Sandra L. Smith
- First Secretary of the Central Committee -

Sandra L. Smith is First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist). The Central Committee is elected by the National Congress, the Party's highest decision-making body. It leads the work of the Party when the Congress is not in session according to the mandate given by the Congress. Sandra was unanimously re-elected First Secretary by the Central Committee elected at the Party's 8th Congress held in Ottawa from August 12-16, 2008.

Sandra joined The Internationalists, the precursor organization of CPC(M-L), in 1968. A founding member of the Party, she has played a leading role in all its main work throughout the years. She is particularly known nationally and internationally for her work on the modern definition of rights and their defence. She has put forward the thesis that people have inviolable rights by virtue of being human, that modern definitions of economic, political, social, cultural and collective rights stem from this reality, and that society must harmonize the rights of the individual with those of their collectives, and those of individuals and their collectives with the general interests of society. This thesis is central to the call for the working class to constitute itself the nation and vest sovereignty in the people. The aim is to open society's path to progress by recognizing the claims of all its members upon it. On the basis of this work, Sandra champions the recognition of the right of Quebec to self-determination, the hereditary rights of the First Nations, and the affirmation of the collective rights of women, youth and students, the working class, national minorities, the impoverished, the disabled, and all others.

Sandra is also President of the Marxist-Leninist Party of Canada, the name under which CPC(M-L) is registered for elections purposes. She is Director of the Party's institute of ideological studies and editor of its papers and theoretical journals.