Mélanie Joly

Mélanie Joly PC MP (born January 16, 1979) is a Canadian politician and lawyer who has served as minister of Foreign Affairs since October 2021. A member of the Liberal Party, Joly represents the Montreal-area riding of Ahuntsic-Cartierville in the House of Commons, taking office as a member of Parliament (MP) following the 2015 federal election. She has held a number of portfolios including Canadian heritage, tourism, and La Francophonie. Joly ran for mayor of Montreal in the 2013 Montreal municipal election, placing second behind eventual winner Denis Coderre.

The Honourable
Mélanie Joly
PC MP
Joly in 2022
Minister of Foreign Affairs
Assumed office
October 26, 2021
Prime MinisterJustin Trudeau
Preceded byMarc Garneau
Minister of Economic Development and Official Languages
In office
November 20, 2019 – October 26, 2021
Prime MinisterJustin Trudeau
Preceded byNavdeep Bains (Economic Development)
Herself (Official Languages)
Succeeded byMary Ng (Economic Development)
Ginette Petitpas Taylor (Official Languages)
Minister responsible for the Federal Economic Development Initiative for Northern Ontario
In office
November 20, 2019 – October 26, 2021
Prime MinisterJustin Trudeau
Preceded byNavdeep Bains
Succeeded byPatty Hajdu
Minister of Tourism, Official Languages and La Francophonie
In office
July 18, 2018 – November 20, 2019
Prime MinisterJustin Trudeau
Preceded by
Succeeded byHerself (as Minister for Official Languages)
Minister of Canadian Heritage
In office
November 4, 2015 – July 18, 2018
Prime MinisterJustin Trudeau
Preceded byShelly Glover
Succeeded byPablo Rodríguez
Member of the Canadian Parliament
for Ahuntsic-Cartierville
Assumed office
October 19, 2015
Preceded byMaria Mourani
Personal details
Born (1979-01-16) January 16, 1979
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Political partyLiberal
Other political
affiliations		Vrai changement pour Montréal (municipal)
RelativesCarole-Marie Allard (stepmother)
Residence(s)Le Plateau, Montreal, Quebec[1]
Alma mater
Occupation
  • Politician
  • lawyer
AwardsChevening Scholarship

Born in Montreal, Quebec, Joly graduated from Université de Montréal and Brasenose College, Oxford.

Early and personal life

Born on January 16, 1979,[2] she grew up in Montreal's northern neighbourhood of Ahuntsic.[3] Joly's father is Clément Joly, an accountant who was president of the Liberal Party's finance committee in Quebec and manager of the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority from 2002 to 2007. Her stepmother, Carole-Marie Allard, is a lawyer and journalist, who was an MP representing Laval—East from 2000 to 2004.

Education and career

After completing her Bachelor of Laws degree at the Université de Montréal in 2001, Joly became a member of the Barreau du Québec. She subsequently received the Chevening scholarship and continued her studies at Brasenose College, Oxford, where she received a Magister Juris in comparative and public law in 2003.[4] Joly also interned at Radio-Canada, in 2007.[5]

At the beginning of her career, Joly practiced law at two major Montreal law firms, Stikeman Elliott and Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg. At the latter firm, her mentor was former Parti Quebecois premier Lucien Bouchard, who supplied her with a letter of recommendation for her Oxford application.[6] She worked primarily in the areas of civil and commercial litigation, bankruptcy and insolvency law. She was also a prosecutor before the Gomery Commission of inquiry.[7]

In 2010, she became the first Quebecer to receive the Arnold Edinborough award, which recognizes philanthropic involvement within the Canadian cultural community.[8]

In 2013, she was appointed to head the Quebec Advisory Committee for Justin Trudeau’s leadership campaign of the Liberal Party of Canada.

