The Ombudsman and Team

Barbara Finlay, Acting Ombudsman

Ms. Finlay (she/her) is a bilingual lawyer with more than 25 years of exemplary leadership in the Ombudsman field.  For the past 20 years, she has served as Deputy Ombudsman of Ontario, responsible for the operational leadership of one of the largest oversight offices in Canada. She held the position of Acting Ombudsman from September 2015 to April 2016, leading the Office through the first months of the historic expansion of its jurisdiction to municipalities, universities and school boards.

Born and raised in Welland, Ontario, Ms. Finlay has dedicated the majority of her career to fostering trust in public bodies, strengthening public services, and promoting fairness, accountability and respect for rights in the delivery of those services.

In 2019, she played a lead role in the development of Ombudsman Ontario’s French Language Services Unit, as the Office assumed the duties of the former office of the French Language Services Commissioner.

As Deputy Ombudsman, she works closely with French Language Services Commissioner Carl Bouchard to support the work of the French Language Services Unit, and has attended multiple stakeholder meetings and outreach events in the Francophone community. She has championed a bilingual work environment at Ombudsman Ontario and is committed to ensuring that Ontarians can access equivalent services from the Office in English and in French.

Ms. Finlay was also instrumental in the creation of Ombudsman Ontario’s Children and Youth Unit in 2019, when it assumed the duties of the former office of the Child Advocate. She works closely and collaboratively with both the Children and Youth Director and the Commissioner to leverage the proven and trusted methodology of the Ombudsman’s Office to provide credible and effective oversight of child protection services and French language services in Ontario.

Working alongside former Ombudsman Paul Dubé, Ms. Finlay participated in numerous engagements with Indigenous leaders, organizations and individuals in efforts to co-develop an Indigenous Services Plan to optimize the Office’s services to Indigenous peoples and communities in a manner that contributes to reconciliation. She is dedicated to supporting and implementing the core commitments of the plan (released in March 2026) in the Office’s day-to-day work.

A member of the Executive Committee of the Forum of Canadian Ombudsman, Ms. Finlay provides professional support to parliamentary, legislative and organizational Ombudsman offices and is regularly consulted by colleagues in the Ombudsman community for her expertise and experience.

For many years, she has provided training on systemic investigations, complaint analysis, report writing and administrative law and procedural fairness to Ombudsman colleagues from around the world (in English and French), including as part of the Ontario Ombudsman’s renowned Sharpening Your Teeth training course for administrative investigators. Since 2013, she has also been a faculty member at the Osgoode Professional Development and Forum of Canadian Ombudsman’s Ombuds Essential Course.

At Ombudsman Ontario, Ms. Finlay has overseen more than 50 complex systemic investigations, which resulted in recommendations that have had a lasting impact on the lives of millions of Ontarians by prompting widespread improvements to public services across all levels of government and the broader public sector.

Prior to joining Ombudsman Ontario, she served as Director General of Operations for the National Defence and Canadian Forces Ombudsman and played a pivotal role in the creation of that Office. Earlier in her career, she was an Assistant Crown Attorney in Ottawa and part-time instructor in criminal and civil law at Algonquin College. She holds a law degree from the University of Ottawa, as well as an undergraduate degree in Social Sciences and Criminology.