Juanita Westmoreland-Traoré

Who is Juanita Westmoreland-Traoré?

Juanita Westmoreland-Traoré, OQ is the first appointed black judge in the history of Quebec. She also holds the distinction of being the first black dean of a law school in Canada’s history.

Westmoreland-Traoré, was born in Verdun, now part of Montreal, Quebec, in 1942, the daughter of immigrants from Guyana. She studied at Marianopolis College, and subsequently obtatined a law degree from the Université de Montréal and a doctorate from the University of Paris. She was called to the Quebec Bar in 1969, and began practising law in 1970 with the law firm of Mergler, Melançon. She has also been a member of the Ontario Bar since 1997. During the 1970s, Westmoreland-Traoré taught at the Université de Montréal, and from 1976 to 1991 at the Université du Québec à Montréal.

Westmoreland-Traoré was a member of the Office de protection des consommateurs du Québec from 1979 to 1983. From 1983 to 1985, she was a Commissioner for the Canadian Human Rights Commission. In 1985, she became the first chair of Quebec's Conseil des communautés culturelles et de l’immigration. From 1991 to 1995, she was Employment Equity Commissioner of Ontario. From 1996 to 1999 she was the dean of the University of Windsor's law faculty. She was appointed a Judge of the Court of Quebec for the District of Montreal in 1999.