Along with her colleagues, she founded Generation of Ideas, which is a political forum for 25- to 35-year-olds.[9] She is also a member of the collective group Sortie 13, for which she wrote "Les villes au pouvoir ou comment relancer le monde municipal québécois".[10]

Political career

Municipal campaign
Joly and Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Dmytro Kuleba in Phnom Penh, 2022

In June 2013, Joly announced her candidacy for mayor of Montreal in the elections which occurred in the same year. She founded a new party, Vrai changement pour Montréal, to support her candidacy. On November 3, election day, she obtained 26.50 per cent of the votes, finishing six points behind the winner, Denis Coderre. However, she finished ahead of several more established challengers.[11]

Federal politics

In 2015, Joly left municipal politics and announced her candidacy for the nomination of the Liberal Party of Canada in the new electoral district of Ahuntsic-Cartierville for the 2015 federal election.[12] Joly won the riding with 47.5 per cent of the vote, unseating incumbent Maria Mourani.[13]

In Cabinet

After the election, Joly was named as the minister of Canadian heritage as part of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's new government.[14] On August 28, 2018, Joly was named to the tourism, official languages, and La Francophonie portfolio.[15]

She assumed the position of Minister of Economic Development and Official Languages on December 13, 2019. Her mandate was marked by the introduction of separate regional development agencies for Western Canada: Canada Economic Development for the Prairies (PrairieCan)[16] and Canada Economic Development for the Pacific (PacifiCan).[17]

On June 15, 2021, she introduced Bill C-32 in the House of Commons, an Act to achieve substantive equality of English and French and to strengthen the Official Languages Act.[18] The first reform since 1988, Joly's modernization was intended to ensure that the government's broad range of measures in support of official languages responded to and adapted to the challenges faced by these languages in the various regions of the country.[19]

Minister of Foreign Affairs
Joly with James Cleverly, Annalena Baerbock, Yoshimasa Hayashi and Antony Blinken at the 59th Munich Security Conference, 2023

Joly took office as Canada's Minister of Foreign Affairs on October 26, 2021.[20] On December 20, 2021, Joly announced that she had tested positive for COVID-19.[21]

Amidst global concerns about a buildup of Russian troops on the country's eastern border,[22][23][24] she visited Ukraine in January 2022.[25] She visited again on May 8, 2022 when she accompanied Trudeau on an unannounced visit to Kyiv to reopen the Canadian embassy amidst the Russian invasion of Ukraine. One year after the invasion began, she touted her government's efforts to promote regime change in Russia.[26]

In May 2022, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan voiced his opposition to Sweden and Finland joining NATO, accusing the two countries of tolerating groups which Turkey classifies as terrorist organizations, including the Kurdish militant groups PKK and YPG and the supporters of Fethullah Gülen, a US-based Muslim cleric accused by Turkey of orchestrating a failed 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt.[27] Joly held talks with Turkey to convince the Turkish government of the need for two Nordic nations integration.[28]

During the March 2023 House of Commons committee studying Chinese election interference in the 2019 and 2021 federal elections, Joly accused China of 'trying to sow division in many democracies' and suggested ways foreign meddling could be hindered in the future. [29]

Following a vote on the Uyghur genocide in Xinjiang, it was reported in May 2023 that Conservative MP Michael Chong's family in Hong Kong was targeted, including by a Chinese diplomat named Zhao Wei. Wei was later declared persona non grata by Joly.[30][31]

The murder of Canadian Sikh separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar caused a diplomatic crisis, with Canada–India relations falling to their lowest point.[32] Joly ordered the expulsion of Pavan Kumar Rai, a top Indian diplomat in Canada who headed the operations of the Research and Analysis Wing, India's external intelligence agency, in Canada.[33]

In September 2023, Azerbaijan launched a large-scale military offensive against the self-declared breakaway state of Artsakh, a move seen as a violation of the 2020 ceasefire agreement.[34] Joly expressed grave concern with Azerbaijan's military intervention, calling for immediate cessation of hostilities, asking the Azerbaijani government to refrain from any actions and activities that pose a risk to the safety and welfare of the civilian population of Nagorno-Karabakh, labelling the military action as "unjustifiable" and the Lachin corridor blockade as "illegal".[35]

