He replaces Gary Anandasangaree in the new cabinet
Central Nova member of parliament Sean Fraser has been announced as the new minister of justice and attorney general of Canada in Prime Minister Mark Carney’s cabinet, which was unveiled on Tuesday.
Fraser replaces Gary Anandasangaree as justice minister. Fraser will also oversee the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency.
According to CBC, Fraser had said he would not reoffer in the previous month’s election to spend more time with his family, but Carney requested his return. Fraser first became a member of parliament for Central Nova in 2015.
He served as minister of immigration, refugees and citizenship from 2021 to 2023 and was minister of housing, infrastructure and communities from 2023 to 2024. He was parliamentary secretary to the minister of environment and climate change from 2018 to 2019 and parliamentary secretary to the minister of middle class prosperity and minister of finance.
As minister of immigration, refugees and citizenship, Fraser tabled the 2022-2024 Immigration Levels Plan in 2022. He also announced emergency winter funding in 2023 for communities to respond to the issue of homelessness.
Fraser obtained his law degree from Dalhousie University in 2009 and went on to pursue a Master’s degree in public international law from the Netherlands’ Leiden University. As a practitioner, he worked with Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP as an associate in its Calgary for three years. He focused on commercial litigation and international dispute resolution.
He was once vice president of a local branch of the United Nations Association in Canada, a research fellow with the Centre for International Sustainable Development Law, and did pro bono work for the local BGC Club and vulnerable community members.
“Fraser had made, I think, a lot of effort into saying, 'Look, I'm not leaving because Trudeau is going to lose, I'm leaving because I want to spend time with my family.' And so I think Carney must have come back to him with some version of, 'Look, you know, I'll make this right for you' kind of thing,” said Lori Turnbull, chair of the public and international affairs department in Dalhousie University's faculty of management, said in a statement to CBC. “So for Fraser to take it on was much better for the Liberals, I think, than not. And so he's being rewarded. And clearly, Carney has faith in him.”
The new Carney cabinet has 28 cabinet ministers and 10 secretaries of state across each province and the North. Thirteen of these were recently elected.
