Manuelle Oudar

Manuelle Oudar is a Canadian senator who was appointed to the Senate of Canada as a senator from Quebec in 2024. On 13 February 2024, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced Oudar’s appointment to fill a vacancy in the Senate, and she formally joined the upper house later that month after being sworn in by Governor General Mary Simon.

Early life Oudar earned a Bachelor of Laws in 1984 and a Master of Laws in 1989 from Université Laval in Quebec City. She was called to the Quebec Bar and began her career in the Quebec public service in 1988.

Career Over more than three decades in the Quebec public service, Oudar held a number of legal and senior management roles. She first worked at the Ministries of Justice and Environment, then joined the legal affairs branch of the Ministries of Labour, Employment and Social Solidarity in 1992. She became the director of litigation in that department in 1997, coordinating legislative reforms in areas such as labour standards, pay equity, employment insurance, and parental insurance. In 2007, Oudar was appointed director of legal affairs for the Ministry of Education, Recreation and Sport, as well as for the Ministry of Culture, Communications and the Status of Women. She subsequently served as an assistant deputy minister for networks at the education ministry (Ministère de l’Éducation, du Loisir et du Sport) in 2010, and was promoted to Deputy Minister of Labour in 2012.

In September 2016, Oudar became the first female president and CEO of the newly formed CNESST, Quebec’s unified agency for labour standards, pay equity, and workplace health and safety. She led the organisation for eight years until the end of 2023. In August 2024, she was appointed to the Board of Governors at Polytechnique Montréal, contributing to the governance of one of Quebec’s leading engineering institutions.,