Anita Anand
Anita Anand (born 1967) is a Canadian lawyer and politician who has served as the minister of national defence since 2021. She has represented the riding of Oakville in the House of Commons since the 2019 federal election, sitting as a member of the Liberal Party. Anand previously served as minister of public services and procurement from 2019 to 2021. She is the first Hindu to become a federal minister in Canada. Before her political career, Anand was a professor at the University of Toronto Faculty of Law specializing in corporate governance and the regulation of capital markets . She was previously the J.R. Kimber Chair in Investor Protection and Corporate Governance at the Faculty. She was also a scholar-in-residence at the law firm Torys LLP. As of October 2019, Anand is on leave from the University of Toronto Faculty of Law for the duration of her time as an elected official. Early life and education. Indira Anita Anand was born in Kentville, Nova Scotia. Her parents were both physicians; her mother Saroj D. Ram (now deceased) was an anesthesiologist, and her father S.V. (Andy) Anand was a general surgeon. Her father was from Tamil Nadu and  her mother was from Punjab. Anand has two sisters: Gita Anand, who is an employment lawyer in Toronto, and Sonia Anand, who is a medical doctor and researcher at McMaster University. The family relocated to Ontario in 1985 and Anand and her husband John raised their family in Oakville. The couple has four children. Anand holds four degrees: a Bachelor of Arts (honours) in political studies from Queen's University; a Bachelor of Arts (honours) in Jurisprudence from Wadham College, Oxford University; a bachelor of laws from Dalhousie University; and a master of laws from the University of Toronto. She  was called to the Ontario Bar in 1994. Anand has held academic positions at Yale, Queen's University and Western University. Before her election, Anand was a law professor at the University of Toronto. Personal life. Anand, her husband John, and four children have lived in Oakville, Ontario for 18 years. Over her 18 years in Oakville, Anand has served her local community in a number of ways. She has served on the Board of Directors of the Lighthouse for Grieving Children, the Oakville Hospital Foundation and Oakville Hydro Electricity Distribution Inc. She was also the inaugural chair of the  Ontario Securities Commission Investor Advisory Panel. Academic career. Anand is an expert in corporate governance, investor rights, and financial market regulation. Since her election, Anand has been on leave from the Faculty of Law at the University of Toronto. Anand began her legal career as an associate at Torys from 1994 to 1997 (with leave to pursue her master's degree), after articling at Torys from 1992 to 1993. She then pursued her teaching career by serving as assistant professor (adjunct) from 1997 to 1999 at the Faculty of Law of Western University. In 1999, she became assistant professor in  the Faculty of Law at Queen's University, obtaining tenure and advancing to the rank of associate professor in 2003. She received a U.S.-Canada Fulbright award in 2005 and attended Yale Law School as a visiting lecturer in law (fall 2005) teaching comparative corporate governance. She was also visiting Olin scholar in law and economics at Yale Law School (2005-2006). She left Queen's University for the Faculty of Law, University of Toronto in 2006 where she was a full professor. She served as associate dean from 2007 to 2009. From 2010 to 2019, Anand also served as the  academic director of the Centre for the Legal Profession, as well as for its Program on Ethics in Law and Business. At the time of her election, she was a senior fellow of Massey College, as well as being cross-appointed to the Rotman School of Management as the director of policy and research at the Capital Markets Research Institute, and to the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy at the University of Toronto. The Government of Canada web site provides the following additional background information:Minister Anand has completed extensive research on the regulation of financial markets , corporate governance, and shareholder rights, and has appeared regularly in the media to discuss these topics. In 2015, she was appointed to the Government of Ontario's Expert Committee to Consider Financial Advisory and Financial Planning Policy Alternatives. She has conducted research for Ontario's Five-Year Review Committee, the federal Wise Person's Committee, and the Task Force to Modernize Securities Legislation in Canada.On September 17, 2019, it was announced that Anand would receive the Yvan Allaire Medal from the Royal Society of Canada. The medal is bestowed annually for an outstanding contribution in governance of private and  public organizations. The Society stated that Anand's research "significantly altered global thinking about best practices for boards of directors, including the importance of diversity on boards". Political career. 