Electoral record
2021 Canadian federal election: Ahuntsic-Cartierville
Party Candidate Votes%±%Expenditures
LiberalMélanie Joly26,40252.38–0.07$71,604.96
Bloc QuébécoisAnna Simonyan11,11222.04+0.31$12,053.64
New DemocraticGhada Chaabi5,84411.59+0.19$3,163.17
ConservativeSteven Duarte4,2478.43+1.15$0.00
GreenLuc Joli-Coeur1,4912.96–3.12$0.00
People'sManon Chevalier1,3132.60+1.54$1,694.83
Total valid votes 50,409100.00–$110,827.67
Total rejected ballots 1,0542.05+0.23
Turnout 51,46364.16–3.34
Eligible voters 80,206
Liberal hold Swing –0.19
Source: Elections Canada[36][37]
2019 Canadian federal election: Ahuntsic-Cartierville
Party Candidate Votes%±%Expenditures
LiberalMélanie Joly28,90452.45+5.65$75,399.95
Bloc QuébécoisAndré Parizeau11,97421.73+8.53none listed
New DemocraticZahia El-Masri6,28411.4−18.6none listed
ConservativeKathy Laframboise4,0137.28−0.02$0.00
GreenJean-Michel Lavarenne3,3526.08+3.98$7,837.28
People'sRaymond Ayas5841.06$7,512.42
Total valid votes/expense limit 55,111100.0
Total rejected ballots 1,022
Turnout 56,13367.5
Eligible voters 83,176
Liberal hold Swing −1.44
Source: Elections Canada[38][39]
2015 Canadian federal election
Party Candidate Votes%±%Expenditures
LiberalMélanie Joly26,02646.8+15.7$149,387.67
New DemocraticMaria Mourani16,68430.0+0.1$86,722.49
Bloc QuébécoisNicolas Bourdon7,34613.2-15.1$27,931.96
ConservativeWiliam Moughrabi4,0517.3-1.3$12,346.58
GreenGilles Mercier1,1752.1+0.7–
RhinocerosCatherine Gascon-David2850.5––
Total valid votes/Expense limit –100.0   $220,041.13
Total rejected ballots –––
Turnout –––
Eligible voters 82,863
Source: Elections Canada[40][41]

