Sukanya Pillay LLM '94 to head Canadian Civil Liberties Association

On February 19, the Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA) named Sukanya Pillay LLM ’94 its general counsel and executive director.

Sukanya Pillay LLM '94

She first joined CCLA in 2009 as director of their newly-created National Security Program. In this role, she worked hard to ensure that Canada’s counterterrorism efforts were in compliance with the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Since August 2013, Pillay has served as interim general counsel and acting executive director at CCLA, following Nathalie Des Rosiers, who is now dean of the University of Ottawa’s common law program.

Pillay has a long history of championing human rights. Prior to joining the CCLA, she was program director of WITNESS for the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights (now Human Rights First) in New York as well as director of the Law and Human Rights Program of the International Television Trust for the Environment (TVE).

In November 2013, the South Asian Bar Association in Toronto honored her with their President’s Award, recognizing her wide-ranging career as a professor, writer, advocate, and even documentarian. In 2005, for example, the University of Windsor presented her with the Award for Excellence in Research for her research and documentary Robbing Pedro to Pay Paul?, which explores how the North American Free Trade Agreement has affected Mexican corn farmers.

Posted on March 5, 2014