The Honourable Ratna Omidvar, O.C., O.Ont.
Inquiry--Debate Continued
October 31, 2024
Rose pursuant to notice of Senator Clement on October 23, 2024:
That she will call the attention of the Senate to the career of the Honourable Ratna Omidvar.
She said: Honourable senators, this is a tribute to our departing colleague, Senator Ratna Omidvar.
My relationship with Senator Omidvar got off to a flying start. I remember a small, decisive, direct woman who told me what to do and what not to do with a lot of confidence. I wasn’t used to that. It made me a bit uneasy. But Ratna was also the senator who invited me to her condo for dinner during my very first week in the Senate when I was really feeling alone and lost.
I also remember during my first speech on my bill — Bill S-211 against forced labour in the supply chains of companies — I saw Ratna quickly walk around the Senate to whisper in my ear, “Julie, you have forgotten the most important thing. Forced labour is not only in an international scourge, but we have victims here and we need to talk about them.” Senator Omidvar was absolutely right. I had chosen to focus on the worst case of forced labour abroad, for example, children working in mines, but I should have had the flair to say that Canada also had its faults in this area, particularly among farm workers and other vulnerable foreign workers. A good lesson for me. Don’t lecture the rest of the world without first looking at your own country with a critical eye.
Senator Omidvar and I grew closer progressively. One event was important. A few English-speaking senators from outside Quebec — Muslims and Sikhs, including Senator Omidvar — asked me to give them some context about Bill 21, the Quebec act banning visible religious symbols for some professionals, the hijab in particular. Senator Omidvar was curious, eager to understand and was grateful to hear a Québécois colleague give a historical perspective on this controversial law, which was popular in many circles in Quebec but denounced in the rest of Canada.
What really made us accomplices was our shared interest in women in Afghanistan and Iran, in particular the women’s movement, Women, Life, Freedom. Ratna had lived in Iran for five years I think before seeking refuge in Canada, so she knows the Iranian culture and the tensions between refugee groups. For my part, I was close to the women of the Iranian diaspora in Montreal. We collaborated with our teams to write opinion pieces in English and French and supporting motions asking the Canadian government to act. We were on the same wavelength. As a bonus for me, Ratna Omidvar had real gravitas. Her words carried weight, and it was a privilege for me to raise issues and fight battles at her side.
I am losing not only just a colleague, a partner, but also a friend and sometimes a mentor. Dear Ratna, I know you will continue to make your voice heard loud and clear. Thank you.
Honourable senators, I rise today on the lands of the Anishinaabe Algonquin Nation in this august chamber of sober second thought to speak to Inquiry No. 31 to celebrate the retirement of our esteemed colleague, Senator Ratna Omidvar, to sing her praises for her enduring contributions to Canada and the world and to wish her well as she embarks with her legendary dynamism on her next exciting chapter of life and service.
Senator Omidvar is well respected by every individual in this chamber. She is also held in great affection. Senator Omidvar brought to this chamber her own experiences of displacement and the real struggle of being a refugee with her family when she moved to Canada.
When we recently met in Antigonish with refugees and other displaced people from Haiti, Syria, Afghanistan, Congo and Ukraine, Ratna was able to listen with genuine empathy and share her own stories of hardship, hard work and of ultimate success.
She also brought to the Senate her professional background, first as an educator and her many years as the president of Toronto-based Maytree, leading innovative work in support of immigrants locally, nationally and internationally. She was laser focused on helping people to make a living, something which is fundamentally important for successful integration and inclusion in Canada. She continued her work on diversity, migration and inclusion at Ryerson, now Toronto Metropolitan University.
Senator Omidvar’s deep experience with Canada’s civil society sector, her work on immigration and refugee success and her keen attention to the matters of diversity and inclusion prepared her well for her role in this chamber.
In fact, her first statement in the Senate was on Canada’s apology for turning back the 376 Punjabi migrants who had sailed to Vancouver from Hong Kong in 1914 on the Komagata Maru looking for a safe and secure place to live. Canada had a White-only immigration policy at that time.
As in her previous life, Senator Omidvar has been incredibly productive during her time with us here in the Senate. Our job as senators is to represent, to investigate and most importantly to legislate.
