Russell Williams (born January 31, 1953) is a

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

politician, and a cabinet minister and a four-term Member of the

National Assembly of Quebec The National Assembly of Quebec (, ) is the Legislature, legislative body of the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec in Canada. Legislators are called MNAs (Members of the National Assembly; ). The lieutenant governor of Que ...

Early life

Russell Williams was born in

London, Ontario London is a city in southwestern Ontario, Canada, along the Quebec City–Windsor Corridor. The city had a population of 422,324 according to the 2021 Canadian census. London is at the confluence of the Thames River (Ontario), Thames River and N ...

in 1953 to Harold and Gloria (Higgins) Williams. Williams completed high school in

Beaconsfield Beaconsfield ( ) is a market town and Civil parishes in England, civil parish in Buckinghamshire, England, northwest of central London and southeast of Aylesbury. Three other towns are within : Gerrards Cross, Amersham and High Wycombe. The ...

, later attending was educated at the

Sir George Williams University Sir George Williams University was a university in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It merged with Loyola College to create Concordia University on August 24, 1974. History In 1851, the first YMCA in North America was established on Sainte-Hélène St ...

(which later became

Concordia University Concordia University () is a Public university, public English-language research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1974 following the merger of Loyola College (Montreal), Loyola College and Sir George Williams Universit ...

), where he received his

Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...

in Applied Social Studies in 1976. Williams was the director of the

YMCA YMCA, sometimes regionally called the Y, is a worldwide youth organisation based in Geneva, Switzerland, with more than 64 million beneficiaries in 120 countries. It has nearly 90,000 staff, some 920,000 volunteers and 12,000 branches w ...

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

during the 1980s, working as the executive director as well as the director of community initiatives. He was also active as a member of Alliance Quebec in the late 1980s. He briefly served as the director of the Health Council of the Brant Region as well as director of the Canadian Foundation for Human Rights.

Member of the National Assembly

Williams ran for the

Liberal Party The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. For example, while the political systems ...

in the Montreal riding of Nelligan in the 1989 election, replacing

Clifford Lincoln Clifford Albert Lincoln (born September 1, 1928) is a Canadian politician who served as a member of the Quebec National Assembly, a provincial cabinet minister and a member of the House of Commons of Canada. Lincoln was born in Mauritius to F ...

, who had moved to federal politics. Williams was safely re-elected in the 1994, 1998, and 2003 elections. As a member of the National Assembly, he served as Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister for Intergovernmental Affairs between 1989 and 1991. Later, he assisted the Minister of Health and Social Services and the Minister of Employment. After the Liberal Party's defeat in the 1994 election, Williams served in a smaller capacity, co-chairing commissions on social affairs and finance. When

Jean Charest John James "Jean" Charest (; born June 24, 1958) is a Canadian lawyer and former politician who served as the 29th premier of Quebec from 2003 to 2012. Prior to that, he was a member of Parliament (MP) between 1984 and 1998. After holding se ...

led the Liberals to victory in the 2003 election, Williams again became Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Health and Social Services until his resignation in March 2004. As a Member of the National Assembly, "he led numerous public policy debates on important and complex issues, such as the role of government in research and development (R&D), compensation for victims of contaminated blood, linguistic policy, access to services for the disabled, and pre-hospital emergency services".

Later career

Shortly after leaving the National Assembly, Williams became the President of Canada’s Research-Based Pharmaceutical Companies (Rx&D), a pressure group based in Ottawa. He is an active volunteer with people suffering from long-term illness and other issues of

palliative care Palliative care (from Latin root "to cloak") is an interdisciplinary medical care-giving approach aimed at optimizing quality of life and mitigating or reducing suffering among people with serious, complex, and often terminal illnesses. Man ...

. Williams was briefly in the spotlight again in 2010, when Colonel Russell Williams was tried for multiple rapes and murders in Ontario. Patrick Lagacé of

La Presse is a French-language online newspaper published daily in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1884, it is now owned by an independent nonprofit trust. ' was formerly a broadsheet daily, considered a newspaper of record in Canada. Its Sunday edi ...

blogged about the two men's names following a press release from Rx&D.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Williams, Russell Quebec Liberal Party MNAs Politicians from London, Ontario 1953 births Living people Sir George Williams University alumni Concordia University alumni 20th-century members of the National Assembly of Quebec 21st-century members of the National Assembly of Quebec YMCA leaders