Bev Oda

The Honourable Bev Oda PC, MP
Bev Oda in 2010
Member of the Canadian Parliament for Durham
Incumbent
Assumed office 2004
Preceded by	Alex Shepherd
Personal details
Born	Beverley Joan Oda July 27, 1944 (1944-07-27) Thunder Bay, Ontario
Political party	Conservative
Residence	Orono
Profession	Broadcasting executive, communication consultant, teacher
Portfolio	Minister for International Cooperation

The Hon. Beverley Joan "Bev" Oda, PC, MP (born July 27, 1944) is a Canadian politician. She is a current member of the Canadian House of Commons, as well as the first Japanese-Canadian MP and cabinet minister in Canadian history. She represents the riding of Durham for the Conservative Party of Canada. She was appointed Minister of Canadian Heritage and Status of Women on February 6, 2006. On August 14, 2007, she was appointed Minister for International Cooperation.

Early life, education

Oda, a sansei, was born in Thunder Bay, Ontario. Her mother was interned at Bay Farm in 1942, and her father went to southwestern Ontario to work on a sugar beet farm. He moved to Fort William to do millwork where he met his wife. Oda has a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Toronto.

Broadcasting career

She began her broadcasting career at TV Ontario in 1973, and later worked for Citytv and the Global Television Network. Oda was an Ontario Film Review Board Member in 1986-87, and a Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission Commissioner from 1987 to 1993. She became the Chair of FUND (now The Harold Greenberg Fund) in 1994. From 1995 to 1999, she was a Senior Vice-President of CTV and Baton Broadcasting. She was inducted into the Canadian Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame in November 2003, and was awarded The Queen's Golden Jubilee Medal in recognition of work in broadcasting. She has also worked as a policy adviser to three Secretaries of State.

Member of Parliament

Oda was for many years a volunteer with the Progressive Conservative Party. She ran as a Conservative in Clarington—Scugog—Uxbridge in the 2004 federal election, and won a narrow victory over Liberal Tim Lang.

Following her election, Oda was named as the Conservative Party critic for the Ministry of Heritage. She has recently argued in favour of allowing more Canadian and foreign programming options in the country.

On November 15, 2004, she reintroduced Bill C-333, the Chinese Canadian Recognition and Redress Act, which calls on parliament to recognize the contribution of Chinese immigrants to Canada, and acknowledge the unjust past treatments of Chinese Canadians as a result of racist legislation. Oda is not herself Chinese, but is Canada's first parliamentarian of Japanese heritage.

In the 2006 election, she successfully defended her seat in Durham with 47% of the vote in the riding, despite controversy over campaign funding by US copyright proponents.

Cabinet minister

On February 6, 2006, Oda was sworn in as Heritage Minister in the cabinet of the newly elected Conservative government under Prime Minister Stephen Harper. She is the first Japanese-Canadian cabinet minister in Canadian history.

Oda was re-elected by a significant margin in the 2008 federal election.

In November 2006, Oda planned on holding a fundraising dinner for broadcasting executives, just weeks before a major review of broadcasting rules. The event was cancelled, but a number of donations were still made.

In 2006, Oda paid back $2,200 to taxpayers after the Liberals found that she had incurred nearly $5,500 in limo rides at the 2006 Juno Awards in Halifax. In 2008, she was accused of hiding over $17,000 of limo expenses billed to taxpayers.

In February 2011, Bev Oda admitted to directing one of her staff to add a hand-written annotation to an already signed Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) memo in 2009 that resulted in a funding recommendation for KAIROS being ignored.The memo was altered by the addition of 'not' into the recommendation line of the document. When asked about the matter, Oda had at first told Parliament that she did not know who had made the change. Opposition MPs in the House Foreign Affairs committee requested that the Speaker rule on the possible contempt of parliament against Oda but Prime Minister Harper continued to support Oda. On March 9, 2011, the Speaker of the House made a ruling on the issue of Oda's behaviour, stating that "on its face" Oda's statements had caused confusion, which still persisted. Oda replied in the House that she was ready to answer to the confusion, at a House of Commons special committee meeting to be held over three full days the following week. Speaker Peter Milliken found on prima facie that the controversy warranted further investigation from a formal parliamentary committee; however, the committee was not able to reach a decision regarding Oda, as the parliamentary session was brought to an end following the non-confidence motion that triggered the 2011 Federal Election.. That election saw Oda retain her seat with 54% of the popular vote.

References

• Geist, Michael. "The Sad Reality of Copyright Policy in Canada". http://www.michaelgeist.ca/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1060. Retrieved 2006-02-07. 

External links

• Official website
• Profile at Parliament of Canada
• Parliamentarian profile at ParlInfo
• Speeches, votes and activity at OpenParliament.ca
• Voting history at How'd They Vote?