About

Florence Ashley is a transfeminine jurist and bioethicist based in the unceded Kanien’kehá:ka lands of Tiohtià:ke (also known as Montreal). They are currently an LL.M. candidate at McGill University Faculty of Law, specialising in bioethics. Their thesis, written under the supervision of Dean Robert Leckey, bears on the legality of conversion therapy targeting gender identity. Florence is a fellow of the McGill Research Group on Health and Law.

Florence currently holds a SSHRC Canada Graduate Scholarship, Master’s Award and previously held an O’Brien Fellowship at the Centre for Human Rights and Legal Pluralism. They were granted the Bourse Dorais-Ryan 2017 by the Conseil québécois LGBT, as well as the Start Proud Student Leadership Scholarship 2018.

Florence is a member of the Comité trans of the Conseil québécois LGBT, a member of the Committee on sexual orientation and gender vocabulary of the Office québécois de la langue française, and serves as chair of the advisory board of the Trans Legal Clinic.

Florence was awarded the 2018 Canadian Bar Association's SOGIC Hero Award for their academic work, advocacy, and leadership in trans communities. They were awarded a Scarlet Key by McGill University in 2019.

In 2019-2020, Florence will be the first openly trans clerk at the Supreme Court of Canada, clerking for Justice Sheilah Martin. Their academic article “Don’t Be So Hateful", published in the University of Toronto Law Journal, inspired the first special issue on trans law in Canadian history. Their publication in the Journal of Medical Ethics was featured in a National Post article.

Their academic work has been published in the University of Toronto Law Journal​, Service social, the Archive of Sexual Behavior, The American Journal of Bioethics, Clinical Child Psychology and Psychiatry, the Journal of Medical Ethics, the Dalhousie Law Journal, and The Journal of Sexual Medicine. 

They frequently contribute to media conversations, having been interviewed by various media outlets, with publications in The Globe and Mail, CBC Opinions, the Montreal Gazette, Huffington Post, The Conversation, NOW Magazine, The Advocate, INTO More, Le Devoir, La Presse, Le Journal de Montréal, and Journal Métro.

Florence uses both "they" and "she" pronouns in English. In French, they use both "ille" and "elle", with feminine accordance or the approach outlined in "Les personnes non-binaires en français : une perspective concernée et militante". Florence can be reached on Facebook, Twitter, and at florence.pare at mail.mcgill.ca.

Past

Future

Florence graduated from the B.C.L./LL.B. program at the McGill University Faculty of Law in 2017, with a minor in philosophy. They were inducted in the Golden Key Honour Society for graduating in the top 15% of law students.

During law school, they served as Head French Editor of Contours – Voices of Women in Law, as Vice President –External of OutLaw, and as a member of the McGill Equity Subcommittee on Queer People.

​Florence was awarded the John W. Cook, K.C. Prize and Edwin Botsford Busteed Scholarship upon graduating from law school. They were also awarded the Students' Society of McGill University's Community Engagement Award 2016-2017.

In 2019-2020, Florence will clerk for Justice Sheilah Martin of the Supreme Court of Canada, the first known openly trans person to do so in North America.

After clerking at the Supreme Court, they intend to pursue a doctorate in law.

They are interested in continuing to study the legal landscape of trans reparative therapy, while also contributing to academic scholarship in trans law and bioethics.