Dyanoosh Youssefi

About Dyanoosh

Dyanoosh Youssefi is a Toronto lawyer, legal studies professor, writer, social justice advocate, and mother of two girls.

She is committed to community-building, social justice, and to effecting positive change through government.

She has been involved in community and volunteer work locally and internationally since her youth, including in elderly care homes, soup kitchens and open custody homes in Toronto, public housing programs in Israel, and as a volunteer teacher in rural Zimbabwe. Dyanoosh served on the Board of Directors of Parkdale Activity Recreation Centre, a community centre for those with mental health, drug addiction, and poverty challenges. She currently sits on the Board of Directors of RESULTS Canada, an advocacy organization devoted to creating the political will to end extreme poverty.  She is accredited by the Law Society of Upper Canada, is a member of the Criminal Lawyers’ Association and the Law Union of Ontario.

Dyanoosh is a proponent of alternative dispute resolution and collaborative approaches to problem-solving.  She is committed to serving and helping our ward and our city, and believes in open, regular communication with her constituents.  Dyanoosh is hard-working, ethical, and dedicated.  She can lead and encourage those around her to work collaboratively to find mutually agreeable solutions.

Dyanoosh has frequently spoken out on issues of respectful policing and effective alternatives to incarceration, especially for the mentally ill. She has appeared before the House of Commons Committee on Justice and Human Rights and the Toronto Police Services Board. Her blog posts have been featured on Huffington Post and she has appeared on CTV News Channel and CBC radio.

After graduating from the University of Toronto, Dyanoosh received her law degree from McGill University in Montreal before returning to Toronto to run a successful criminal law practice.  When her two daughters were born, she left her practice in order to raise her young family.  During those years, she continued her volunteer work as a Director of PARC (Parkdale Activity Recreation Centre) and then RESULTS Canada, served on the steering committee of the Law Union of Ontario, helped to organize legal conferences, started her blog, JusticeRequiresEmpathy.com, then moved on to blog for the Huffington Post, and also began teaching law part-time, first at Humber College and then at Seneca College.

Born in Iran, she has lived in Canada since she was 12. In addition to English, she speaks French, Persian and Hebrew.

Dyanoosh has lived in Ward 16 since 2005. She, along with her husband and children, are frequent users of local services such as parks, playgrounds, libraries, shops and community centres.  She has been a member of the Eglinton Park Residents’ Association since its inception.