CALGARY — Prime Minister Mark Carney has named former Supreme Court justice Louise Arbour as Canada’s next Governor General. The 79-year-old Montreal native is bilingual in both English and French and has a long legal resume, including stints as the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights as well as a former Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda.During her time with the UN she investigated war crimes that led to the indictment of Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic — the first legal action against a sitting head of state by an international tribunal. Arbour taught at Osgoode Hall Law School and originally became a judge in Ontario in the 1980s. She then became a justice on the Supreme Court in 1999 and served until 2004..Arbour will now be serving as the King’s representative and the commander-in-chief of the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF).She is replacing Mary Simon — Canada’s first indigenous governor general — whose five-year stint is coming to an end in July.“As Mary Simon has, Louise Arbour will represent the best of Canada to Canadians and the world,” Prime Minister Mark Carney said a press conference on Tuesday.“Louise Arbour has held nearly every office a Canadian jurist can hold and several that no Canadian has held before... Across more than five decades in every role she has held, she has carried the same conviction: that a free society depends on institutions properly being held to account; that the law stands between power and the powerless; that the dignity of every person should not be a product of the accidents of geography, citizenship, or convenience; and that Canada's place in the world is to be a country that lives those propositions and helps others to live them as well.”Arbour said that she is accepting the responsibility of her new role with a “deep sense of duty” at a time when Canadians are facing “complexity and change.” “This will be a great honour for me to represent Canada and to celebrate our successes,” she said. “I'm fully confident in my ability to serve as chief of the Canadian Armed Forces. I have a great deal of respect for the service and professionalism of the men and women who serve. It will be a huge honour for me to serve in that role.”
