Youngest Lobbyist Speaks to Law 12

By Ms. J. Boland, Social Studies Teacher 

On May 21, as part of the grade 12 law class' Amicus Curiae lecture series, we welcomed guest speaker Ms. Julie Savard-Shaw.
  
At 25, Ms. Savard-Shaw is one of the youngest lobbyists on Parliament Hill. Currently working for RESULTS Canada, an organization sponsored by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Ms. Savard-Shaw spoke to our students about the role of the lobbyist in the creation of law in Canada and about the upcoming DFAIT-CIDA merger proposed by the federal government in Bill C-60.

Ms. Savard-Shaw attended Carleton University, where she obtained a Bachelor of Public Affairs and Policy Management as well as a Master of International Affairs at the Norman Patterson School of International Relations. For her masters, she lived in India for 11 months, working with a microfinance institute for women. While in university, Ms. Savard-Shaw also studied in Peru, where she developed her own NGO (a small music school), and worked in Panama as a volunteer translator (French-English-Spanish) for UNICEF Canada. She then worked as a junior policy advisor at Sussex Circle, a private policy consulting firm in Ottawa. (And as if her resume wasn't already impressive, Ms. Savard-Shaw was once a cheerleader for the Montreal Alouettes!) 

We were honoured to have had such an accomplished young woman speak to our class. She, like many of our students, discovered her passions for politics and law as a Model UN participant. With so many of our students interested in international policy and federal law creation, this was a dynamic discussion about how youth can affect and empower the creation of law in Canada.  

WPGA Connections: Ms. Savard-Shaw is part of a very talented family (her cousins are teachers Ms. Vanessa Shaw and Ms. Alisha Shaw). She was even the translator for Ms. Vanessa Shaw's grade 7 trip to Quebec four years ago!