Asian Heritage Month Education Roundtable 2026
“Sharing Stories of Challenges and Successes: Asian Canadian Resilience in Motion”
Presided over by The Honourable Dr. Vivienne Poy, Senator who tabled the Asian Heritage Month Motion to the Senate of Canada, and Chancellor Emerita of University of Toronto
Date: Friday May 8, 2026. 10am – 1:15pm
Venue: University of Toronto
Admission is free but please note that this event is open to schools only.
Keynote Speech by The Honourable Dr. Vivienne Poy, Senator who tabled the Asian Heritage Month Motion to the Senate of Canada
Former Senator Vivienne Poy is Chancellor Emerita of the University of Toronto. A historian, an author, a public speaker, a fashion designer, an entrepreneur and a community activist.
In 1998, she was the first Canadian of Asian heritage to be appointed to the Senate of Canada where she focused on gender issues, multiculturalism, immigration and human rights. She started the process in 2000 to amend our National Anthem to make it inclusive of all Canadians, with the words “in all of us command” by tabling 2 successive Bills in the Senate. In 2001, Vivienne’s Senate Motion was adopted, declaring May as Asian Heritage Month across Canada by the Federal Government.
After her retirement from the Senate of Canada in September 2012, she continues to speak and write and remains actively involved with communities and NGOs across Canada and overseas, such as ORBIS (Can), Plan International (Can), ACCT Foundation, The Chinese Canadian Museum (Vancouver), Covenant House, Scott Mission and the Famous5 Foundation. She is also assisting UHN in promoting organ donations from living donors.
Vivienne has received numerous honorary degrees and professorship from universities in USA, China, Hong Kong, South Korea and across Canada.
Event co-organizers: Asian Heritage Month—Canadian Foundation for Asian Culture (Central Ontario) Inc.; Toronto Public Library; Asian Institute at the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, University of Toronto; Richard Charles Lee Canada Hong Kong Library, University of Toronto; Chinese Canadian Photography Society of Toronto; Social Services Network; Cambridge Food and Wine Society
Asian Heritage Month Festival is partially funded by the Government of Canada through the Department of Canadian Heritage and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. Asian Canadian Artists in Digital Age is funded by Canada Council for the Arts Digital Strategy Fund.