Alexa McDonough

Politician

Born in Ottawa in 1944, raised in Nova Scotia.

Leader of the New Democratic Party of Canada from 1995 to 2003.

Elected to the House of Commons in 1997.

First woman to lead a recognized political party in Canada when she was elected leader of the Nova Scotia NDP in 1980.

http://canadaonline.about.com

Caroline Andrew

Professor, political scientist researcher

Director of the Centre on Governance, University of Ottawa.

Political scientist researcher on local politics, municipal government and urban development.

Former Dean of the Faculty of Social Science of the University of Ottawa, 1997-2005.

Distinguished university Professor, 2006-07.

Received the Ontario Francophonie Award (Francophile of the Year) from the government of Ontario during a special ceremony in Ottawa in 2006.

First Chair of the Board of Echo: Improving Women's Health in Ontario, 2007.

http://www.socialsciences.uottawa.ca
http://www.powerstudy.ca/profile/caroline-andrew
http://www.media.uottawa.ca

Julie Nesrallah

Mezzo-soprano, radio host

Born in Ottawa.

Graduated from Ridgemont High School in Ottawa in 1987.

Studied music performance at McGill University in Montreal and Carleton University in Ottawa.

Acted as an advisor to the Ontario Arts Council, Choirs Division 2002 and 2003.

As of 2008, is the host of Tempo, a classical music program on the CBC Radio 2 network.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julie_Nesrallah
http://www.julienesrallah.com/
http://www.cbc.ca

Justices of the Supreme Court of Canada

Since 1875, there have been 80 Justices of the Supreme Court of Canada of which 7 were women, including the present Chief Justice, Beverley McLachlin, the first woman Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada.

1. Bertha Wilson

Supreme Court Judge from 1982-1991

• First woman to sit on the Supreme Court of Canada.
• First woman appointed a partner in a major Canadian law firm in 1959.
• First woman appointed to the Ontario Court of Appeal in 1975.
• Author of the Supreme Court decision overturning Criminal Code of Canada restrictions on abortion in 1988.
• Known for her acceptance of the battered-wife syndrome as self-defense in R. v Lavallée, 1990.

http://canadaonline.about.com

http://www.scc-csc.gc.ca

2. Claire L’Heureux-Dubé

Supreme Court Judge from 1987-2002

• Second woman appointed to the position of Justice on the Supreme Court of Canada.
• First woman from Quebec appointed to this position.
• Remembered as one of the most prolific dissenters of the Court. Her judicial view was atypical for her time and often clashed with the majority of the Court.
• Among her more controversial decisions we find Canada (Attorney General) v. Mossop, [1993] 1 SCR 554 where she alone acknowledged that the meaning of family is not fixed and should be read purposively to adapt to the changing times and it should include same-sex couples.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claire_L'Heureux-Dubé

http://www.scc-csc.gc.ca

3. Beverley McLachlin

Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada, since 2000

• Third woman appointed to the position of Justice on the Supreme Court of Canada.
• First woman to be Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada, appointed in 2000.
• First woman appointed to the BC Court of Appeal and the first female BC Supreme Court Justice.
• When Governor General Adrienne Clarkson was hospitalized in July 2005, Justice McLachlin served as the Administrator of the Government and performed the duties of the Governor General, including giving royal assent to the Civil Marriage Act, effectively legalizing same-sex marriage in Canada.
• Among her more controversial decisions was her ruling in R. v. Seaboyer, where she struck down the rape shield law because it violated the right to a fair trial of those accused of sexual assault.

www.scc-csc.gc.ca

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beverley_McLachlin

www.canadaonline.about.com

4. Louise Arbour
Supreme Court Judge from 1999-2004

• Fourth woman appointed to the position of Justice on the Supreme Court of Canada.
• Former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
• Former justice of the Court of Appeal for Ontario and a former Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda.
• Serves as President and CEO of the International Crisis Group since 2009.
• Has published in the area of criminal procedure and criminal law, in both French and English. Has served as an editor for the Criminal Reports, the Canadian Rights Reporter, and the Osgoode Hall Law Journal.
• Best known as a chief prosecutor for tribunals into the genocide in Rwanda and human rights abuses in Yugoslavia in the 1990s.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louise_Arbour
http://www.crisisgroup.org