References
  1. "Search For Contributions". Elections Canada. Retrieved June 23, 2021.
  2. "The Hon. Mélanie Joly, P.C., M.P." Parliament of Canada. Retrieved May 28, 2022.
  3. Patriquin, Martin (June 10, 2016). "The sunniest Liberal, Mélanie Joly". Maclean's Magazine. Retrieved June 13, 2016.
  4. "Mélanie Joly". LinkedIn. Retrieved October 7, 2013.
  5. "Heritage Minister Mélanie Joly once interned at Radio-Canada". CBC.ca. November 7, 2015. Retrieved November 7, 2015.
  6. Campbell Clark, Liberal newcomers could bring wide-ranging experience to Trudeau's cabinet, The Globe & Mail, October 31, 2015.
  7. "À PROPOS DE MÉLANIE JOLY". Le vrai changement pour Montréal - groupe Mélanie Joly. Retrieved October 7, 2013.
  8. "Business for the Arts — Previous Winners". www.businessforthearts.org. Retrieved August 17, 2015.
  9. Frigon, Gaétan (June 1, 2013). "Mélanie qui? Mélanie Joly". La Presse. Retrieved October 7, 2013.
  10. Joly, Mélanie. "Les villes au pouvoir ou comment relancer le monde municipal québécois". Sortie13. Retrieved October 7, 2013.
  11. "Élections municipales 2013 - Résultats | ICI.Radio-Canada.ca". Radio-Canada.ca. Retrieved August 17, 2015.
  12. De Grandpré, Hugo (February 19, 2015). "Mélanie Joly dans Ahuntsic: des libéraux réitèrent leur intention d'être candidats". La Presse. Retrieved February 19, 2015.
  13. "Election results: Mélanie Joly wins as Maria Mourani fails to stop second wave in Ahuntsic-Cartierville". Montreal Gazette. October 20, 2015.
  14. "The Honourable Mélanie Joly". Prime Minister's Office. November 4, 2015.
  15. Leblanc, Daniel (October 8, 2018). "Prime Minister Trudeau has last shot to help Michaëlle Jean stay on as Francophonie leader". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved February 10, 2021.
  16. "Prairies Economic Development". August 9, 2021.
  17. "Pacific Economic Development". June 27, 2021.
  18. "Introduction of Bill C-32, an Act for the Substantive Equality of French and English and the Strengthening of the Official Languages Act". June 15, 2021.
  19. "Modernization of the Official Languages Act". February 3, 2021.
  20. Curry, Bill; Kirkup, Kristy; Raman-Wilms, Menaka; Dickson, Janice (October 26, 2021). "Trudeau cabinet shuffle: Anita Anand moves to Defence, Steven Guilbeault to Environment, Mélanie Joly to Foreign Affairs". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved October 26, 2021.
  21. Raycraft, Raycraft (December 20, 2021). "Foreign Affairs Minister Joly tests positive for COVID-19". CBC News.
  22. "Russian ships, tanks and troops on the move to Ukraine as peace talks stall". the Guardian. January 23, 2022. Retrieved January 25, 2022.
  23. Gordon, Joanna Sugden, Yaroslav Trofimov and Michael R. (January 25, 2022). "What Does Russia Want With Ukraine? Tensions Between Putin and NATO Explained". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved January 25, 2022.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  24. "Momentum is building for war in Ukraine". The Economist. January 22, 2022. ISSN 0013-0613. Retrieved January 25, 2022.
  25. Canadian foreign minister to visit Ukraine, retrieved January 15, 2022
  26. Robertson, Dylan (March 10, 2023). "Canada bans Russian steel, aluminum imports as Joly raises 'regime change' in Moscow". Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Archived from the original on March 28, 2023.
  27. "Erdogan says Turkey not supportive of Finland, Sweden joining NATO". Reuters. May 13, 2022.
  28. Brzozowski, Alexandra (May 16, 2022). "Sweden takes formal decision to apply for NATO membership". www.euractiv.com.
  29. "Canada will expel Chinese diplomats if there is evidence of wrongdoing: Joly". March 9, 2023.
  30. "Canada expelling diplomat accused of targeting MP Michael Chong's family". CBC News. May 9, 2023. Archived from the original on June 18, 2023.
  31. "China views Canada as a 'high priority' for interference: CSIS report". The Globe and Mail. May 2023.
  32. Kaushik, Krishn; Jain, Rupam; Rajesh, Y. P.; Kaushik, Krishn (September 22, 2023). "India stops new visas for Canadians, asks Ottawa to downsize missions as spat worsens". Reuters. Archived from the original on September 22, 2023.
  33. Tasker, John Paul (September 18, 2023). "Trudeau accuses India's government of involvement in killing of Canadian Sikh leader". Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Archived from the original on September 19, 2023.
  34. "Joint statement on Azerbaijan's attack on Nagorno-Karabakh". European Parliament. Archived from the original on September 22, 2023.
  35. "Canada calls for cessation of hostilities in the Nagorno-Karabakh region". canada.ca. September 20, 2023. Archived from the original on September 21, 2023.
  36. "Election Night Results — Ahuntsic-Cartierville". Elections Canada. Retrieved December 18, 2021.
  37. "Final Election Expenses Limits for Candidates — 44th Canadian Federal Election". Elections Canada. Retrieved December 18, 2021.
  38. "List of confirmed candidates". Elections Canada. Retrieved October 3, 2019.
  39. "Election Night Results". Elections Canada. Retrieved November 11, 2019.
  40. "Voter Information Service - Find your electoral district". www.elections.ca.
  41. "Elections Canada – Preliminary Election Expenses Limits for Candidates". Archived from the original on August 15, 2015. Retrieved April 11, 2020.
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