Appointments to the Senate

The appointments of Miss Fraser and Ms. Poy bring to 20 the number of women that the Prime Minister has named to the Senate since 1993 - the most to be appointed by any Prime Minister in Canadian history. The number of women in the Senate has risen from 16 at the time the government took office to 32 as of these appointments - the most to be seated at any one time in Canadian history.

Mr. Roche will sit as an Independent Senator.

The appointments are effective immediately.

Biographies are attached.

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Joan Fraser is well-known to Canadians as one of our most able journalists and commentators.

She earned a Bachelor of Arts in Modern Languages from McGill University in 1965.

Miss Fraser began her distinguished career in 1965 when she joined the Montreal newspaper The Gazette as a cub reporter. In 1967, she joined the Financial Times of Canada, where over the following eleven years she served as news editor, editorial page editor and Montreal bureau chief. In 1978, she returned to The Gazette as editorial page editor. In 1993, she was appointed Editor-in-Chief, a post she held until 1996. In 1997, she took up her current duties as Director-General of the Centre for Research and Information on Canada - a division of the Council for Canadian Unity.

Miss Fraser also has extensive broadcast experience in English and French, on radio and television.

She has won two National Newspaper Awards for editorial writing (1982 and 1991) and four National Newspaper Award Citations of Merit for editorial writing (1986, 1987, 1990, 1994). She has also won other awards for journalism, communications and her work on women's issues.

Miss Fraser is Chair of the Advisory Committee to McGill News; a Member of the Board of the McGill Alumni Association, and a Member of the Board of The Study, a private girls school in Montreal.

She is married to Michel Faure and has two children. She is fifty-three years of age.

A well-known Aboriginal businessman, Aurélien Gill is a tireless community advocate and an ardent defender of the interests of Canada's Aboriginal peoples.

A native of Mashteuiatsh (Pointe-Bleue), Quebec, Mr.Gill holds a bachelor's degree in pedagogy from Université Laval. After a career in teaching, he won distinction in government administration, holding such positions as Quebec Director General of the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs.

He was founding President of the Conseil Attikamek-Montagnais and chief of the Mashteuiatsh Montagnais community from 1975 to 1982 and from 1987 to 1989. Throughout his working life, he has played a key role in various Aboriginal associations. He participated in the establishment of the Montagnais Cultural Educational Institute, the Amerindian Police Council, the Confederation of Indians of Quebec, the National Indian Brotherhood (now the Assembly of First Nations) and the Provincial and National Aboriginal Advisory Council.

More recently, he has concentrated more on small business, and is co-founder and president of Les Gestions Gamac P.N., a holding company that owns Air Roberval, Aviation Québec-Labrador and Air BGM.

Aurélien Gill was awarded the Ordre national du Québec in 1991. He is 65 years old and married to Aline Castonguay. They have three daughters.

A fashion designer, entrepreneur and author, Vivienne Poy is the first Canadian of Chinese descent to be appointed to the Senate of Canada.

Ms. Poy has been educated in her native Hong Kong, England and Canada. She has earned an Honours B.A. from McGill University, a Diploma in Fashion Arts from Seneca College and an M.A. in History from the University of Toronto, where she is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in History.

She founded Vivienne Poy Mode in 1981 and over the following fourteen years enjoyed great success in fashion design, manufacturing and retail. She is currently President of Vivienne Poy Enterprises, President of Calyan Publishing and Chairman of Lee Tak Wai Holdings Ltd..

Ms. Poy has also authored two books: A River Named Lee and Building Bridges: The Life and Times of Richard Charles Lee, Hong Kong, 1905- 1983.

Among her extensive community endeavours, she is currently a Trustee of the National Gallery of Canada; Governor of McGill University; Honourary Patron of the Chinese Cultural Centre of Greater Toronto; and, Member of the Women Entrepreneurs of Canada.

Ms. Poy has received an International Women's Day Award (1996) and the Arbor Award, for Outstanding Volunteer Service to the University of Toronto (1997).

Ms. Poy is married to Dr. Neville Poy and has three sons: Ashley, Justin and Carter. She is fifty-seven years of age.

A distinguished author, parliamentarian and diplomat, Douglas Roche is an internationally recognized expert on arms control issues.

Mr. Roche was elected to the House of Commons as the Progressive Conservative Member of Parliament for Edmonton-Strathcona four times from 1972 to 1984, where he gained national and international attention for his work in the areas of development and disarmament. After retiring from Parliament, he served for five years (1984-89) as Canada's Ambassador for Disarmament. During his tenure he was elected Chairman of the United Nations Disarmament Committee.

In 1989, he was appointed Visiting Professor at the University of Alberta, where he teaches "War or Peace in the 21st Century?" He was named Chairman of the Canadian Committee for the Fiftieth Anniversary of the United Nations in 1995. In addition to lecturing, he is also President of Global Security Consultants, which specializes in monitoring global security trends, Chairman of Canadian Pugwash; and, Special Advisor to the Holy See's delegation to the U.N. General Assembly.

Mr. Roche has authored fifteen books and has contributed chapters to eight more. His latest is The Ultimate Evil: the Moral Case Against Nuclear Weapons (1997).

He has received four honourary doctorates. In 1985, he became the first Canadian to be elected Honourary President of the World Federation of United Nations Associations. In 1992, he was given the Thakore Foundation Award in recognition of his disarmament work. That same year he was named an Officer of the Order of Canada. And in 1995, His Holiness, Pope John Paul II named him a Knight Commander of the Order of St. Gregory the Great.

Mr. Roche will sit as an Independent Senator. He is sixty-nine years of age.