Dr. L. Dyck MSc, PhD, BA

Member of the Gordon First Nation in Saskatchewan, and a first generation Chinese Canadian, The Honourable Dr. Lillian Eva Quan Dyck is well-known for advocating for equity in the education and employment of women, Chinese Canadians and Aboriginals. She is the first female First Nations senator and first Canadian born Chinese senator.

She earned her Bachelor of Arts (Honours), Master of Science Degrees in Biochemistry in 1968 and 1970, respectively and obtained a Ph.D. in Biological Psychiatry in 1981, all from the University of Saskatchewan. She was conferred a Doctor of Letters, Honoris Causa by Cape Breton University in 2007.

She has been recognized in a number of ways, such as: a National Aboriginal Achievement Award for Science & Technology in 1999; a YWCA Woman of Distinction Lifetime Achievement Award in 2019; and three eagle feathers.

Senator Dyck was a Full Professor in the Neuropsychiatry Research Unit, Department of Psychiatry and Associate Dean, College of Graduate Studies & Research at the University of Saskatchewan.

In 2005, she was summoned to the senate by the Rt. Hon. Paul Martin. Senator Dyck has served as Deputy Chair and Chair of the Standing Senate Committee on Aboriginal Peoples. Most of her senate work has been on the tragedy of Missing and Murdered Indigenous women and girls. She is a member of the Progressive Senate Group.