In September, Erna Paris, recipient of the 2012 WFM – Canada World Peace Award, was appointed to the Order of Canada. Paris is an award-winning journalist and author, as well as one of Canada’s leading human rights commentators and activists. Her work focuses on the difficulties societies have in confronting shameful historical episodes. Her 2008 book “The Sun Climbs Slow” chronicled the development of the international Criminal Court.

On October 27, Marilou McPhedran was among nine individuals named by Prime Minister Trudeau to fill vacancies in the Senate. She is a lawyer and educator based at the University of Winnipeg who has done extensive work to promote human rights, in Canada and internationally. In 1985, she became the youngest lawyer to be named a Member of the Order of Canada for her co-leadership of the Ad Hoc Committee of Canadian Women on the Constitution. In recent years she has worked with the WFM New York office to bring delegations of young law students to the Commission on the Status of Women and other UN bodies.