Ali Ehsassi

Ehsassi was born in Geneva, Switzerland and was raised in New York City before living in Iran for several years in his childhood. He arrived in Canada with his family at the age of 15.

He attended York University as well as Georgetown University Law School, having obtained his LL.B. from Osgoode Hall Law School, and his LL.M. at Georgetown University Law Center which he attended concurrently as both a Global as well as WTO fellow.

Ali Ehsassi also holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Toronto and a Master's of Science from the London School of Economics.

He proved particularly active in extracurricular activities at the University of Toronto, having served successively as the President of UNICEF, the Vice President of the Political Science Union, and President of the University of Toronto Young Liberals and a student intern at the Canadian Institute of International Affairs. He also attended several G7 summits as a researcher in the 1990s.

Subsequently, while attending Osgoode, he served as Senior Editor of the Osgoode Hall Law Journal, and a research assistant to two members of the faculty, as well as the Student representative on the faculty recruitment committee of the law faculty.

Ali practised law at several of Canada's most eminent International trade firms in Toronto and at a top tier American law firm in Washington D.C., having focused exclusively on all aspects of international law, including trade remedy cases, and litigating international commercial arbitration and landmark investor-State disputes. In addition, he worked as a Senior Advisor on trade issues at the Ontario Department of Economic Development and International Trade, and later at the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade in Ottawa.

Ehsassi has also authored articles published in academic text books by Oxford University Press and Lexus/Nexus, has served on the executive of the international law section of the Ontario Bar Association, and taught and lectured at various universities and colleges. He has also appeared before the Senate Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade.

Since being elected to Parliament in 2015, Ali has seved as a member of the Joint Parliamentary Committee on Scrutiny of Regulations, the Standing Committee on Immigration, and the Standing Committee on Ethics and Privacy. In addition, he serves as the Chair of the All Parliamentary Committee on the Prevention of Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity, as well as Co-Chair of the Toronto Liberal Caucus.

By way of historical background, his great-grandfather on his maternal side was Abdolhossein Teymourtash (1883–1933), an ardently reformist Iranian statesman who was elected as a member of parliament for six consecutive terms commencing shortly after the establishment of the Iranian Parliament in the first decade of the Twentieth century, and also served variously as Minister of Justice, of Commerce and ultimately Minister of Court from 1925 to 1933.

His father was a diplomat from Iran who focused on the United Nations and served as his country's permanent representative to the United Nations and as Vice Chair of ECOSOC before deciding to resign from the Foreign Service and leave their home country after the 1979 Iranian revolution.