Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will name nine, non-partisan senators to the upper house today as he works toward his promise to transform the Senate into a more independent chamber of sober second thought.
The five women and four men Trudeau will appoint as senators today include lawyer and human rights activist Marilou McPhedran and Winnipeg psychiatrist and palliative care expert Harvey Chochinov, who'd argued in court against legalizing assisted dying.
They are the first senators to be chosen under an arm's-length process that saw more than 2,700 Canadians apply to fill the 21 vacancies in the upper house.