Our Team

Marika Giles Samson joined the Court Challenges Program as the Director in February 2020. She came to the CCP from the McGill Centre for Human Rights and Legal Pluralism, where she completed her doctorate in law, served on the Centre’s Management Board, and, spent the 2015-2016 academic year as the Centre’s Interim Executive Director. While at the McGill Faculty of Law, Marika taught courses in Advocacy and Human Rights, and guest lectured in Civil Procedure, Extrajudicial Dispute Resolution, and International Criminal Law. Since 2013, Marika has been involved in selecting and mentoring students in the International Human Rights Internship Program.

Marika also holds a B.A. in Communication Studies from Concordia University, a LL.B. from Osgoode Hall Law School, and a LL.M. from University College London. Prior to beginning her graduate studies, Marika spent several years as a civil litigator in Vancouver, and worked on access to justice issues as a member of the Executive Committees of the Canadian Bar Association – BC Branch (CBABC) and l’Association des juristes d’expression française de la Colombie-Britannique (AJEFCB). She began her legal career as a judicial law clerk at the Federal Court of Canada.

“The Court Challenges Program empowers Canadians to hold the government to account for its constitutional commitments in the areas of official language rights and human rights. In that way, it is a program that upholds and embodies the rule of law, and one I think of which all Canadians should be immensely proud.”