Canada’s first female First Nations senator has officially retired.
Lillian Dyck has reached the age of 75 which is the mandatory age for retirement from the Canadian Senate.
Dyck, a member of the George Gordon First Nation, was first appointed to the Upper Chamber as a member for Saskatchewan in 2005.
She was also the country’s first Canadian-born Chinese senator.
During her 15 years in the Red Chamber, Dyck was a strong advocate for Indigenous rights and in particular an outspoken critic of police and government on the issue of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls.
She also successfully advocated for legislative changes that will require judges to consider harsher sentences for those convicted of violent crimes against Indigenous women.
Increased funding for on-reserve schools was another issue Dyck lobbied strongly for.
She served on a number of Senate committees including the Committee on Aboriginal Peoples which she was chair of from 2015 to 2019.
Prior to entering the Senate, Dyck was a professor of neuropsychiatry and associate dean of the College of Graduate Studies and Research at the University of Saskatchewan.
(PHOTO: Lillian Dyck. File photo.)