Hon. Michael Kirby

In March 2007, Michael Kirby was appointed chair of the Mental Health Commission of Canada. In December 2008, the Governor General of Canada announced that Michael Kirby was being appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada in recognition of his lifetime of outstanding achievement on major public policy issues and his current commitment to confronting the challenges related to mental illness.

From 1994 to 1999, Senator Kirby was the Chairman of the Standing Senate Committee on Banking, Trade, and Commerce. From 1999 to 2006 he was the Chairman of the Standing Senate Committee on Social Affairs, Science and Technology. During his term as chair of the Senate Social Affairs Committee, Canada’s health care system was the major focus of the Committee’s work. It’s two year study of the hospital and doctor system culminated in an October 2002 report, Recommendations for Reform. Many of these recommendations are currently being enacted by governments. In May 2006, under Senator Kirby’s chairmanship, the Committee completed a study of Mental Health Mental Illness and Addiction. The first three reports were released in November of 2004, the final report, Out of the Shadows at Last was released on May 9, 2006. He retired from the Senate, on October 31, 2006 after nearly 23 years.

Prior to first entering government in 1970, Michael Kirby was a professor in the Schools of Business Administration and Public Administration at Dalhousie University. He was also a faculty member at the Business Schools of the University of Chicago and the University of Kent, in England. Michael Kirby was Principal Assistant to the Premier of Nova Scotia from 1970 to 1973 and served as Assistant Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister from 1974 to 1976. He was President of the Institute for Research on Public Policy from 1977 to 1980. He has a B.Sc. and an M.A. in Mathematics from Dalhousie University. In 1965, he received a Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics from Northwestern University. He has been awarded an honorary degree of Doctor of Laws from Dalhousie, Simon Fraser, York and Carleton Universities.