| Date of birth | 30 April 1975 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Place of birth | Hudson, Quebec | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| School | Hudson High John Abbott College | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| University | McGill University | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Occupation(s) | Technical writer | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Rugby union career | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Gillian Florence (born 30 April 1975) is a former Canadian rugby union player who has participated in five Rugby World Cups (1994, 1998, 2002, 2006, and 2010). Starting out as a prop on the national team, she became one of Canada's top flankers.
Florence first started playing rugby in high school (1987–1992) in Grade ten [1] and John Abbott College (1992–1994). [2] She made her international debut at the 1994 Women's Rugby World Cup in Scotland, at the age of 18, and retired in 2011. [3] She represented Quebec for eighteen years and played for Ste. Anne de Bellevue for twenty-two years.
Having played one season with McGill University in 1995–1996, her national schedule conflicted with the university team's schedule. [4]
She was a member of the World XV that played against the New Zealand Black Ferns in 2003. [3]
Florence became an assistant coach for the McGill Marlets in 2008, a decade after graduating. [2]
In 2011, Florence, along with Brooke Hilditch and Megan Gibbs protested Canada's "pay-to-play" system for women in non-World Cup years by refusing to pay the $2,900 to play in the 2011 Nations Cup. [5] After retiring, she coached her club, Ste Anne de Bellevue, in 2012 and 2013. [1] She is now on the Monty Heald Fund committee which aims to eliminate the "pay to play" experience. [6]
She returned to the rugby pitch in 2017 and suited up for the Nova Scotia Keltics. [7]
An annual Rugby Canada award is named in her honour and is given to a "player who best represents the qualities of Canadian rugby as voted by her teammates." [3] Recipients include Andrea Burk (2014), [11] Barbara Mervin (2015), [12] Julianne Zussman (2016), [13] Kelly Russell (2017), [14] Laura Russell (2018) [15] and Olivia DeMerchant (2019). [16]
In 1998, she graduated from McGill University with a bachelor's degree in Education. In Montreal she worked for Caterpillar, for Ultra Electronics in Nova Scotia, and now Kinduct in Halifax. [4] She moved to rural Nova Scotia when she was eight months pregnant. She lives with her partner, firefighter Aaron Graham, is mother of two children. [1]
