Honourable senators, it is a privilege to stand and introduce myself today. I’m humbled by the responsibility of being a member of this chamber, and I am looking forward to working with all of you to help create the conditions in which “. . . all Canadians . . . have a real and fair chance to succeed.”

This vision, which I share, can be found in the Speech from the Throne that opened the Forty-second Parliament. To me, this means working together to ensure that all Canadians have equal opportunity to create better lives for themselves and their families. Over time, we have seen many positive improvements in quality of life for most, but not for all, Canadians.

However, in recent years, we have witnessed a heightened fragmentation that has resulted in a retreat from civil discourse and a tendency to see other people who do not reflect ourselves as unequal, as the other. This fragmentation has increased existing barriers to opportunity and equality. It has also hidden from us the reality that equality of opportunity is not a given for many Canadians.

We know that Canada scores high on the Human Development Index, but the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development ranked Canada twentieth among its member countries for income inequality.

Across our nation, more than 1 million children are living in poverty, 4 million people experience food insecurity and 3 million people are precariously housed. Many Canadians do not have access to clean water or good health care. Doing well in Canada is not a given.

Too often, success is based on where you live, who you are and where you and your family are from. These and other factors that create inequality of opportunity must be changed.

We live in a bountiful country, but the opportunity to share in that bounty is not equally available. We need to recognize that better outcomes for all cannot occur without equality of opportunity for all.

I have come to realize that in this place we have the chance and the responsibility to address this compelling issue through legislation, study and advocacy, to help create an environment in which all Canadians can expect and receive an equal chance, an environment that removes the barriers to prosperity.

In my opinion, two important areas that we can address to move in this direction are fostering research and innovation, and furthering best evidence-based decision making to improve health outcomes for individuals, families and communities. I realize that these are not the only areas that we need to address, but these are two that, together with others in this chamber, I would hope to give consideration to.

Honourable senators, in order for me to give context to these directions, I would like to share with you a bit about my own story and that of my family, in particular the challenges we have faced and the opportunities we have had in Canada.

Through my experiences as a child of refugees and an individual who has succeeded in my field while managing a learning disability, I, as many of you, have encountered my fair share of the vicissitudes of life. Woven together, these experiences make up my personal tapestry, one that is part of a larger piece that ties me to all Canadians.

Respectively, my parents both found their way to Canada as refugees from Ukraine at the end of World War II. At 16, my father moved away from his family to study medicine. The day he left was the last time he would see any of them. Of those who survived the war, many died in the Holodomor, a famine that was orchestrated by Stalin. The survivors had their land confiscated, and since they were kulaks, they were sent to Siberia and branded “enemies of the people.” Making his way through warring armies, he survived the bombing of Dresden and somehow made it to Canada.

At the end of the Second World War, over 32,000 Ukrainians found refuge in Canada. Upon arrival, many of these migrants, like my father, had to learn a new language and find a new job while facing many of the barriers common to refugees. He had aspirations to continue medical school. However, he was not accepted; foreigners were not allowed in. Instead, he became a Presbyterian clergyman and along the way met and married my mother.

My mother came to Canada with her parents and brother as refugees sponsored by a church group. They arrived at Pier 21 in Halifax, an ocean liner terminal and immigration shed that was active from 1928 to 1971 and which received over 1 million immigrants over that time.

Decades later, I would come back to where my mother first landed, making Halifax my home.

In Ukraine, my grandfather was a tailor. Conscripted into the Polish army when the war broke out, he survived the annihilation of his unit and made his way back to his family. Soon thereafter, they were shipped by cattle car to the Reich. They managed to avoid being chosen for death, survived cholera, somehow stayed together and finally made their way to Canada.

My grandparents settled in Toronto and worked in the schmata factories. By saving every penny, they bought a house and turned it into a dwelling to house other refugees. When they died, they left highly educated grandchildren and a number of properties. However, neither had ever learned to read or write English.

Being a preacher’s kid, I lived in many parts of the country. We lived in rural and urban areas of Alberta, Manitoba and Ontario. However, no matter where we settled, my family was always the “other”. We were the kids who spoke the funny language at home. My father found his vocation with home missions, working with immigrants and refugees in the inner city. What I learned from him was to never give up. His favourite saying was: “Success is 10 per cent inspiration and 90 per cent perspiration.”

