Anna-Karine Asselin
Permanent Representative of Canada to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO)
Anna-Karine Asselin obtained a LLL from the University of Ottawa in 1990 and was admitted to the Québec Bar in 1991, joining External Affairs and International Trade Canada in 1994 after having worked in private practice. She held various positions in the Department’s Legal Bureau on UN, multilateral, criminal, and treaty law, leading negotiations on Human Rights instruments, notably the on Rights of children. Ms. Asselin also worked at the Privy Council Office's Machinery of Government Secretariat (1997-2000).
Ms. Asselin’s diplomatic career includes extensive multilateral and bilateral leadership positions. Abroad, she served as counsellor in Canada's mission to the OSCE in Vienna as politico-military program manager, as minister-counsellor in Canada’s Embassy in Brasilia, followed later by Canada’s Ambassador to the Republic of Panama. In Ottawa, she served as Executive Director for Canada's UN Security Council campaign and Director General for the Consular Policy Bureau, where she lead the development and adoption of Canada’s global Initiative against Arbitrary Detention (ADI) in 2020-2022. She served as leadership mentor with the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation (2022-23).
Most recently, after serving as Canada’s Ambassador to the Hellenic Republic and High Commissioner to the Republic of Cyprus (2022-2025), Ms. Asselin was appointed Permanent Representative of Canada to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) in Montreal.
