Anita Anand, a Queen’s Law professor from 1999 to 2005, is now the federal Minister of Public Services and Procurement. Her former colleague Dean Mark Walters, Law’89, says, “She was and remains an intellectual force to be reckoned with.”
Anita Anand, a Queen’s Law professor from 1999 to 2005, is now the federal Minister of Public Services and Procurement. Her former colleague, Dean Mark Walters, Law’89, says, “She was and remains an intellectual force to be reckoned with.”

First-time Member of Parliament Anita Anand, a Queen’s Law professor from 1999 to 2005, has been named Minister of Public Services and Procurement.  

Anand, elected Liberal MP of Oakville on October 19, was sworn in to her new post in Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s reshuffled cabinet on November 20. She is Canada’s first-ever Hindu cabinet minister.   

A legal academic for 20 years, she is an expert on the regulation of capital markets with a specific focus on corporate governance, enforcement, capital-raising techniques and systemic risk. She joined the Queen’s Law faculty in the same year as Dean Mark Walters, Law’89. 

“I am thrilled that our former colleague at Queen’s Law, Anita Anand, has been appointed to the federal cabinet,” says Walters. “She was and remains an intellectual force to be reckoned with. Although she later moved to another law school, her legacy at Queen’s is still felt.” 

Most recently at the University of Toronto – where she was cross-appointed to the Rotman School of Management and the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy – she has held the J.R. Kimber Chair in Investor Protection and Corporate Governance; served as Director of Policy and Research with the Capital Markets Institute; and worked as a Senior Fellow with Massey College.

Her public service has included appointments to a number of expert committees, such as one in Ontario to consider financial advisory and financial planning policy alternatives. She has conducted research for Ontario’s Five-Year Review Committee, the federal Wise Person’s Committee, the Task Force to Modernize Securities Legislation in Canada, and the Commission of Inquiry into the Investigation of the Bombing of Air India Flight 182. Earlier this year, the Royal Society of Canada awarded her the Yvan Allaire medal for her outstanding contributions in governance relating to private and public organizations.

Anand holds BA degrees from Queen’s and Oxford, an LLB from Dalhousie and an LLM from U of T. Over her six years at Queen’s Law, she taught Contracts, Business Associations, Advanced Securities, Applied Business Law Seminar, Securities Regulations, and Law & Economics. The Law Students’ Society awarded her its 2006 Teaching Excellence Award. 

Her ties with Queen’s Law have remained strong. Dean Walters notes, “I recently learned from Ann Tierney (Law’89), now the Vice-Provost and Dean of Student Affairs at Queen’s, that she and Kim Brooks, who overlapped with Anita as a member of the Queen’s Law faculty and who later became Dean of Law at Dalhousie, decided during the election to travel to Oakville to campaign with their friend, Anita, for a day. Their plan obviously worked! We wish Anita well in her devotion to public service in Canada.”