5. Marie Deschamps
Supreme Court Judge since 2002

• Fifth woman appointed to the position of Justice on the Supreme Court of Canada.
• Called to the Quebec Bar in 1975.
• Adjunct professor in the Université de Sherbrooke’s law faculty since 2006.
• Frequent speaker and has also written a number of legal commentaries.
• appointed to the Quebec Superior Court on March 29, 1990, to the Quebec Court of Appeal on May 6, 1992 and to the Supreme Court of Canada on August 7, 2002.
• Has broken ranks over some of the most contentious social issues the court has dealt with in recent years, including spanking, marijuana, and the validity of separation agreements after divorce.

http://www.scc-csc.gc.ca

www.canadianjusticereviewboard.ca

6. Rosalie Silberman Abella
Supreme Court Judge since 2004

• Sixth woman appointed to the position of Justice on the Supreme Court of Canada.
• First Jewish woman appointed to the Supreme Court of Canada.
• Was called to the Ontario Bar in 1972.
• Was the sole Commissioner of the 1984 federal Royal Commission on Equality in Employment, creating the term and concept of "employment equity".
• Has written over 80 articles and written or co-edited four books.
• Has been awarded the Distinguished Alumnus Award of the University of Toronto Faculty of Law; the Distinguished Service Award of the Canadian Bar Association (Ontario); the International Justice Prize of the Peter Gruber Foundation; the Human Relations Award of the Canadian Council of Christians and Jews; the Honourable Walter S. Tarnopolsky Human Rights Award; the Bora Laskin Award for Distinguished Service in Labour Law; and 30 honourary degrees.

http://www.scc-csc.gc.ca

7. Louise Charron

Supreme Court Judge since 2004

• Seventh woman appointed to the position of Justice on the Supreme Court of Canada.
• First franco-ontarian appointed to the Supreme Court of Canada.
• Received a B.A. from Carleton University in 1972 and an LL.B. from the University of Ottawa in 1975.
• Served as Assistant Crown Attorney for the Judicial District of Ottawa-Carleton from 1978 to 1988, holding this position on a full-time basis from 1980 to 1985.
• Was a lecturer in the French common law section of the University of Ottawa’s Faculty of Law from 1978 to 1985, when she joined the Faculty as Assistant Professor, a position she held until 1988.
• Was appointed a District Court Judge and Local Judge of the High Court of Ontario in Ottawa in 1988 and Judge of the Ontario Court of Justice (General Division) in 1990. 

http://www.scc-csc.gc.ca
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louise_Charron

Bertha Wilson

Lawyer, judge
First woman on the Supreme Court of Canada

Born in 1923 in Kirkcaldy, Scotland; moved to Ottawa in 1949; died in Ottawa in 2007.

Was the first woman appointed a partner in a major Canadian law firm in 1959.

Was the first woman appointed to the Ontario Court of Appeal in 1975.

Was the first woman appointed to the Supreme Court of Canada in 1982. Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada from 1982-1991.

Well known as the author of the Supreme Court decision overturning Criminal Code of Canada restrictions on abortion in 1988 and for her acceptance of the battered-wife syndrome as self-defense in R. v Lavallée, 1990.

http://canadaonline.about.com
http://www.scc-csc.gc.ca

Wives of Mayors of Ottawa Since 1855

[in progress]

From the beginning of Bytown to today, there have been 73 mayoral mandates. Eight mandates were served in Bytown from 1847 to 1854, 62 mandates were served from 1855 to 2001 (before amalgamation) and three mandates including the current one have been served post amalgamation. There were also two acting mayors for short periods of time in 2009.

There are few details about the wives of the different mayors. In many cases, only names, dates of marriages and number of children have been recorded.


