In Toronto speech, Amal Clooney identifies as refugee

“I am a refugee,” Amal Clooney said to a pin-drop quiet Roy Thomson Hall. “If I had not had a hand extended to me by the U.K. government when my family was escaping the war in Lebanon, I wouldn’t have been able to grow up in a safe environment, get the education I have, or do any of the things that I have done.”

And then, to loud applause from the sold-out crowd: “I am so grateful to have been able to enter a country that showed compassion to me. I wish that were happening in more places around the world.”

Friday night marked the international human rights lawyer’s first appearance in (and first visit to) Toronto.

She was here as part of Luminato, the city’s international arts festival, in an event in partnership with the Economic Club of Canada. Sophie Gregoire Trudeau opened the evening.

Speaking “in conversation with” her father-in-law, veteran broadcaster Nick Clooney, Amal Clooney touched on a highlight reel of some of the world issues she has championed, including the refugee crisis, the March For Our Lives movement, fighting sexual violence against women and the freedom of the press. She also weighed in on the U.S. separation of immigrant chil- dren from their families.

“It’s shameful. It’s not just illegal, it’s immoral,” said Lebanese-British Clooney, before attacking the recent executive order signed by U.S. President Donald Trump for “not solving the problem” and continuing the “zero tolerance” policy, which she said is “really zero humanity.”

Last week, the Clooney Foundation for Justice, founded by Clooney and her husband, George Clooney, made a $100,000 (U.S.) donation to the Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights, a front-line organization that works to represent unaccompanied and separated children in court.