2019 federal election. On June 12, 2019, Anita Anand won the Liberal nomination for the riding of Oakville, Ontario, after the incumbent John Oliver announced that he would not run in the 2019 election. She defeated former member of Provincial Parliament Kevin Flynn and lawyer Tamur Shah for the nomination. On October 21, 2019, Anand won the riding of Oakville with 30,265 votes. Anand was sworn in as the member of  Parliament for Oakville on November 22, 2019, to represent Oakville in the House of Commons in the 43rd Canadian Parliament. Minister of Public Services and Procurement. On November 20, 2019, Anand was sworn in as a member of the Privy Council and as procurement minister at Rideau Hall. Procurement of Personal Protective Equipment during the COVID-19 Pandemic. At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada, Anand and her department acted quickly to bulk buy personal protective equipment (PPE) and medical supplies for Canada's health care system. In order to ensure reliable access to PPE in a hyper-competitive  market, Anand and her department adopted an aggressive procurement strategy and engaged a large number of suppliers to diversify Canada's supply chains. Through this strategy, the federal government also funded large-scale domestic production of medical supplies. The pandemic caused the federal government to rapidly increase its usual procurement tempo in order to purchase rapid tests, reagents, and swabs used for laboratory-based testing. In April 2021, Anand told the House of Commons Health Committee that Public Services and Procurement Canada had procured over 2.5 billion articles of personal protective equipment, "with a substantial amount of that equipment being  made right here, at home." Procurement of COVID-19 Vaccines. Beginning in the summer of 2020, the Canadian government signed contracts with the producers of seven leading COVID-19 vaccine candidates, and the producers of supplies needed to package and administer those vaccines. Anand told The New York Times that “because we do not know which vaccine [...] is going to be successful, ultimately we must bet on multiple vaccines at the same time." Summing up her approach, she stated, “We are not putting all our eggs in one basket.” Initially, Canada's target was to receive enough vaccines to fully immunize all  eligible Canadians by September 30, 2021. Anand told The Guardian that she pressed "very, very aggressively for early deliveries from the suppliers." Negotiations for early delivery were successful, allowing Canada to meet and then surpass its immunization target two months ahead of schedule. By the end of July 2021, Canada had received a cumulative total of more than 66.4 million vaccines. By August 2021, Canada had attained the highest vaccination rate in the world. Anand also worked to finalize Canada's agreements with vaccine producers regarding the procurement and delivery of COVID-19 vaccine doses for children. After Health Canada approved  the Pfizer–BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for use in paediatric populations under the age of 12 years on November 19, 2021, the first paediatric doses of the vaccine arrived in Canada two days later, on November 21, 2021. 2021 federal election. Anand was re-elected to Parliament following the 2021 Canadian federal election. She defeated Conservative Kerry Colborne with 46% of the vote. Minister of National Defence. On October 26, 2021, Anand was sworn in as Minister of National Defence at Rideau Hall. She is only the second woman in Canadian history to take on the role of national defence minister , after former prime minister Kim Campbell in the 1990s. Anand stated that her top priority is tackling sexual misconduct and building a durable culture change in the Canadian Armed Forces. On November 4, 2021, Anand announced that she accepted in full an interim recommendation from former Supreme Court of Canada Justice Louise Arbour that the investigation and prosecution of military sexual misconduct cases be referred to Canada's civilian justice system. In a statement to the Globe and Mail, retired Colonel and military lawyer Michel Drapeau called the decision a "welcomed sign of leadership" and "a timely and powerful signal  to the military justice system and victims that changes are coming.” On November 19, 2021, Anand gave her first major speech as Minister of National Defence as the keynote speaker at the Halifax International Security Forum. Anand laid out her three main priorities: building a durable culture change in the Canadian Forces, better equipping Canada's military by raising military spending, and ensuring that Canada continues to support peace and stability around the world through its military deployments. On December 13, 2021, Anand offered an official apology on behalf of the Government of Canada to all those affected by sexual  misconduct in the Canadian Armed Forces and Department of National Defence. She was joined by General Wayne Eyre, Chief of the Defence Staff, who apologized on behalf of the military, and Deputy Minister Jody Thomas, who apologized on behalf of the department.