Human Rights A Day

Mayann Francis becomes Nova Scotia’s first black Lieutenant-Governor. Mayann Francis was born in the Whitney Pier district near Sydney on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia. As an adult, she received her bachelor of arts from Saint Mary’s University and a masters of public administration from New York University. The daughter of a Cuban archpriest father, in 2003 Francis earned a certificate in theological studies from the Atlantic School of Theology. She worked for the Nova Scotia human rights commission in the 1970s and later moved to Ontario to work for the government in municipal affairs and housing before becoming the Assistant Deputy Minister of the Ontario Women’s Directorate. Back in Nova Scotia, Francis became the first woman to hold the post of ombudsman. She then moved into the top job at her former employer, becoming the chief executive officer of the Nova Scotia Human Rights Commission for eight years. On June 20, 2006, Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced Francis’s appointment as Nova Scotia’s l