Anne Cools
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The Honourable Anne C. Cools |
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Senator from Ontario (Toronto Centre-York) |
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Assumed office January 13, 1984 |
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| Nominated by | Pierre Trudeau |
| Appointed by | Edward Schreyer |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
August 12, 1943 Barbados, British West Indies |
| Political party |
Liberal (1984–2004) Conservative (2004–2007) Non-affiliated (2007–Present) |
| Religion | Anglican |
Anne Clare Cools (born August 12, 1943) is a member of the Canadian Senate. Born in Barbados, she became with her appointment the first Black Canadian to be appointed to Canada's upper house. Having been appointed in 1984, she is, since the retirement of Lowell Murray on September 26, 2011, the longest-serving member of the Senate. She is the first female Black woman Senator in North America.
Cools' family immigrated to Canada in 1957 from the Caribbean island country of Barbados when Cools was 14 years old, and settled in Montreal. Cools attended Queen’s College Girls School in Barbados and Thomas D’Arcy McGee High School in Montreal. She has a B.A. in Social Sciences, Sociology and Psychology from McGill University.
Attending McGill University to study social work in the 1960s, she became involved in radical campus politics. In 1969, she was a participant in a 10-day sit-in at Sir George Williams University (later Concordia University), protesting alleged racism at the school. The action ended with $2 million worth of damage to computer equipment. Although not accused of damaging property herself, Cools was sentenced to four months imprisonment for participating in the sit-in.
In 1974, Cools moved to Toronto where she founded one of the first shelters for abused women in Canada, Women in Transition Inc., and served as its Executive Director.
She twice sought election to the Canadian House of Commons as a candidate of the Liberal Party of Canada. She lost the Liberal nomination in a highly contested race against John Evans for the 1978 by-election in Rosedale. She ran again in 1979, and won the nomination but was defeated in both the 1979 and 1980 elections by Progressive Conservative candidate David Crombie. On her second attempt, she lost by fewer than 2,000 votes.
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