Cécile M. Bensimon is currently an ethics consultant for Environment and Climate Change Canada, Chair of the Research Ethics Board (REB) at the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO) and Vice-Chair of the Pharmaceutical Advertising Advisory Board (PAAB). She was previously Director of Ethics and Professional Affairs at the Canadian Medical Association (CMA). Cécile has served as an ethics expert to inform international, national, and provincial pandemic preparedness and response plans by advising the World Health Organization, federal and provincial governments, and regulatory medical authorities during the H1N1 pandemic and/or COVID-19 pandemic.

She serves as the Vice-President, North America and Governor for Canada for the World Association for Medical Law (WAML) and as a member of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Advisory Committee on Ethics, and is on the Editorial Board of the journals Canadian Journal of Bioethics and Frontiers in Genetics. Her publications have appeared in the British Journal of Psychiatry, Journal of the American College of Surgeons, Canadian Journal of Anaesthesia, Journal of Bioethical Inquiry, Public Health Ethics, and Social Science and Medicine.

As a testament to her commitment to democratic values, Cécile’s doctoral dissertation was based on Habermas’ theory of deliberative democracy. She firmly believes in the foundational role of civil society to strengthen and foster trust in democratic institutions to preserve and promote the fabric of democratic society and reasoned debate.