New Brunswick Sen. Judith Keating, a 'tireless advocate,' has died at 64
New Brunswick Sen. Judith Keating has died. She was 64 years old.
Keating was appointed to the Senate in January 2020 and sat with the Independent Senators Group.
She was a lawyer and constitutional expert who spent several decades as a senior civil servant in New Brunswick, including as a legal adviser to the premier.
In a statement, New Brunswick Premier Blaine Higgs highlighted Keating's passion for the law and public policy.
"During her career, she worked tirelessly to promote the equal and just treatment of women in the legal profession and in 1993, she became the founder and first president of New Brunswick’s Women in Law," Higgs said.
She was appointed chief legal advisor to the premier on aboriginal and intergovernmental affairs in 2013 by former Premier David Alward and served as chief legal advisor to former Premier Brian Gallant.
She retired from the New Brunswick public service in 2017 and was appointed to the senate by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on January 31, 2020.
In a statement, Senate Speaker George Furey called her a "tireless advocate."
"Of her many contributions, Senator Keating will be remembered as a tireless advocate for the equal status of the English and French languages in New Brunswick, the equal and just treatment of women in the legal profession, and the promotion of Indigenous issues in her role as provincial chair of the Working Group on Truth and Reconciliation in New Brunswick," he wrote.
Tributes flowed quickly on social media after news spread of Keating's death.
Alberta Sen. Paula Simons says she is "gutted by the news."
"Judith was so smart, so funny, so insightful, so hard-working," Simons said on Twitter, shortly after the news of Keating's death was made public.
"Everything you would want in a senator, in a colleague, in a friend. I'm so sorry her time in the Senate was as brief as it was. We needed more Judith Keating."
Keating's biography on the Senate website says she lived in Fredericton and had two children.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 16, 2021.
Correction
A previous version said Judith Keating, who was named to the Senate last year, was 58 years old when she died.
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