Heartfelt Tributes to Shirley Greenberg

Colleagues and friends share stories and homages of Shirley’s brilliance, passion, humanity and tenacity.

Shirley Greenberg Chair for Women and the Legal Profession

Natasha Bakht

“Shirley Greenberg was a champion of women’s rights. I have been hearing about her many significant contributions since I was a law student at the University of Ottawa. My favourite feminist professors sung her praises and the creation of the Shirley Greenberg Chair for Women and the Legal Profession ensured that the law school was a place where cutting edge conversations and ground-breaking feminist research was a mainstay. Today, I have the honour of holding the Chair that bears Shirley’s name. I met her last year just before her 90th birthday and was touched by her humility and the diligence with which she reviewed the activities of the Greenberg Chair. Her passing is a huge loss for our community, but her legacy is strong, and we will carry her nourishing spirit with us.”

Professor and Shirley Greenberg Chair for Women and the Legal Profession, 2011-2013

Rosemary Cairns Way

“It was a tremendous privilege to hold the Greenberg Chair between 2011 and 2013. Shirley Greenberg was a remarkable woman whose contributions to our law school will continue to enrich the lives of all of our students for years to come. Her generosity enabled the eventual repatriation of the Canadian Journal of Women and the Law to our faculty in 2013. It supported a feminist lecture series, student research opportunities, as well as the production and distribution of a N.A.W.L. handbook on gender and legal education. Contemporary feminists know that we stand on the shoulders of the giants who preceded us. Shirley Greenberg was one such giant … brilliant, inspirational and committed to women’s equality. We will miss her.”

Shirley Greenberg Chair for Women and the Legal Profession, 2007-2011

Professor Martha Jackman

“Through her leadership and generosity, as a student, alumna, feminist lawyer, community builder, mentor and (often anonymous) philanthropist, Shirley Greenberg made a remarkable contribution to our law school. As an early Greenberg Chair holder, I witnessed first-hand the degree to which faculty and student life was enriched by the Greenberg speaker series, conferences, research support, and many other Chair-related projects and activities. Beyond that, however, our bilingual upper year Feminist Law Reform seminar – unique in Canada -- which enables our students to acquire the skills and confidence they need to become effective feminist law reform advocates, would not exist but for her generosity. Thank you Shirley: we will miss you.”

“I feel very honored to have held the Shirley Greenberg Chair between 2014 and 2020. I followed in the very deep footsteps not only of Shirley, but of the inspiring, dedicated and wonderful feminists who held the Chair before me, and who built and sustained the faculty's relationship with Shirley herself.

I feel lucky to have had the many professional opportunities afforded by the Chair, but perhaps even more so to have participated in the community created around the Chair. Shirley's generous contribution made a physical, intellectual and virtual space for students, staff, faculty, local lawyers, and community to come together and learn from one another in a supportive environment. Shirley herself was often present at events, or sent emails and notes keeping up with recent happenings at the faculty, and to share jokes and news stories.

I have looked forward, during the pandemic, to the virtual events organized by the current fabulous Chair, Natasha Bakht- both for the excellent feminist content, but also for that enduring feeling of community and warmth. I can't wait for the first in-person event when we will be able to make those connections again, even while we are missing Shirley's energy, enthusiasm, sharp mind and humor. I look forward to seeing many of you there.”

Dr. Angela Cameron

Associate Professor and Shirley Greenberg Chair for Women and the Legal Profession, 2014-2020

“I am very saddened that Shirley has passed away at 90 years young. She had a talent for living life to the fullest. I loved the parties where we all wore hats to honour Shirley’s pleasure in dressing up for High Tea. Her hat was, of course, always charming. I was a lucky dinner guest once, invited as an interloper for a raucous party she hosted for her lifelong friends. Only a few years ago she attended my retirement party and after the speeches she stayed on to dance the night away when the talking was done. Just months before her passing she was still working out how to inject life into the legal feminist movement in Canada. I cannot quite believe she is not in Florida or one of her other sun spots, enjoying her pals and the warm weather.

I know Shirley most modestly did not want her name associated with her gift of the Shirley Greenberg Chair of Women and the Legal Profession, which I was so fortunate to hold (2002-2005; 2013-2016). Thankfully she relented, for her name brought her huge community of friends, lawyers and other accomplished women to “Greenberg” events at the law school, enriching all of us and our students. Her gift allowed me to develop courses in Women and the Legal Profession and Defending Battered Women on Trial, to host several major conferences that produced books examining women’s roles as lawyers, judges, complainants and accused (Adding Feminism to Law: The Contributions of Justice Claire L’Heureux-Dubé; Calling for Change: Women, Law and the Legal Profession (with Sheila McIntyre); Sexual Assault in Canada: Law, Legal Practice and Women’s Activism; and Defending Battered Women on Trial: Lessons from the Transcripts), and to support young feminist students in finding their way in the profession and connecting with senior women lawyers.