To my family, Canada was a place of welcome and opportunity. It was a place that would give them the chance that they needed to build a new and successful life, and they did. This is why Canada’s support for refugees is so vital now. We must continue to be a nation known for its welcome and its opportunities.

Coincidentally, my amazing wife Jan has spent the bulk of her professional life helping to create an equal and level playing field for immigrants and refugees here in Canada. I know this work would have helped my parents and other migrants like them when they arrived here.

As a student, I struggled through school, courtesy of ADHD and dyslexia. At the time, neither were widely known nor understood by educators or peers. My parents, however, understood the value of education and saw it as the pathway to success. It was their expectations and considerable poking and prodding that helped me take advantage of the opportunity that schooling offered.

This is the technique we have successfully used with our three children, Daniel, Matthew and Leah. I hope they will now do the same with our now seven grandchildren.

My academic life was not without its challenges. You may not know, but I’m a university dropout from a Ph.D. in history. I decided to go to McMaster medical school, graduated, completed my residency in Toronto and post-residency training in brain metabolism research in Edinburgh. Upon returning, I established the first comprehensive adolescent mental health clinical research program in Canada. As an advocate in my field, I went on to assist with the development of innovative directions in clinical and population mental health research.

Throughout my career, I have witnessed the importance of fostering creativity through supporting research and innovation. Top of mind for me has been STEM: Science, technology, engineering and medicine. But I have seen that the opportunities in these fields do not come with a level playing field. There are too many groups that have for too long been bypassed. They have for too long not enjoyed equal opportunity for access or advancement. This cannot continue.

I have also had the good fortune to have served as the Associate Dean of International Health and as director of the World Health Organization Collaborating Centre at Dalhousie. My job took me to over 20 different countries, many of them in development, where I worked in numerous health-related areas, from adolescent mental health to helping establish new medical schools and research capacity building.

More recently, I worked to develop effective mental health interventions in schools across Canada and abroad. I noticed in this work that, more often than not, there were significant and substantial gaps in scientific and health literacy, not only in the general population but among educators, professionals and policy-makers. This was the case in developing countries as well as developed settings such as Canada.

As a result, many people were not empowered with the knowledge and skill sets that they needed to help themselves and their families live better lives. This led to inequalities in health outcomes at both the individual and population levels. I realized that by enhancing scientific and health literacy, people could make better-informed decisions that could improve their lives.

This is not a new idea. This is part of what Canada championed over 30 years ago in the Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion. However, this need is probably more pressing now than it was then. We are living in an age where pseudoscience and wellness trends made popular by celebrities have become a major source of information used by Canadians to inform and direct their health and mental health decisions. As a result, we have seen the return of preventable diseases and the purchasing of products and programs that have no proven scientific value.

We can change this trend by enhancing the strength of our regulatory system, by vigorously disseminating scientifically valid information and by creating opportunities for all Canadians to enhance their scientific and health literacy. The challenges that I have experienced and the lack of equal opportunities that I have seen have led me to rethink the value of viewing Canada through the metaphor of a mosaic.

From afar, a mosaic looks whole, but when examined closely the pieces are noticeably unequal in size and are isolated from each other. These separations can and do become barriers. They keep us from knowing each other and they can perpetuate the inequalities that exist. We do not want barriers in Canada.

Instead, I see our country through the metaphor of a tapestry. Each unique thread is woven together with many other unique threads. Each thread strengthens others and, in turn, is strengthened by other threads. These threads hold us together instead of pulling us apart. These are the ties that bind us together.

Colleagues, Canada is a nation that was and will continue to be built by many different hands. Canadians will tell our stories through many different voices. Some of us have been here for a very long time. Others have arrived more recently. Woven together, our stories make up the tapestry of our country. What Canada is and what Canada could be is dependent on us to provide, “all Canadians with a real and fair chance to succeed.” How do we do that? By ensuring equality of opportunity for all.

Honourable senators, I look forward to working with all of you together to do what we can to further develop our country into a nation that treats all its citizens equally. Thank you.