Yvonne Boyer

Yvonne Boyer (born October 25, 1953) is a Canadian lawyer who was named to the Senate of Canada on March 25, 2018, as a Senator for Ontario by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. A Métis, Boyer is the first Indigenous person appointed to the Senate from Ontario.[1] She lives in Merrickville, Ontario, near Ottawa.[2]

As a lawyer, Boyer has been outspoken in her criticisms of inequities in Canada's health care in its treatment of and availability to Indigenous peoples.[1]

Boyer is a member of the Métis Nation of Ontario and has ancestral roots in the Métis Nation of Saskatchewan and Red River, Manitoba.[2] As well as being a lawyer, at the time of her appointment to the Upper House she was a professor in the law faculty at the University of Ottawa and associate director at the school's Centre for Health Law, Policy and Ethics.[1] She is also a former member of the Canadian Human Rights Commission and has also served as in-house counsel for the Native Women's Association of Canada, and as a senior policy analyst and legal adviser at the National Aboriginal Health Organization.[2]

Boyer's appointment to the Senate was recommended by the Independent Advisory Board for Senate Appointments.[2]