1. ANNA ECCLES
    HELEN STREET
    ELIZABETH SUSAN WILSON
(John Bower Lewis)

All three women were wives of Ottawa’s first mayor John Bower Lewis. Lewis was Mayor of Ottawa from 1855 to 1857, but had also been mayor of Bytown in 1848. He married three times: to Anna Eccles in 1840, to Helen Street in 1843 and to Elizabeth Susan Wilson in 1856.

http://www.biographi.ca


2. (no information found on marriage status)
(Edward McGillivray)

3. MARY ABBOT
(Alexander Workman)

Was the wife of Ottawa’s third mayor. Workman was mayor from 1860 to 1862. Mary Abbot died in 1874 at the age of 72. She is buried in Beechwood Cemetery in Ottawa.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Workman

Mayors of Ottawa

1. CHARLOTTE WHITTON, 1896-1975
48^th mayor of Ottawa, first in 1951-1956, then again in 1961-1964

First woman mayor of Ottawa 

First woman mayor of any large city in Canada

Social worker, politician, feminist

"Whatever women must do they must do twice as well as men to be thought half as good. Luckily, this is not difficult." - Charlotte Whitton

Born in Renfrew; moved to Ottawa in 1922.

Relentless crusader for professional standards of juvenile immigrants and neglected children in the 1920s.

Founder of the Canadian Council on Child Welfare (now the Canadian Council on Social Development).

Lectured across North America on social programs.

Entered Ottawa City politics in 1950. When the elected mayor died the next year she succeeded him (1951). Elected mayor of Ottawa in 1952, 1954, 1960 and 1961 and served as an alderman until 1972.

Historical note on the first woman mayor in Canada: Barbara McCallum Hanley, born in Magnetawan, Ontario was the first woman to be elected mayor in Canada. She was elected mayor of Webbwood, (west of Sudbury) on January 6, 1936 and served the community as mayor for eight years. Charlotte Whitton was the first mayor of a large city in Canada.

wwwfamouscanadianwomen.com

www.citizenship.gov.on.ca

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlotte_Whitton

2. MARION DEWAR, 1928-2008

52^nd mayor of Ottawa from 1978-1985

Advocate for justice, peace, inclusiveness and quality public services

Born in Montreal.

Among the policy areas she emphasized were improved public access to municipal decision-making, low-cost housing and child care.

Became the president of the New Democratic Party in 1985 and a member of the Parliament of Canada from 1986 to 1988.

Co-hosted the Women's Constitutional Conference calling for gender equality provisions in the Canadian Charter of Rights.

Was the Executive Director of the Canadian Council on Children and Youth from 1989 to 1992 and the National Chair of Oxfam Canada from 1994 to 1999.

Awarded a degree in Health Sciences by University of Ottawa and an LL.D. in Public Administration by Carleton University for her outstanding contributions.

Received the Order of Canada in 2002.

In 2004, Canadian women historians established the Marion Dewar Prize in Canadian Women's History in her honour.

www.oxfam.ca

www.cffn.ca

3. JACQUELIN HOLZMAN, 1936-

55^th Mayor of Ottawa from 1991 to 1997

First elected to Ottawa city council in 1982.

Prominent volunteer in the Ottawa community, especially on causes relating to the disabled; over 25 years of community service.

Past chair of the board of directors for the Royal Ottawa Hospital; played a leadership role in the planning of the new Regional Rehabilitation Centre in 1981.

Involved in fundraising for The Ottawa Hospital Foundation and the Ottawa Boys and Girls Club.

Served as governor of Algonquin College, the Community Foundation of Ottawa and as the Honorary Lieutenant Colonel of the Cameron Highlanders of Ottawa.

Member of the Kiwanis Club of Ottawa, honorary chair of Breast Cancer Action, and chair of the Ottawa Health Research Institute.

Co-author of Ottawa Then & Now, a 200-year retrospective of Canada’s capital city.

Received an honorary doctorate from the University of Ottawa and a YM-YWCA Woman of Distinction Award for Lifetime Achievement.

www.canadascapital.gc.ca

en.wikipedia.org


NOTE: Since its foundation as Ottawa in 1855, the city has had 3 women mayors. However, when the city of Ottawa amalgamated in 2001, there were 4 women mayors in different municipalities. They were:

• Claudette Cain in Gloucester
• Merle Nicholds in Kanata
• Mary Pitt in Nepean
• Janet Stavinga in Goulbourn

During the Bytown years, from 1847 to 1854, the city had 8 mayors, none of them were women.