Three generations of my family have been shaped by McGill. When my father arrived in Canada in the late 1950s, in the aftermath of Greece’s devastating Civil War, he enrolled at McGill and earned an engineering degree. He took enormous pride in that accomplishment, which involved not only adapting to a new country but also mastering another language. My daughter is also a McGill graduate and has told me that her undergraduate degree was an incredible preparation for her graduate studies at NYU.
McGill has been equally meaningful for me. I earned three of my four university degrees here, and I always feel immense gratitude when I walk through campus and recognize all that McGill has given me.
I have fond memories of my time as a student in the Faculty of Law, where I was editor of the law newspaper Quid Novi and a member of Censorwatch. McGill prepared me for mu graduate studies at Oxford. Later, I began teaching at the Faculty of Law, which has allowed me to come full circle.
One memory from my law school days stands out. Professor John Humphrey, who was then teaching at McGill, organized a summer program on Prince Edward Island for the Canadian Human Rights Foundation, now the International Human Rights Education Centre, Equitas, right here in Montreal.
That course became the foundation of my commitment to human rights work, which has taken me around the globe working with multilateral agencies, including the UN. I went on to become the president of Equitas and have maintained my commitment to human rights through my legal practice, teaching and research, and as a member of McGill’s Centre for Human Rights and Legal Pluralism.
As an Adjunct Professor in the Faculty of Law and more recently as an Associate Professor (professional) at the Max Bell School of Public Policy, I have been able to share some of the things that matter to me with McGill’s extraordinary students and get them involved in unique experiential training opportunities. One of these is the Quebec Homelessness Prevention Policy Cooperative, a joint initiative of McGill and the Old Brewery Mission that is designed to find innovative solutions for homelessness, including the recognition of the right to adequate housing.
Law is a profession and a vocation but it is also a part of a lifelong mission for social change: that is one of the things that McGill has taught me.