Member of the Order of Canada
Awarded on: 2012-11-19
Invested on: 2014-05-07
For her work as a lawyer, writer and activist helping to advance the discipline of family law.
Linda Silver Dranoff has been instrumental in advancing equality in Canadian family law. As a lawyer, she has argued many precedent-setting cases that have directly benefited women by recognizing marriage as a social and financial partnership. Notably, her lobbying efforts resulted in essential reforms to family law legislation, including equal sharing of all matrimonial property between spouses following a separation or death, and automatic cost-of-living adjustments in support payments. As well, she has written several books and a long-running law column in Chatelaine magazine aimed at average Canadians, helping to make our laws more accessible and widely understood.