Malliha Wilson
Malliha Wilson is a Tamil Canadian lawyer who served as the Assistant Deputy Attorney General of the Government of Ontario from April 2008 to November 2016. She was the first visible minority to hold that office. Wilson currently serves as the Senior Counsel at the law firm Nava Wilson LLP in Toronto, Ontario. She was formerly Special Legal Advisor at the Investment Management Corporation of Ontario (IMCO). She specializes in human rights, Indigenous, constitutional, corporate and labour law, and other complex litigation. Early life and family. Wilson's father, Professor Alfred Jeyaratnam Wilson, was a Sri Lankan Tamil  academic, historian and author. Wilson's grandfather, S. J. V. Chelvanayakam, was a Ceylon Tamil lawyer, politician and Member of Parliament. He was the founder and leader of the Illankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi (ITAK) and Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) and a political leader of the Ceylon Tamil community for more than two decades. She has two siblings, Maithili and Kumanan, is married to Helder Travassos and has a daughter (Melanie). Education. Wilson completed her undergraduate degree at the McGill University in Montreal, Quebec. She completed her law degree at Osgoode Hall Law School at York University in Toronto, Ontario  in 1981. Career. Wilson began her career in the Ontario Public Service in 1987 after being called to the bar in 1983. She first joined the Counsel for the Ministry of Government Services in 1987 and served as counsel in the newly formed Native Affairs Secretariat for Ontario. From 2000 to 2004 she served as the Legal Director for the Ministry of Labour, from 2004 to 2008 as the Director of the Crown Law Office-Civil, and then became the Assistant Deputy Attorney General. Upon concluding an 8-year term in that role, Wilson became Special Legal Advisor at the  Investment Management Corporation of Ontario. In 2009 she received by the South Asian Bar Association a Distinguished Career Award. In 2012 her alma mater, Osgoode Hall Law School, awarded her a Gold Key Award for the Public Sector. In 2015 the Federation of Asian Canadian Lawyers awarded her the Lawyer of Distinction Award. After her time at the Ministry of the Attorney General of Ontario, Wilson transferred to the Investment Management Corporation of Ontario in November 2016 to work as Special Legal Advisor. Wilson co-founded Nava Wilson LLP, a Toronto-based law firm, in 2017. Wilson currently serves on  the Board of the Churchill Society for the Advancement of Parliamentary Democracy, the Board of the Osgoode Hall Law School Alumni Association, the Global Justice Journal, the Editorial Board of The Philippe Kirsch Institute and the Principal's Advisory Group at the University of Toronto Scarborough. She also co-chairs an annual fundraising gala for comdu.it, a non-profit organization focused on the sustainable development of the North and East of Sri Lanka. Supreme Court of Canada Cases. Wilson served as litigation counsel with the Ontario Government for more than 30 years and participated in over 20 cases at the  Supreme Court of Canada and the Ontario Court of Appeal. This includes the landmark case which allowed assisted suicide to proceed in Quebec in 2016. Notable Cases. Wilson has appeared before the Supreme Court of Canada on the following cases: Advocacy. Since joining Nava Wilson LLP, Wilson has represented the Tamil Canadian diaspora at the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) with respect to the crimes against humanity and war crimes that are alleged to have been committed against the Tamils of Sri Lanka during the Civil War. She was a member of the global Tamil diaspora team that was  successful in keeping in place United Nations Resolution 40/1 at the UNHRC which holds the government of Sri Lanka accountable. In the 2019 Canadian federal elections, Wilson successfully served as a campaign co-chair for Mary Ng, Member of Parliament for the Liberal Party of Canada (Markham-Thornhill), who was re-elected winning 53.75% of votes. Wilson was also elected as the Riding Chair for the Markham-Thornhill Federal Liberal Association in 2020.