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Media Highlight: Dalhousie faculty member appointed to Senate of Canada

Posted by Communications and Marketing on October 28, 2016 in Media Highlights

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will name nine, new, non-partisan senators Thursday, bringing him within reach of his goal to transform the discredited Senate into a more reputable, independent chamber of sober second thought.

The five women and four men hail from a wide variety of backgrounds, from an art historian to a renowned human rights lawyer to a conservationist, The Canadian Press has learned.

They are the first senators to be chosen under an arm’s length process that saw more than 2,700 Canadians apply to fill the 21 vacancies in the 105-seat upper house.

Trudeau is poised to announce two more batches of appointments within days, filling the remaining 12 empty seats – six from Quebec, six from Ontario – and, for the first time, putting senators with no partisan affiliation in the driver’s seat.

When he’s done, independent senators will hold a plurality of 44 seats, outnumbering the Conservatives’ 40 and the independent Liberals’ 21.

Thursday’s appointees include:

– Nova Scotia social worker and educator Wanda Thomas Bernard, the first African-Canadian to hold a tenure-track position at Dalhousie University and to be promoted to full professor. A founding member of the Association of Black Social Workers, current chair of the Nova Scotia Advisory Council on the Status of Women.

– Daniel Christmas, senior adviser for the Mi’kmaw First Nation of Membertou, N.S. He is credited with playing a key role in transforming his home community from a First Nation on the brink of bankruptcy to one of the most successful in Canada. Former director of advisory services for the Union of Nova Scotia Indians.

Watch clip (http://globalnews.ca/news/3028500/justin-trudeau-set-to-name-nine-new-senate-appointments/)