Senator Omidvar has sponsored several critical bills: Bill C-20, which just passed and received Royal Assent, establishing the Public Complaints and Review Commission; Bill S-279 related to tax treatment for charities; and Bill S-278, An Act to amend the Special Economic Measures Act (disposal of foreign state assets).
As Chair of the Social Affairs Committee, she has shepherded countless other bills through that very busy committee: bills on disability supports, suicide prevention, early learning, intimate partner violence, sustainable jobs in a net-zero economy and pharmacare.
As for the responsibility to investigate, Ratna was Deputy Chair of the Special Senate Committee on the Charitable Sector and, as we are all aware, guided the Social Affairs Committee as its chair in its recently completed study on Canada’s Temporary Foreign Worker Program.
She has represented the people of Toronto and Ontario well in this chamber, and as a citizen of the world she has brought the plight of oppressed Iranian and Afghan women to our attention as well as the exploitation of international students in Canada, reminding us also of the important contributions that all of those people bring. She has represented temporary foreign workers and made sure the diverse voices of those not often heard are listened to here in this chamber.
Ratna is never reluctant to bring to our attention the many injustices experienced by people in Canada or internationally, but she never dwells there. Senator Omidvar is always clear on the contributions people make or could make if given fair opportunities. She sees people for their strengths; she sees them in all their dimensions.
It is for these many accomplishments that Ratna has earned our respect, yet it is for how she goes about her work and how she relates to others that she has earned our affection. Ratna Omidvar is a driven, serious and accomplished leader, but she is not a lone wolf. She is a collaborator. She is a team player. She is generous and kind, and she is a delight to work with. She is someone who reaches out to fellow senators across this chamber, to colleagues in the other place, to cabinet ministers and to Canadians and international colleagues.
When I first came to this chamber, just as we heard from Senator Miville-Dechêne, she was so generous and part of a group of women senators who took me and other new senators under her wing.
Throughout our time together here, we have worked on many common matters. In September, I hosted Senator Omidvar, her husband, Mehran, and her staff member Stephanie Saunders in Antigonish, Nova Scotia. The purpose of the visit was to investigate the situation of newcomers in that rural context and to look at how they were being supported in formal and informal ways.
We met, of course, with Antigonish’s most famous chocolate maker, former Syrian refugee Tareq Hadhad, the CEO of Peace by Chocolate. Not surprisingly, and coincidentally, our very first Senate event — collaboration — was focused on refugee issues. It was jointly sponsored with the Refugee Hub at the University of Ottawa and featured Peace by Chocolate CEO Tareq Hadhad, Peace by Chocolate’s corporate partner Sobeys and Minister Hussen, who at that time was the Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship.
A couple of weeks ago, we co-hosted, with several colleagues, a very enlightening event with international women civil society leaders.
Senator Omidvar is a member of Senators For Climate Solutions and made a very important contribution to my climate solutions inquiry by linking the issues of migration and climate change. We, of course, have in place our initial plan for working together in the future. She is not done. That future plan is focused on success in migration, an innovative win-win-win training and employment model which benefits people who are migrating, the countries that receive them as well as their countries of origin.
Ratna and I have a number of things in common, and one of those is the date of November 5. Ratna was celebrating her fifth birthday in Amritsar, India, the day I entered the world in Orillia, Ontario. And here we are, both about to celebrate milestone birthdays, and I know we both share the same wish for our birthdays next Tuesday, November 5: Our wish is — and her name is — Kamala.
Most honourable departing colleague, Ratna — my birthday sister — I want to wish you a very happy, healthy and fulfilling retirement with your wonderful and supportive husband, Mehran; your lovely and accomplished daughters, Ramona and Yasi; your sons-in-law, Vik and Dan; and those most precious grandchildren you love to dote on, Nylah, Elikah, Maisha, Zayan, Kiaan and Asher.
I want to thank you, Ratna, sincerely, for the gift of our friendship, and I ask our colleagues to join me in thanking you for the indelible mark you have made here in the Senate, in the lives of people in our country and in the world.
Go with our respect and affection, Ratnaben.
On Diwali, this day of light, we wish you well, our colleague and friend. Happy retirement, Ratna; happy birthday, Ratna; and happy Diwali!
