Marilou McPhedran

Marilou McPhedran was appointed as the Principal of the University of Winnipeg Global College in June 2008, after having served as the Chief Commissioner of the Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission and as the Ariel F. Sallows Chair in Human Rights, University of Saskatchewan College of Law. Born and raised in rural Manitoba, called to the Bar of Ontario in 1978, named a Member of the Order of Canada in 1985 in recognition of her contributions to the grassroots campaign for stronger sex equality protections in the Canadian constitution, Marilou co-founded several internationally recognized non-profit systemic change organizations in Canada, such as: LEAF - the Women's Legal Education and Action Fund, which has conducted constitutional equality test cases and interventions since the federal/provincial moratorium on s.15 equality rights was lifted on April 17, 1985; METRAC - the Metropolitan Action Committee on Violence Against Women and Children; the "always open" Gerstein Crisis Centre for homeless psychiatric survivors in Toronto. She was the founding director (at York University in 1997) of the International Women's Rights Project (IWRP), which she moved and then co-directed at the University of Victoria's Centre for Global Studies, from 2003-2007. While at the University of Saskatchewan College of Law, she taught her intergenerational models: "evidence based advocacy" and "lived rights" and chaired the Chains & Links - Human Rights Activism Conference in 2007. She is a pioneer in research and advocacy to counter human rights violations through systemic reform - in law, medicine, education and governance. As chief executive officer of a federally funded centre of excellence for women's health, she directed staff and programs, including a cyber research network, on health and human rights. In the 1990s, she led the City of Toronto "Healthy City Office" and chaired two public inquiries into the sexual abuse of patients. She has co-investigated and co-authored social justice research, including: the ten country pilot First CEDAW Impact Study to assess the UN Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (2000), "What about accountability to the patient?" (2001), the "National Study on Rural, Remote and Northern Women's Health in Canada", (2003), the textbook, with Wendy Sutton, Preventing Sexual Abuse: a Legal Guide for Health Care Professionals (2004) and authored "Impact of S.15 equality rights on Canadian society: beacon or laser? " (National Journal of Constitutional Law 2006) and "A Truer Story: Constitutional Trialogue" (Supreme Court Law Review, 2007).