Yvonne Boyer

Yvonne Boyer, born on 25 October 1953, is a Canadian lawyer and senator. She was named to the Senate of Canada on 25 March 2018 as a senator for Ontario by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, on the recommendation of the Independent Advisory Board for Senate Appointments, and was the first Indigenous person appointed to the Senate from Ontario. A member of the Métis Nation with roots in Saskatchewan and Red River, Manitoba, she is a former nurse who spent two decades working in Alberta and Saskatchewan and has been outspoken about inequities in the health care available to Indigenous peoples. Before her appointment she was a law professor at the University of Ottawa and associate director of its Centre for Health Law, Policy and Ethics, and she has served on the Canadian Human Rights Commission. In the Senate she co-signed a 2022 report urging review of the convictions of twelve Indigenous women and introduced Bill S-250 to make forced sterilization a criminal offence.