Members of the Official Language Rights Expert Panel

The Official Language Rights Expert Panel is composed of the following members:

• Stéphanie Chouinard
• Ibrahima Diallo
• Pearl Eliadis
• Érik Labelle Eastaugh
• Emmanuelle Richez
• Johane Tremblay

Biographies

Stéphanie Chouinard

Stéphanie Chouinard is an associate professor of political science at the Royal Military College of Canada and Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario. She holds a PhD in Political Studies from the University of Ottawa and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Faculty of Law at the University of Montreal. Her research focuses on federalism, the relationship between law and politics, and the rights of linguistic minorities and Indigenous peoples. Her work has been published in scholarly journals such as Ethnopolitics, the Language Law Review, the Canadian Journal of Political Science, the International Journal of Canadian Studies, and Francophonies d'Amérique. She is also a political columnist for Acadie Nouvelle and L'actualité. She was named one of the ten influential figures in Canadian Francophonie by the Association de la presse francophone in 2020.

Ibrahima Diallo

Originally from Senegal, Ibrahima Diallo is a full professor at the Université de Saint-Boniface, where he has been teaching since 1985. From 2000 to 2010, he was Dean of the Faculties of Arts and Sciences, Business Administration, and Social Work.

Professor Diallo has distinguished himself through his commitment to the francophone community, notably as President of the boards of the Société de la francophonie manitobaine (2006-2011), the National Table for Community Consultation on Francophone Immigration of the Federation of Francophone and Acadian Communities (FCFA, 2014-2015), the Manitoba Immigration Council (2008-2011), and the Amicale de la francophonie multiculturelle du Manitoba (1998). Since 2022, he has been a member of the FCFA Board of Directors. Professor Diallo has also been a member of several expert groups, particularly regarding the modernization of official languages (2021) and Statistics Canada’s Advisory Committee of the Postcensal Survey on Official Language Minorities (2020-2022). He has received numerous awards and recognitions, including the Ordre des Francophones d’Amérique (2009), as well as the Queen Elizabeth II Platinum Jubilee Medal (2022) and the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal (2012) for his services to the community and the country.

Pearl Eliadis

Pearl Eliadis is a senior lawyer and a member of the Barreau du Québec and the Law Society of Ontario. Her law practice is focused on human rights, national institutions, minority rights and democratic governance. She has successfully led complex global projects for the UN and other multilateral organizations and participated in in-country missions in eight countries. In Canada, she has been retained by officers and agents of Parliament, human rights institutions, and civil society organizations on a wide range of human rights and public policy matters, including by the Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages. Pearl also serves as Associate Professor (Professional) at the Max Bell School of Public Policy at McGill University, and lectures at the Faculty of Law where she is a full member of McGill’s Centre for Human Rights and Legal Pluralism.

Deeply engaged in civil society, Pearl has a keen interest in the relationship between human rights and minority rights. She worked to secure the rights of Francophone minorities while she was in the public service in Ontario and the rights of Anglophone minorities in Québec. She has received the 2017 "Artisane des droits de la personne" award from Equitas, the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal for the Government of Canada, the "Prix de la femme" (2009, Conseil des femmes de Montréal) and the Canada 125 Commemorative Medal (Governor General of Canada). Her 2014 book, Speaking Out on Human Rights, won the Huguenot Society of Canada Award for Freedom of Expression (Ontario Historical Society). Pearl is a graduate of McGill University and the University of Oxford.

Érik Labelle Eastaugh

Érik Labelle Eastaugh is Associate Professor and Dean of the Faculty of Law at the Université de Moncton. From 2017 to 2024, he was Director of the International Observatory of Linguistic Rights at the Université de Moncton. His research focuses on linguistic and cultural minority rights, constitutional law, administrative law and legal theory. As a member of the Quebec, New Brunswick and Ontario bars (2015 to 2018), he has pleaded several cases involving public law and language rights before the courts, including the New Brunswick Court of Appeal, the Federal Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court of Canada. He has also appeared as an expert witness on language rights issues before the House of Commons of Canada, the Senate of Canada, and the New Brunswick Official Languages Act Review Panel. He is a member of the Council of the Law Society of New Brunswick, the Department of Justice Canada's Advisory Committee on Access to Justice in Both Official Languages, the New Brunswick Access to Justice Committee, the Law Society of New Brunswick's Mental Health Task Force, the Board of Directors of the Canadian Bar Association (New Brunswick Section), the Conseil des études acadiennes of the Institut d'études acadiennes (Université de Moncton), and the Board of Directors of the Canadian Institute for Research on Linguistic Minorities. He was also a member of the Steering Committee of the Dispositif des dynamiques culturelles et linguistiques of the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie. Mr. Labelle Eastaugh holds degrees in civil law and common law from the University of Ottawa, as well as a master's degree in comparative law and a doctorate in constitutional law from Oxford University. From 2009 to 2010, he clerked for Justice Marshall Rothstein at the Supreme Court of Canada.

Emmanuelle Richez

Emmanuelle Richez is an associate professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Windsor. Her research focuses on law and politics in Canada, with a primary theme on official languages rights. She has published her work in specialized scientific journals such as the Canadian Journal of Political Science, the Osgoode Hall Law Journal, and the Supreme Court Law Review. She serves as a school board trustee for the Viamonde French public school system, representing the Essex district, as well as vice-president of French Avenir North America (FANA). She is also an affiliated researcher at the Centre for Political Analysis - Constitution and Federalism (CAP-CF) at the University of Quebec in Montreal (UQAM), an associate member of the Center for Comparative Studies and Research on Constitutions, Liberties, and the State (CERCCLE) at the University of Bordeaux, a researcher in the Courts & Politics Research Group, and an associate of the Centre for Constitutional Law and Legal Studies at the University of British-Columbia - Okanagan Campus.

Johane Tremblay

Johane Tremblay is a graduate of the Faculty of Law of Laval University and holds a master's degree in law from Queen's University. She began her career at a private firm in Quebec City before joining the Public Service of Canada in 1987. There, she developed an expertise in labour law as General Counsel of the Canada Labour Relations Board (1989-2000), and subsequently in language rights as the General Counsel of the Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages (2000-2017).

Her career with the Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages has been rich in varied experiences and has provided her with expertise in language rights at the federal, provincial, and territorial levels. Her responsibilities as General Counsel to Commissioner Dyane Adam and Commissioner Graham Fraser included making recommendations on the advisability of intervening in court or initiating legal proceedings and defining their legal position and advocacy strategy. She retired from the Office of the Commissioner and the public service in 2017.