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LUNCHEON TALK
Examining the Progress of Ontario Fairness Commission:
Advances, Challenges and Outlook for the Future
Speaker:
Hon. Jean Augustine
Fairness Commissioner for Ontario
About the Speaker
Hon. Jean Augustine was appointed as the first Fairness Commissioner for Ontario in March 2007.
Ms. Augustine was born in Grenada and came to Canada in 1960. She attended the University of Toronto, where she earned bachelor of arts and master of education degrees. She became an elementary school principal with the Metropolitan Separate School Board in Toronto.
From 1988 until 1993, she was chair of the Metro Toronto Housing Authority.
Ms. Augustine was the first African-Canadian woman to be elected to the House of Commons. She was elected in the riding of Etobicoke-Lakeshore in 1993 and sat in Parliament until 2006. During this time, she served as parliamentary secretary to the prime minister, minister of state for multiculturalism and the status of women and was a deputy Speaker.
She has shared her expertise and enthusiasm with others as a member of several community boards, including those of York University, the Hospital for Sick Children, the Stephen Lewis Foundation and Harbourfront Corporation. She is a former national president of the Congress of Black Women of Canada.
Every year, she makes a better future for young women through the Jean Augustine Scholarship, a fund that helps single mothers attend George Brown College and Centennial College in Toronto.
Dr. Augustine donated her archival and parliamentary materials to York University’s Faculty of Education, thus creating the opportunity to establish an innovative academic position, the Jean Augustine Chair in Education in the New Urban Environment.
She has been honoured by many organizations for her leadership and community involvement. In 2009 the Women’s Executive Network named her as one of Canada’s Most Powerful Women: Top 100 Awards winners. The Girls’ Leadership Academy of the Toronto District School Board bears her name.
She was awarded the Luminary Award by the University of the West Indies in 2006, and has received honorary doctor of laws degrees from the Universities of Toronto, Guelph, McGill and York.
In December 2009 she was appointed as a Member of the Order of Canada and in 2012 received the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal.
