The Honourable Marie Deschamps became a member of the National Security and Intelligence Review Agency in 2019 and has served as its Chair since 2021.
Ms. Deschamps was called to the Quebec Bar in 1975 and started her career as a litigator. She practised family, civil, and commercial law at Martineau Walker and Sylvestre et Matte, criminal law at Rouleau, Rumanek and Sirois, and civil and commercial law at Byers Casgrain. She was appointed a judge of the Superior Court of Quebec in 1990, a judge of the Court of Appeal of Quebec in 1992, and a judge of the Supreme Court of Canada in 2002. She retired from the judiciary in 2012.
In 2014, Ms. Deschamps was appointed to conduct the External Review into Sexual Misconduct and Sexual Harassment in the Canadian Armed Forces. The following year, she became Chair of the United Nations External Independent Review Panel on Sexual Exploitation and Abuse by International Peacekeeping Forces in the Central African Republic. She later served as a member of the Review Committee on Quebec Provincial Judges Remuneration, as Chair of the Council of Canadian Academies’ Expert Panel on Medical Assistance in Dying, and as Assessor for the LGBT Purge Class Action settlement.
Ms. Deschamps has been an Adjunct Professor at the law school of the University of Sherbrooke since 2006 and at the law school of McGill University since 2012. She rejoined the Quebec Bar in 2013 and served as a board member for Educaloi from 2013 to 2019 and for Energir from 2014 to 2019. She has been Trustee of Pro Bono Canada since 2013 and was appointed Jurisconsult of the Quebec National Assembly in 2023.
Ms. Deschamps received honorary doctorates from the Université de Montréal, the Université de Sherbrooke, and the Royal Military College of Canada, in 2008, 2014, and 2021 respectively, as well as the F. R. Scott Award for Distinguished Service from McGill University’s Faculty of Law in 2013. She was appointed Companion of the Order of Canada in 2013 and received the Lawyer Emeritus distinction from the Quebec Bar in 2014.
Ms. Deschamps holds a Licentiate in Laws from the Université de Montréal and a LL.M. from McGill University.