Wendy Grant-John
Wendy Grant-John, née Wendy Sparrow, is a prominent First Nations leader in British Columbia. She served three terms as chief of the Musqueam First Nation and was the first woman elected regional vice-chief of the Assembly of First Nations. In 1997 Grant-John came in second to Phil Fontaine in the election for National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations.[1] From 1997 until 2002 she served as Associate Regional Director-General of the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs for British Columbia.
Grant-John has been involved in the development and operation of several businesses. As Musqueam chief, she helped to create the first aboriginal commercial fishery in Canada and was a founder of Musqueam Weavers, a company that revitalized the local tradition of weaving. She also oversaw the acquisition of Celtic Shipyards and the Fraser Arms Hotel. She currently operates the Longhouse Seafood Market.
As Musqueam chief she played a major role in two important aboriginal rights cases decided by the Supreme Court of Canada: R. v. Guerin and R. v. Sparrow.
Grant-John has served as a lay bencher of the Law Society of British Columbia and as a Commissioner of the Pacific Salmon Commission. She was a founding member and director of the Aboriginal Healing Commission in 1998.
Grant-John received the YWCA Woman of Distinction Award for Social Action in 2001, an honorary Doctor of Laws from Royal Roads University in 2003,[2] and a National Aboriginal Achievement Award, now the Indspire Awards, for Community Development in 2006.[3] In the fall of 2011 she will receive another honorary doctorate from Simon Fraser University.[4]
Grant-John is married to Edward John and has four children from her previous marriage to Howard Grant. She is the daughter of former Musqueam chief Willard Sparrow and sister of Gail Sparrow.