance, and other new challenges.
Is there a way that we could bridge the divides in our society and cultivate more respectful, democratic dialogue for collaborative, creative and inclusive solutions to our societal challenges? And who are the engaged leaders that can help us achieve this?
As the President and CEO of the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation – a Canadian charity organization that offers doctoral scholarships – I led a pan-Canadian listening and learning tour in 2018-19 to build our programs around the concept of “engaged leadership.” To gather a plurality of perspectives, the Foundation team visited 20 multi-sectoral Canadian communities, and carried out a total of 23 consultation workshops. The tour revealed six key leadership concepts that are widely accepted by all: audacity and perseverance; communication and knowledge-sharing; creativity and innovation; a broad interpretation of diversity and inclusion; collaboration; and duty of service. These findings were shared in a report titled Future Forums. They were also integrated in the Foundation’s 2019–2024 Strategic Plan and a unique leadership curriculum Building Brave Spaces: The Path to Engaged Leadership.
Based on these results, the Foundation’s programs currently aim to better prepare these exceptional scholars to imagine shared futures as engaged leaders while welcoming diversity and a plurality of perspectives within brave spaces of open dialogue. I am strongly committed to this program and the empowerment of these emerging leaders to contribute meaningfully to their communities and address the world’s many challenges in positive and creative ways.
Who are your most frequent allies in your field? Any surprises?
My allies exist in multiple areas and have either directly or indirectly contributed to my field. This includes the wisdom, love and friendship of my parents and grandmother, and the individuals I mentioned above, such as Professor Janet Halley, Paul-Gérin Lajoie and the Honorable Claire L’Heureux Dubé. When I became a Scholar at the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation in 2003, I made several friends in this community whom I still collaborate with today. Both within the Foundation and university sector, my allies include my faculty colleagues, deans, some of the brightest and motivated students, as well as amazing staff members. Finally, my closest allies are my husband and children who mean the world to me and I to them. In fact, the allies in my field are countless – one has only to give and to share their best potential without fear and they may be surprised to meet several kindred spirits along their way.
What drives you?
My children are really what drives me the most. I learn from them every day and am so grateful to experience such special moments of their lives as they grow and develop their tastes, preferences, talents, and learn to be in this world. Children have so much courage. When my sons were learning how to walk, for example, they would fall and get right back up. This made me wonder why we seem to gain fear as we age?
Similarly, the beautiful young children and inspiring dreams and human potential that I encountered during my international and community engagement experiences instilled the conviction in me that international cooperation, access to education, social justice and human rights are the values that contribute the most to global wellness and prosperity.
What do you want your career/advocacy to stand for?
Most importantly, I want to be a role model for my children and to support human rights, progress, and innovation within the younger generations. I want to ensure that everything I do empowers them to become engaged leaders in this world by following their own hearts and paths, learning, accepting, and maximizing their potential. I also hope that they may contribute to their communities through important values such as altruism, reflection, integrity, care for the environment, respectful communication, healthy practices, compassion and sharing. If I can achieve this through my own work, advocacy, and daily communications, I will feel very fulfilled.