Anne Clare Cools (born August 12, 1943) is a Canadian retired politician who was the longest serving member of the Senate of Canada, having served from 1984 to 2018. As a social worker, Cools was a pioneer in the protection of women from domestic violence, running one of the first domestic violence shelters in Canada.
Personal life and education
Cools was born and raised in Barbados, as the daughter of pharmacist Lucius Unique Cools and Rosita Gordon Miller Cools, who owned a sugar plantation. Both her grandfather and an uncle were politically active on the island. When she was four years old, two of her siblings died. In Barbados, Cools attended Ursuline convent School. In 1957, when she was 13 years old, her family immigrated to Canada, where she studied at Thomas D'Arcy McGee High School in Montreal. Cools received a B.A. degree in social sciences, sociology and psychology from McGill University. Cools is married to business consultant Rolf Calhoun. Her personal interests include classical music and playing the piano.
Early career
Early in her career, Cools worked as a student coordinator, responsible for supervising students and training them to be social workers. She was employed by the University of Toronto, in the Faculty of Social Work from 1978-1978; by the Ryerson Polytechnic Institute (now Toronto Metropolitan University) from 1978 to 1980. She worked at Seneca College from 1977 to 1989. She was candid in her criticism of the Liberal government of Prime Minister Jean Chrétien when proposed legislation to be introduced in the House of Commons was shelved after intense lobbying by women's groups.
Feminism
While a strong advocate for women and domestic violence victims, she has also criticized certain aspects of the feminist movement, e.g. stating that "this feminism that has grown up suddenly in the last few years, where all virtue and goodness are stacked up on the side of women, and all evil and violence is stacked up on the side of men—well, human nature doesn't work that way."
From the retirement of Lowell Murray on September 26, 2011, until her own retirement on August 12, 2018, Cools was the longest-serving member of the Senate. She is the first female black Senator in North America. With the retirement of Charlie Watt, Cools was the last Senator appointed by Pierre Trudeau remaining in the Senate.