Biography of the Honourable Jean-Pierre Plouffe, C.D.

The Honourable Jean-Pierre Plouffe was appointed Commissioner of the Communications Security Establishment effective October 18, 2013, for a period of three years.

Mr. Plouffe was born on January 15, 1943, in Ottawa, Ontario. He obtained his law degree, as well as a master's degree in public law (constitutional and international law), from the University of Ottawa. He was called to the Quebec Bar in 1967.

Mr. Plouffe began his career at the office of the Judge Advocate General at the Department of National Defence. He retired as a Lieutenant-Colonel from the Canadian Armed Forces in 1976. He then worked in private practice with the law firm of Séguin, Ouellette, Plouffe et associés, in Gatineau, Quebec, as defence counsel and also as defending officer for courts martial. Thereafter, Mr. Plouffe worked for the Legal Aid Office as defence counsel.

Mr. Plouffe was appointed a reserve force military judge in 1980, and then as a judge of the Quebec Court in 1982. He was thereafter appointed to the Superior Court of Quebec in 1990, and to the Court Martial Appeal Court of Canada in March 2013. He retired as a supernumerary judge on April 2, 2014.