None of this would have been possible without Shirley’s gift, but also her presence at the law school, encouraging more focus on women and the profession and sharing with frankness and humour her experiences fighting the patriarchy. I will never forget the look on my students’ faces when she relayed a story about how she admonished a male lawyer who referred to a woman in her firm as a “girl”. Ha! Shine on, Shirley, as only you can.”

Elizabeth Sheehy

Professor Emerita and Shirley Greenberg Chair for Women and the Legal Profession, 2002-2005 & 2013-2016

Former Dean of the Common Law Section, 2000-2013

Bruce Feldthusen

“The Shirley E Greenberg Chair in Women and the Legal Profession originated over dinner at my home early in my deanship. Four women professors - Backhouse, Cairns Way, Gilbert and Rogers - hosted Shirley to see if she would support such a project at the law school. Much to the disapproval of the then fledgling Central Development Office, we decided that it should be an all women event. I did not attend. I spent much of the evening standing outside in the rain listening to women sitting around the table laughing uproariously. The evening was a huge success. I was later introduced to Shirley to seal the deal. The creation of a vibrant place in the law school for women followed seamlessly. The impact of her gift was immediate and powerful. It will live on. I developed a warm personal relationship with Shirley after that. I got to know her family. I attended her grand parties, including one in Barbados! We lunched often. She was generous, brilliant, talented, funny, determined and strong. She lived a “good” life in every way.”

Former Dean of the Common Law Section, 2018-2021

Adam Dodek

“Shirley always maintained an interest in our law school, particularly in what today’s students were doing. As one of the few female law students in the 1970s, she had to fight for space and for the right to participate in the legal profession. She was an inspiration and a role model for so many women in our law school and will continue to be so. That is one of her lasting legacies. On a personal note, getting the chance to get to know Shirley was one of the highlights of my deanship. She demonstrated unparalleled support for me, for our law school and for our students and she had a wicked sense of humour that made every encounter with her fun!”

Distinguished Professor and winner of the 2019 Shirley Greenberg Prize in Feminist Research

Constance Backhouse

“As uOttawa people think back over our most significant graduates, the name of Shirley Greenberg will always resonate. From the time she entered the law school as a mature student in the 1970s, she inspired classmates, staff, and faculty alike with her clear ideals and her commitment to achieving equality for women. When she graduated, she carried the torch with a feminist law practice that challenged patriarchal norms and served as a launching pad for countless clients and colleagues. As our most generous benefactor, she supported feminist programs and reached out to uplift Indigenous and other vulnerable groups. Shirley was always at the centre of the women’s movement. She helped create it, she nurtured it, she sustained it, and we counted her as a treasured friend.”

“In her life, as in her work, Shirley Greenberg insisted that women’s legal and health issues be on their own agenda.

Women are often the silent Ceremony keepers in ritual, in homes, in schools, in communities, in offices and at our institutions. Women are responsible for at least half the sky and half the earth. Women are the life givers - in ceremony directly with that force in the universe that commands the tides and dabbles in the turning of the earth and lights our sky at night. Women fight to get through one more day and will fight for their children in unprecedented ways.

Shirley Greenberg was a genius who taught me that healthy women means healthy nations. That looking at the health of our women will have a huge impact on the micro and the macro of our world and that looking after the women, at a cellular level, IS looking after our communities, our country at the national and international levels.”

Marilyn Poitras

Former Commissioner for the national inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls (MMIWG)

“Shirley Greenberg was an outstanding, generous, imaginative feminist lawyer and Alumni. Working with Shirley to design a creative, committed, and transformative project at the law school was pure delight. Together we considered a number of projects, Women's Health and Women and the Law primary among them. Shirley settled on the broader Women and the Legal Profession. The Greenberg lunch hour speakers series was the first regularly occurring series of its kind at the law school. The rotating Greenberg Professorship embodied Shirley’s recognition of the richness that is brought when members of the feminist legal community are called on in turn to imagine, reimagine and implement creative and radical engagements with law and the women and girls it must serve.”

Sanda Rodgers

Professor Emeritus and Shirley Greenberg Chair for Women and the Legal Profession, 2005-2007

“Over twenty years ago, in my first year as a Professor at the Law School, I was invited to attend an intimate and special dinner with Shirley at the Dean’s home. We gathered as a group of feminist law professors and I was very junior to the much more celebrated women in attendance: Professors Backhouse, Cairns Way and Rodgers. Even at that early stage in my career, these extraordinary women had taken me under their wing and were valued mentors. That dinner and the opportunity to meet Shirley remains a highlight in my time at uOttawa. Together with Shirley that rainy night, we laid the foundations of a partnership that immeasurably changed our law school for the better. It was an evening of dreams and schemes, with lots of laughter. I was pregnant with my first son and I remember being so heartened by the stories of Shirley’s generosity in reproductive health and rights. The endowed Chair that was in large part the product of that dinner has given feminism a prominent place at Common Law and is a true testament to Shirley’s legacy in the legal profession.”

Daphne Gilbert

Professor, Faculty of Law, Common Law Section