The Remarkable Political Career of Jody Wilson-Raybould

Jody Wilson-Raybould

Jody Wilson-Raybould has been a woman of power in Canada. In 2015, she became the first Indigenous person to become Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada, later transferring to the Minister of Veteran Affairs in 2019. She currently holds the position of the Liberal Member of Parliament for the riding of Vancouver Granville in Vancouver, B.C.

A member of the Kwakwaka’wakw peoples, she not only served in federal Canadian politics, but has held her ground in many important positions within her province and the Indigenous community. She was a Crown Prosecutor for B.C. and served as B.C.’s Regional Chief of the B.C. Assembly of First Nations.

As Justice Minister, Wilson-Raybould was adamant that one of her focuses would be in reducing violence against women. In 2017, she held a forum discussing how Canada’s criminal justice system disproportionately affects sexual assault survivors.

“This crime has a gendered impact, and unfortunately myths and stereotypes continue to surface at all stages of the criminal justice system,” she said at an event in Quebec. In her role as Justice Minister, she promised the the government would be “unwavering” in committing to giving victims the justice they deserve.

Back in 2015, she defied the Conservative government and promised to review Harper’s negative laws on sex work, whose new legislation made it illegal to purchase sex work. Testimonies from sex workers strongly urged this legislation not to pass, as it endangered those working and pushed them further into dangerous situations.

A strong contrast to the presiding government, Wilson-Raybould also promised to sit down and listen to sex workers and those impacted by the regulations.

She also fought for gender rights across the spectrum and was an open supporter of Bill C-16, which later passed in June 2017. The bill gave protections to transgender and gender diverse Canadians, making it illegal for employers to discriminate based on gender identity or expression.

“In Canada, we must celebrate inclusion and diversity, and all Canadians should feel safe to be themselves,” she said in a statement. “Trans and gender diverse person must be granted equal status in Canadian society.”

After the launch of the Canadian government’s inquiry into the missing and murdered Indigenous women in 2016, Wilson-Raybould spoke to the importance of getting to the root causes of the national crisis. She spoke out against how colonization has negatively affected the high rates of violence perpetrated against Indigenous women.

She stressed that it was important to unpack “the colonial legacy, looking at communities on reserve and off reserve, looking at institutions … and understanding the realities, the truths, that will be expressed through the living experiences of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls.”