Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has announced the appointment of three new independent senators to fill some of the Senate’s few remaining vacancies.
The Prime Minister’s Office says in a news release that the Governor General has appointed Baltej Dhillon for British Columbia, Martine Hébert for Quebec and Todd Lewis for Saskatchewan.
Dhillon has worked with British Columbia’s anti-gang agency since 2019 and, in 1991, became the first Royal Canadian Mounted Police officer to wear a turban.
Hébert is an economist and former Quebec diplomat, and Lewis is a fourth-generation farmer and the vice-president of the Canadian Federation of Agriculture.
There were 22 vacancies in the Senate when Trudeau became prime minister in 2015, with his government establishing a “new, non-partisan, merit-based process” to advise on appointments.
The news release says there have been 93 independent appointments to the Senate made on the advice of Trudeau.
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The Senate of Canada website indicates that seven vacancies remain, following the appointment of the three new senators. A dozen Senate appointments were made in 2024.
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