Mary Dawson (civil servant)

Mary Elizabeth Dawson
Nationality	Canadian
Occupation	academic, civil servant
Known for	Ethics Commissioner of Canada
Awards	Order of Canada

Mary Elizabeth Dawson, CM, QC is the current Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner of Canada. She was appointed under the Parliament of Canada Act on July 9, 2007 as the Conflict of Interest Act came into force.

Dawson graduated with a Bachelor of Civil Law from McGill University in 1966. She then graduated from Dalhousie University with a Bachelor of Laws in 1970. She also earned a Diplôme d’études supérieures en droit (droit public), from the University of Ottawa. She is a member of the Nova Scotia and Ontario Bars and retained her membership in her original Bar, the Quebec Bar, until her retirement from the Department of Justice.

She joined the Legislation Section of the Department of Justice in 1970 and drafted such laws as the Access to Information Act, the Privacy Act, the Canada Health Act, the Official Languages Act, the Competition Act, the Customs Act and the Young Offenders Act. Dawson was made a Queen's Counsel in 1978

She was Associate Chief Legislative Counsel from 1980 to 1986 and Chair of the Statute Revision Commission through most of the 1980s.

From 1986 to 1995, Mary Dawson was the head of the Department of Justice Public Law Sector, including the traditional public law areas of constitutional law, administrative law and international law as well as human rights law, native law, judicial affairs, access and privacy law and regulatory affairs.