In 1957, when she was 13 years old, her family immigrated to Canada, where she studied at Thomas D'Arcy McGee High School in Montreal.
In 1974, Cools moved to Toronto where she founded and served as the executive director for Women in Transition Inc., one of the first shelters for domestic violence victims in Canada.
[3][4] Cools has presented evidence that men and women are equally capable of domestic violence and aggression, which is not a gendered characteristic, but a human pathology of intimacy.
In January 2016, in a Canadaland audio podcast interview with Desmond Cole, Cools supported and cited the work of the English domestic violence pioneer and expert Erin Pizzey, when she claimed that women are equally violent as men in domestic violence conflicts.
In the 1990s, Cools was instrumental in the creation of and served on the Senate/House Special Joint Committee on Child Custody and Access, which in December 1998 issued its report, For the Sake of the Children.
[3][4][6][7] She was candid in her criticism of the Liberal government of Prime Minister Jean Chrétien when proposed legislation to be introduced in the House of Commons was shelved after intense lobbying by women's groups.
[8] While a strong advocate for women and domestic violence victims, she has also criticized certain aspects of the feminist movement, e.g. stating that "this feminism that has grown up suddenly in the last few years, where all virtue and goodness are stacked up on the side of women, and all evil and violence is stacked up on the side of men—well, human nature doesn't work that way.
She also served on the board of Black Theatre Canada, the Pauline McGibbon Cultural Centre, and the Social Planning Council of Metropolitan Toronto.
[4] Cools became increasingly critical of the Liberal governments of Jean Chrétien and Paul Martin, and of same-sex marriage.
[6] In the fall of 2006, Cools was barred from her committee duties for the Conservative Party, after questioning a new government accountability bill.