Episode 32: Afton David

Afton David was born into a military family in Valcartier, Québec. She grew up in typical “army brat” fashion, moving from base to base throughout her younger years. Throughout high school, she played Rugby and wrestled, which carried over to her post-secondary career as a varsity Rugby player at the University of Ottawa. She played provincial Rugby with team Quebec, winning gold at the 2016 Canadian Rugby Championship. During this time, she joined the CAF as a reserve infanteer with the Cameron Highlanders of Ottawa and she continued to study, play Rugby and pursue her military training concurrently.  She is a graduate of the University of Ottawa with three degrees: Civil Law (LL.L), Common Law (J.D.), and International Development and Globalization (B.Soc.Sc.). Following her graduation from law school, she was called to the Bar of the Law Society of Ontario in 2018 and she continued to devote her time to pro-bono work and academic writing. She began her legal career in private practice with Kelly Santini LLP, and moved on as in-house Counsel at TekSavvy Solutions Inc., and landed at Thales Canada Defense & Security as in-house Counsel in 2021.  She is the winner of the Mayor of Ottawa’s Award for outstanding community engagement (2019), the Canadian Bar Association’s Sword & Scale essay competition for her paper on legislative amendments to the Veterans Charter (2017), and is published in the areas of military justice reform (2021), medical assistance in dying (2018) and is mentioned in the Oxford Handbook of the Canadian Constitution (2015). She has deployed domestically three times; 2017 and 2019 on OP LENTUS and 2020 on OP LASER.  In 2019, she participated in her first amateur boxing match as part of Fight for the Cure, Ottawa’s only white-collar boxing event, where she raised over $10,000 for the Ottawa Regional Cancer Foundation. In 2023, only seven months after giving birth to her son, Afton participated in the “Clash of Cartier”, a charity boxing event involving her military unit, the Cameron Highlanders of Ottawa. Afton firmly believes she could not have done any of the things she has done in her life without the unwavering support of her family, and especially her husband, Brett. She currently resides in Renfrew, Ontario, with her husband and eight-month old son. ------------------- Merch: ⁠https://shoot-like-a-girl-podcast.square.site⁠ Instagram: ⁠@shootlikeagirlpodcast⁠ Contact: [email protected]