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Draft:Meseret Haileyesus

  • Comment: LLM-generated article: lack of links to other articles, red-linked category, citations with no links, which are all named, and cited under the references section. The article is written more like an essay, not in an encyclopedic tone. Fortek67 (talk) 19:29, 6 June 2026 (UTC)
Meseret Haileyesus
Born
Ethiopia
CitizenshipEthiopian-Canadian
OccupationsSocial entrepreneur, advocate
OrganizationCanadian Center for Women's Empowerment
TitleFounder and chief executive officer
AwardsGovernor General's Award in Commemoration of the Persons Case (2025)

Meseret Haileyesus, also known as Mesi Haileyesus, is an Ethiopian-Canadian social entrepreneur and advocate. She is the founder and chief executive officer of the Canadian Center for Women's Empowerment (CCFWE), an Ottawa-based non-profit organization that works on economic abuse and the financial dimensions of intimate partner violence in Canada through research, training and policy advocacy.[1][2][3] In 2025 she received the Governor General's Award in Commemoration of the Persons Case.[1][4]

Early life and career

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Haileyesus was born in Ethiopia.[5] Before emigrating to Canada she worked for more than fifteen years on health and development programs with non-governmental and international organizations, including work related to HIV/AIDS prevention and maternal and newborn health.[6] She settled first in Edmonton, Alberta, where she was involved in health initiatives with the Alberta Community Council on HIV/AIDS and the University of Alberta, before relocating to Ottawa.[6] She also founded Maternity Today, an organization focused on midwifery and maternal health.[6][7]

Canadian Center for Women's Empowerment

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Haileyesus founded the Canadian Center for Women's Empowerment, which she has described as the only Canadian non-profit organization focused specifically on economic abuse and economic injustice.[8][2] The organization conducts research, produces policy and legislative recommendations, delivers training and develops digital tools intended to help identify and prevent economic abuse.[2] In partnership with a national task force, CCFWE developed an economic abuse screening tool for use by banks, shelters, lawyers and health-care providers.[2] According to Ashoka, economic abuse was included in Canada's National Action Plan to End Gender-Based Violence following the organization's advocacy.[2]

Advocacy and policy work

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Haileyesus has appeared as a witness before the House of Commons Standing Committee on the Status of Women on more than one occasion. In 2022, during the committee's study of intimate partner and family violence, she recommended that the federal government amend legislation including the Divorce Act, the Civil Marriage Act and the Criminal Code to recognize forms of economic abuse such as economic control, economic exploitation and employment sabotage, and proposed a code of conduct on economic abuse for financial institutions and other private-sector bodies.[9] Her recommendations were summarized in the committee's report on the subject.[10] In November 2023, she appeared again during the committee's study of women's economic empowerment, where she said that economic abuse affects most survivors of domestic violence and recommended measures to address coerced debt and to improve survivors' access to financing.[8] A later committee report drew on her testimony in describing economic abuse as a common but frequently overlooked form of domestic abuse associated with coercive control, and cited research conducted by CCFWE in the Ottawa region in 2021 indicating that most surveyed survivors of gender-based violence had also experienced economic abuse.[11] In 2024, CCFWE submitted a brief to the Senate Standing Committee on Social Affairs, Science and Technology on Bill S-249.[12] She has spoken publicly about how financial control by an abuser can affect a survivor's credit, employment and access to housing for years after a relationship ends.[13][14] In coverage by the Mental Health Commission of Canada, she argued that conventional banking systems are not designed to recognize or respond to victims of economic abuse.[15]

CCFWE established a National Economic Abuse Awareness Day, observed on 26 November. According to Women and Gender Equality Canada, the day has been recognized by the House of Commons and by more than one hundred municipalities.[1] Haileyesus co-founded the International Coalition Against Economic Abuse in 2024.[1] She has written for the public-policy magazine Policy Options on the regulation of economic abuse in the financial sector,[3] and she has been appointed to the consumer advisory panel of the Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Ontario.[16]

Women and Gender Equality Canada has described Haileyesus as a leading advocate for raising national attention to economic abuse.[1]

Recognition

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References

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  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "Backgrounder: 2025 Recipients of the Governor General's Awards in Commemoration of the Persons Case". Women and Gender Equality Canada. 18 October 2025. Retrieved 6 June 2026.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Meseret Haileyesus". Ashoka Canada. Retrieved 6 June 2026.
  3. 1 2 "Meseret Haileyesus". Policy Options. Institute for Research on Public Policy. Retrieved 6 June 2026.
  4. 1 2 "Minister Rechie Valdez announces recipients of the 2025 Governor General's Awards in Commemoration of the Persons Case". Women and Gender Equality Canada. 18 October 2025. Retrieved 6 June 2026.
  5. 1 2 "Meseret Haileyesus, CEO, Canadian Center for Women's Empowerment". Ottawa Business Journal. 9 June 2021. Retrieved 6 June 2026.
  6. 1 2 3 "Meseret Haileyesus". Business Africa Online. 18 July 2020. Retrieved 6 June 2026.
  7. ↑ "Meet Meseret Haileyesus, founder of the Canadian Center for Women's Empowerment and Maternity Today". Women of Influence. 13 July 2020. Retrieved 6 June 2026.
  8. 1 2 "Standing Committee on the Status of Women, Evidence, Meeting No. 85" (PDF). House of Commons of Canada. 6 November 2023. Retrieved 6 June 2026.
  9. ↑ "Standing Committee on the Status of Women, Evidence, Meeting No. 8". House of Commons of Canada. 4 March 2022. Retrieved 6 June 2026.
  10. ↑ "Towards a Violence-Free Canada: Addressing and Eliminating Intimate Partner and Family Violence" (PDF). House of Commons of Canada, Standing Committee on the Status of Women. Retrieved 6 June 2026.
  11. ↑ "Report of the Standing Committee on the Status of Women, 45th Parliament, page 69". House of Commons of Canada. Retrieved 6 June 2026.
  12. ↑ Canadian Centre for Women's Empowerment (26 April 2024). "Brief regarding Bill S-249 submitted to the Standing Senate Committee on Social Affairs, Science and Technology" (PDF). Senate of Canada. Retrieved 6 June 2026.
  13. ↑ "As possible recession looms, advocates warn domestic violence could increase". CTV News. Retrieved 6 June 2026.
  14. ↑ "Canada-wide survey of women's shelters shows abuse more severe during COVID-19 pandemic". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved 6 June 2026.
  15. ↑ "Power and Purse Strings". Mental Health Commission of Canada. Retrieved 6 June 2026.
  16. ↑ "Consumer Advisory Panel membership list". Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Ontario. Retrieved 6 June 2026.
  17. ↑ "Meseret Desta Haileyesus". 100 Accomplished Black Canadian Women. Retrieved 6 June 2026.

Category:Living people Category:Ethiopian emigrants to Canada Category:Canadian women activists Category:People from Ottawa Category:Activists from Ontario Category:Date of birth missing (living people)

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