Canadian Global Affairs Institute and Women in Defence and Security Announce Recipient of 7th Annual CGAI-WiDS Fellowship

Thales Canada Defence & Security Lawyer and Royal Military College Master’s student Afton David receives 2024 CGAI-WiDS professional development Fellowship

OTTAWA, ON – March 1, 2024 – The Canadian Global Affairs Institute (CGAI), along with Women in Defence and Security (WiDS), is thrilled to announce Afton David as the recipient of the 2024 CGAI-WiDS professional development Fellowship.

Afton David is currently legal counsel at Thales Canada Defence & Security, as well as a reservist in the infantry with the Cameron Highlanders of Ottawa. She is a retired Rugby player (uOttawa Gee-Gees, Ottawa Irish Rugby Club, Québec provincial team), and a graduate of the University of Ottawa’s National Program, with a degree in Civil Law (LL.L) and Common Law (J.D). She also has a bachelor’s degree in International Development and Globalization from the University of Ottawa. She was called to the Ontario Bar in 2018. She is currently taking a Master’s in Public Administration from the Royal Military College, with a keen focus on expanding her knowledge on the strategy surrounding Canada’s defence procurement system. Her main areas of interest are constitutional law, commercial law, and military justice.

Afton is the winner of the 2017 Canadian Bar Association’s Sword & Scale essay contest with her paper titled Neither Charity nor Special Treatment: Amendments to Sustainably Modernize the Canadian Forces Members and Veterans Re-establishment and Compensation Act, which she wrote during her articles. She is also published in the area of medical assistance in dying and is mentioned in the Oxford Handbook of the Canadian Constitution for her work on Amending the Constitution of Canada. In 2021, Afton co-authored a book chapter entitled “The Fork in the Road and the Path Not Taken”, in March to Justice: Global Military Law Landmarks, about the legal repercussions of R v. Généreux over the past three decades. Afton continues to look for opportunities to contribute to military justice improvement, and in 2023 she was invited to participate in the Commonwealth’s development of military justice principles in Stellenbosch, South Africa.