Justice Shirzad Ahmed was appointed to the Federal Court on Friday. In other appointments, Justice Ian Nordheimer was elevated to the Ontario Court of Appeal and Justice Barbara Fisher elevated to the BC Court of Appeal.

Justice Ahmed was appointed to replace Justice Mandamin who elected to become a supernumerary judge effective August 19, 2017. Justice Ahmed was a sole practitioner based in Calgary. From Justice Ahmed’s announcement:

Mr. Justice Shirzad S. Ahmed was born in Kirkuk, Southern Kurdistan. As a young Kurdish man, he fled Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, eventually arriving in Canada as a refugee. He was educated in the Middle East, Europe and Canada, receiving an undergraduate degree in political science from Simon Fraser University in 1996. He received his J.D. from the University of Calgary in 2000.