Prime Minister Mark Carney has named former Supreme Court justice Louise Arbour as Canada’s next governor general, picking a francophone with a long legal resumé which includes stints prosecuting war crimes in Rwanda and Yugoslavia and serving as the UN human rights commissioner.
Arbour will serve as the King’s representative and the commander-in-chief of Canada’s Armed Forces, replacing the retiring Mary Simon, whose five-year term is due to end soon.
Arbour is one of the most celebrated jurists of her time.
She has received 42 honorary doctorates and is already a Companion of the Order of Canada — the country’s highest honour — in recognition of her pioneering legal work here and around the world.
In announcing the appointment in Ottawa on Tuesday, Carney said Arbour will be an exemplary “steward of our tradition of peace, order and good government” and the “guardian of our constitutional order.”
“Louise Arbour will represent the best of Canada to Canadians and to the world. A country that’s a bastion of security, prosperity and justice — a beacon to a world lost at sea. A Canada that is clear-eyed about the challenges we face and steadfast in the values we uphold,” he said.
Arbour said she accepts the role “with a deep sense of duty.”
“The strength of this country resides in stable institutions managed with wisdom and sustained through the desire for the well-being of our country and the planet,” she said.
Asked if she considers herself a monarchist, Arbour said in French that she “doesn’t really know what that term is supposed to mean” but voiced her support for the current system.
“I will be the representative of the Crown in a constitutional arrangement that has served Canada extremely well throughout our history, even more in recent decades. A system that will continue to provide continuity in our institutions and form of governance,” she said.
A long-time defender of civil liberties, Arbour’s new role follows her hard-hitting 2022 probe into sexual harassment in the military in which she condemned what she described as its “toxic” culture of misogyny and the “glorification of masculinity.” Her work prompted a change in how the military she now commands prosecutes misconduct.
Arbour said she has “a great deal of respect for the service and professionalism of the men and women who serve.”
