Human Rights in Canadian Supply chains: Bill S-211 and after? an interview with Senator Julie Miville-Dechêne

Since her appointment to the Senate in 2018, Julie Miville-Dechêne has presented two senatorial initiative bills: the new law Bill S-211, against forced labour and child labour in supply chains, effective January 1, 2024; and Bill S-210 which would make it mandatory to implement age verification mechanisms to protect minors from exposure to online pornography. This latest bill was adopted in April 2023 by the Senate and is currently under study in the House of Commons.

She is vice-chair of the Standing Senate Committee on Transport and Communications.

Julie Miville-Dechêne has had a long career in the public service where she stood out for her talent as a communicator.

Very early on, she devoted herself to journalism, a career that would take her across Quebec, Canada, and the United States for more than 25 years, and through which she would meet people from every culture and background. Julie Miville-Dechêne was a correspondent for CBC-Radio-Canada television in Montreal, Toronto, Ottawa and Washington. She covered the constitutional talks, the Oklahoma City bombing, and the US intervention in Haiti to name a few.

In 2007, she became the first woman ombudsman of Radio-Canada, an experience that helped her gain solid expertise in ethics. These public decisions took a good hard look at the mechanics of journalism and exposed mistakes or bias.

In 2011, Julie Miville-Dechêne was named Chair of the Quebec government’s Conseil du statut de la femme. For five years, she modernized the institution by making it relevant for young women. She also used her independence to raise the profile of the institution and to speak publicly on the major issues affecting women, including sexual violence, and by taking part in field research. Under her leadership, the Conseil published noteworthy papers on prostitution, honour-based violence, and surrogate mothers. She expressed serious concerns about the government’s secularism charter in 2013.

In 2016, she made the jump to diplomacy, successively serving as the Quebec representative as part of the Permanent Delegation of Canada to UNESCO, then as the Quebec government envoy for human rights and freedoms.

In 2008, she was the recipient of the Reconnaissance UQAM Award for her exceptional contribution to the development of her profession. In 2005, she received the Raymond-Charette Award for exceptional quality of French in broadcast journalism. In 2002, she won the New York Festivals International Advertising Award for her report on children and terrorism, Les enfants et le terrorisme.  

Ms. Miville-Dechêne holds a graduate degree in conflict prevention and resolution from the Université de Sherbrooke, a Master’s Degree in journalism from Columbia University in New York, and a Bachelor’s Degree in political science from the Université du Québec à Montréal.

Senator Miville-Dechêne is Co-Chair of the All-Party Group to Combat Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking.

In addition to her senatorial activities, Julie Miville-Dechêne is a volunteer administrator of a non-profit organization (NPO): Share the Warmth