Justin Jalea is a Canadian lawyer, human rights advocate, conductor, and JUNO-nominated tenor whose career bridges the arts, law, and social change. He is internationally recognized for his ability to help cultural organizations build equitable, community-centred practices, and for his commitment to advancing human rights through music and education.
As an advisor and consultant, Justin has partnered with organizations across North America and abroad— including Americans for the Arts, the National Guild for Community Arts Education, Musicians for Human Rights, the Young People’s Chorus of New York City, and the United Nations—guiding projects that explore the transformative power of music and creative expression. His work includes strategic planning, governance renewal, anti-discrimination policy design, and organizational culture change.
Justin is an accomplished choral artist who has performed with many leading North American professional ensembles, including the Canadian Chamber Choir, Pro Coro Canada, Luminous Voices, the Studio de musique ancienne de Montréal, the Choir of Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church in New York, and the professional choirs of the Orchestre Métropolitain and Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal.
As a conductor, Justin has been twice awarded the Ellen Battell Stoeckel Scholarship from the Yale School of Music and received the CIBC Emerging Artist Scholarship in choral arts. He has studied with renowned pedagogues including Simon Carrington, Jeffrey Douma, Lone Larsen, and Jean-Sébastien Vallée. Justin has founded numerous vocal ensembles that foster compassion and inspire action for diverse social causes, including the New York City-based ensemble Inspire: A Choir for Unity whose community-building work is featured in his recently published chapter on choral music and human rights in the Routledge Companion to Music and Human Rights.
Justin is a passionate and experienced educator, having taught courses on human rights, music and social movements, and freedom of religious expression in the School of Interdisciplinary Studies at Durham College and the Department of General Education at Mount Royal University. Justin routinely leads workshops on human rights and social justice for young artists, including recent engagements with the Senior Treble Choir and the Young Artist Festivals in Toronto.
Justin holds dual JD/BCL degrees from McGill University’s Faculty of Law, an MA from Columbia University’s Institute for the Study of Human Rights, as well as an MA and BA (Hons.) in philosophy from the Universities of Alberta and Toronto, respectively.
Currently, Justin practices employment, labour, and human rights law in Ottawa.