Nathalie Des Rosiers

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Nathalie Des Rosiers (born 1959 in Montreal) is a Canadian judge, lawyer, academic, and former Ontario politician. She was the sixth Principal of Massey College at the University of Toronto, from August 1, 2019 to January 15, 2024. She served as a Liberal member of the Ontario legislature for Ottawa–Vanier from 2016 to 2019 and was Minister of Natural Resources and Forestry in 2018. On December 18, 2023, she was appointed as a judge of the Superior Court of Justice of Ontario in Toronto.

Des Rosiers studied law at Université de Montréal and earned an LLM from Harvard University. She clerked at the Supreme Court of Canada, practiced law in London, Ontario with Lerners LLP, and taught at Western University. She then became the dean of the civil law section at the University of Ottawa and served as president of the Law Commission of Canada (2004–2008). She was general counsel for the Canadian Civil Liberties Association (2009–2013) and later served as dean of the common law section at the University of Ottawa until 2016.

During the 2010 G20 summit in Toronto, Des Rosiers highlighted police powers and helped monitor civil liberties. She also worked to discourage the practice of carding. She has received several honors, including the Order of Ontario (2012) and the Order of Canada (2013) for her work in civil rights and Francophone advocacy, and she became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 2014. She was named a nation builder by the Globe and Mail (2014) and was recognized as one of Canada’s most influential lawyers by Canadian Lawyer (2011, 2012).

In politics, she won a 2016 by-election in Ottawa–Vanier, defeating former Ontario ombudsman Andre Marin. She served as Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Energy and to the Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs before becoming Minister of Natural Resources and Forestry. She was re-elected in 2018 and announced in May 2019 that she would resign to become principal of Massey College, a post she began on August 1, 2019.