Nominated by Justin Trudeau | Appointed by David Johnston | |
Born November 5, 1949 (age 67)
Punjab, India ( 1949-11-05 ) Political party Independent Senators Group Occupation Executive director, professor Party Independent Senators Group Books Five Good Ideas: Practical Strategies for Non-profit Success People also search for Linda Frum, Alan Broadbent, Ted Richmond Profiles | ||
Philippe legrain in conversation with sen ratna omidvar
Ratna Omidvar CM OOnt, (born November 5, 1949) is a Canadian politician and academic, who was named to the Senate of Canada to represent Ontario on March 18, 2016.
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Originally from Amritsar, India, she was educated at the University of Delhi. Later moving to Canada, she became executive director of the Maytree Foundation, a charitable organization to combat poverty in Canada, before departing in 2014 to found the Global Diversity Exchange at the Ted Rogers School of Management, Ryerson University where she is currently a distinguished visiting professor.
Omidvar is the current co-chair of the Global Future Council on Migration hosted by the World Economic Forum. She is also a director at the Environics Institute, and Samara Canada. She is the Toronto Region Immigrant Employment Council’s chair emerita and was formerly the chair of Lifeline Syria.
Omidvar is co-author of Flight and Freedom: Stories of Escape to Canada (2015), an Open Book Toronto best book of 2015 and one of the Toronto Star's top five good reads from Word on the Street. She is also a contributor to The Harper Factor (2016) and co-editor of Five Good Ideas: Practical Strategies for Non-Profit Success (2011).
Omidvar was appointed to the Order of Ontario in 2005 and became a Member of the Order of Canada in 2011, with both honours recognizing her advocacy work on behalf of immigrants and devotion to reducing inequality in Canada. She also received an honorary doctorate in laws York University in 2012. In 2014, Omidvar received the Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany in recognition of her contribution to the advancement of German-Canadian relations.
Omidvar has also been recognized by Canada's national newspaper, The Globe and Mail, by being named as its Nation Builder of the Decade for Citizenship in 2010. In 2016, CivicAction awarded her with their Lifetime Achievement Award for Civic Leadership in the Greater Toronto Area.