Ms. Wendy Grant-John is an inspired leader who has helped bring transformative change to indigenous communities across the country while simultaneously helping build stronger relationships between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people.

Ms. Grant-John has tirelessly contributed through cutting edge leadership, economic development, legal, social and cultural means for more than 30 years. When she served as chief of the Musqueam First Nation, she launched the first Aboriginal commercial fishery in Canada and helped the Musqueam achieve two landmark Supreme Court cases that solidified Aboriginal Rights in the Constitution.

She was the first woman elected regional chief of the Assembly of First Nations and served as commissioner of the Pacific Salmon Commission. She was a founding member and former director of the Aboriginal Healing Foundation.

Ms. Grant-John is a sitting member of the Chief and Council for the Musqueam Indian Band. She is chair of the Minister’s Advisory Council on Aboriginal Women which provides advice to the BC Government on improving the lives of Aboriginal women. She is working toward a coordinated, collaborative and culturally respectful approach to addressing the risks and vulnerabilities that contribute to making Aboriginal women and girls more exposed to and impacted by violence in their lives.

Ms. Grant-John’s many awards include the YMCA-YWCA Women of Distinction Award in 2001, an honorary Doctor of Laws from Royal Roads University in 2003, the Aboriginal Achievement Award in 2006, an honorary Doctor of Laws from Simon Fraser University in 2011, the Influential Women in Business Award in 2012, and the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal.