“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 ever 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 children 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.”

Earlier this week, the Clooney Foundation for Justice, founded by Clooney and her husband, George Clooney, made a $100,000 (USD) donation to the Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights, a frontline organization that works to represent unaccompanied and separated children in court.

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One bright spot, for Clooney, is the “bits of good news” in the advancement of women’s equality around the world.

“Feminism to me is women having choices,” she says, adding that the challenges women face will depend on where they are born. “In some parts of Africa, you’re fighting not to be genitally mutilated. In some parts of Asia, you’re fighting to choose who you marry. In the West, you’re still fighting for equal pay for equal work.” She went on to call the #MeToo movement “a powerful force for change.”

There were also moments of levity in the evening. Clooney recounted the incongruity of staying at a hotel full of “honeymooners” while in the Maldives working to free political prisoner Mohamed Nasheed.

“It was depressing,” she laughed. “They were all there with umbrellas in their drinks and I was on my way to court and to prison. I think I’m the only person to visit the Maldives who didn’t dip a toe in the sea.”

Nick Clooney also brought up his daughter-in-law’s “celebrity.” She cringed at the word before acknowledging that her marriage to an A-lister changed things “dramatically.”

Speaking about the early days of her courtship to George Clooney, she remembers him calling her flat in Notting Hill a “disaster” because it opened right onto the street … and the waiting paparazzi.

“I was like, ‘Well, I selected this apartment because it’s next to my favourite Italian (restaurant), near Portobello Market.’ I wasn’t thinking of the pap exposure issue!” she said with mock-outrage.

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When pressed for a positive about her new status, she said: “You can turn a spotlight and put it on something important, and you can help people by raising awareness. The worst things happen in darkness, and as a famous U.S. jurist said, ‘Sunlight is the best disinfectant.’ ”

And then Clooney was off, headed straight to the airport. “I have some twins to attend to,” she said, referring to her year old son and daughter, Alexander and Ella. “This is my longest absence from them, which is two nights. But it was worth it to come to Toronto.”

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