Bio
Hugh Segal is the Matthews Distinguished Fellow in Global Public Policy in the School of Policy Studies at Queen’s University in Kingston, Canada, and was senior advisor at Aird & Berlis LLP in Toronto, Canada until December 2021. He also co-leads one of eight working groups in CIGI’s project Reimagining a Canadian National Security Strategy.
Hugh served in the Canadian Senate from 2005 to 2014 and chaired the Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade and the Special Senate Committee on Anti-Terrorism.
Previously, Hugh was chief of staff to the Canadian prime minister and associate cabinet secretary in Ontario; president of the Institute for Research on Public Policy in Montreal, Canada; chair of the NATO Association of Canada; and co-chair of the D-10 Strategy Forum, a track two round table (co-hosted by CIGI and the Atlantic Council). He is also principal emeritus of Massey College, the graduate residential college at the University of Toronto, and holds honorary doctorates from the Royal Military College of Canada, Queen’s University and the University of Ottawa.
A recipient of both the Vimy Award for service to democracy and national security from the Conference of Defence Associations Institute and the Award for Excellence from the Churchill Society for the Advancement of Parliamentary Democracy, Hugh has written several books on public, foreign and defence policy, conservative politics and income security. He is a former member of the Commonwealth Eminent Persons Group, which focuses on modernization, human rights and the rule of law.