Sen. Gwen Boniface

Senator Gwen Boniface was appointed to the Senate of Canada in 2016 and is a member of the Independent Senators Group. Her work in the Senate includes past membership on the Senate Standing Committees on Indigenous Peoples, Legal and Constitutional Affairs, and current membership on the Foreign Affairs and International Trade, and the Special Joint Committee on the Declaration of Emergency (co-Chair). She served as chair of National Security and Defence Committee from 2017-2021.

In 2019, Senator Boniface initiated a Truth and Reconciliation project in her home community of Orillia, Ontario with Indigenous and non-Indigenous members. The initiative has grown and continues to evolve through regular meetings and initiatives with local Elders, community leaders and other allies. She has dedicated her efforts in the Senate to address Human Trafficking, Domestic Violence, and the Opioid Crisis. In 2021, she introduced a Senate public bill entitled Bill S-232: An Act respecting the development of a national strategy for the decriminalization of illegal substances, to amend the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act and to make consequential amendments to other Acts.

Prior to Senator Boniface’s appointment to the Senate, she served internationally for 10 years, including as Deputy Chief Inspector of Ireland’s Garda Síochána Inspectorate tasked with reforming Ireland’s national police service; as a Transnational Organized Crime Expert with the United Nations Police Division and as Deputy Executive Director of the International Association of Chiefs of Police. Senator Boniface was the first female Commissioner of the Ontario Provincial Police and is a past President of the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police. Ms. Boniface served as a Commissioner with Law Commission of Canada for 5 years.