First elected in June 1997, Marlene Jennings was re-elected as the Member of Parliament for Notre-Dame-de-Grâce – Lachine in November 2000, in June 2004 in January 2006 and in October 2008. Ms. Jennings is the first Black woman from Quebec to be elected to Parliament in the history of Confederation. She became a member of Privy Council in July 2004.
Ms. Jennings is Deputy House Leader for the Official Opposition as well as the Liberal critic for Government Ethics and Democratic Reform. She is a member of the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs and a member of the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights. Ms. Jennings is a member of the Canada-Israel Inter-Parliamentary (Friendship) Group, of which she was Vice-Chair for the period May 2006 to November 2007 and Chair from February 2005 to April 2006. Ms. Jennings is a Vice-Chair (Liberal) of the All-Party Group for the Prevention of Genocide and Other Crimes against Humanity.
From February 2007 to January 2008 Ms. Jennings was Liberal critic for Justice. From February 2006 to January 2007, Ms. Jennings was Deputy House Leader for the Official Opposition. From July 2004 to October 2005, during the previous Liberal government, Ms. Jennings was Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister (with emphasis on Canada-U.S. relations). From January to December 2003, she was Parliamentary Secretary to the Solicitor General of Canada and from September 2001 to December 2002, she was Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for International Cooperation.
Ms. Jennings has been Vice-Chair of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology, of the Standing Committee on Public Accounts, and of the Sub-Committee on National Security (of the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights). She was a member of the Joint House of Commons-Senate Standing Committee on Scrutiny of Regulations, of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights, of the Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics, of the Standing Committee on Natural Resources and Government Operations, and of the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade and of both its Sub-Committees (on International Trade, Trade Disputes and Investment) and (on Human Rights and International Development). In 1997, Ms. Jennings sat on the Special Joint House of Commons-Senate Committee on Denominational Schools in Quebec. In 1998, she was a member of the National Liberal Caucus Task Force on the Future of the Canadian Financial Services Sector and in 1999, she participated in the Prime Minister’s Youth Entrepreneurship Task Force. Between 1998 and 1999, Ms. Jennings was for a year Chair of the Parliamentary Steel Caucus.
From the fall of 1997 until February 2001, Ms. Jennings was Secretary of the National Liberal Caucus. She was also both Secretary-Treasurer and Chair of the Quebec Liberal Caucus, the latter, during the months of February to September 2001.
Ms. Jennings’ multi-disciplinary experience has been garnered through positions with both the public and private sectors. She has earned over nine years professional experience in the area of policing, first as a member of the Quebec Police Commission (1988-90) and then as Deputy Commissioner for Police Ethics for the Province of Quebec (1990-97).
Ms. Jennings has gained years of community and professional experience with employment equity and communications for women, aboriginal peoples, and ethnic and racial minorities. Her experience at the trade union level through work as a shop steward and in human resources management has allowed for a heightened awareness of management constraints and their impact on industrial relations in both the private and public sectors.
Ms. Jennings’ paraprofessional activities in the past have included involvement and participation in numerous international and national conferences on policing, police ethics, race relations, and minority women’s issues. A committed volunteer in many not-for-profit community associations, possessing expertise in public accountability and civilian oversight of law enforcement, she has also been the recipient of the Jackie Robinson Award for Professionals, awarded by the Montreal Association of Black Business Persons and Professionals.
Ms. Jennings was born on November 10, 1951, on the South Shore of Montreal. Educated at McGill University in English Literature and Psychology (no degree), she completed her Bachelor of Law (LL.B.) at the Université du Québec à Montréal in 1986 and was sworn to the Québec Bar Association in 1988. She also completed part of an Executive M.B.A. Program at Concordia University in 1990. Fluently bilingual (English and French), she also possesses an intermediate knowledge of Italian.
Ms. Jennings has been married to Luciano Del Negro since 1974 and they have a daughter, Anne-Darla.
(December 2009)