The Honourable
Nicole Eaton
Senator from Ontario
In office
January 2, 2009 – January 21, 2020
Nominated byStephen Harper
Appointed byMichaëlle Jean
Succeeded byBernadette Clement
Personal details
Born
Nicole Marie Courtois

(1945-01-21) January 21, 1945
Political partyConservative
Spouse
Thor Eaton
​
​
(m. 1977; died 2017)​

Nicole Marie Eaton (née Courtois; born January 21, 1945) is a Canadian former politician and a Conservative member of the Senate of Canada. A fundraiser for the Conservative Party, she was appointed on the advice of Stephen Harper to the Senate on December 22, 2008, her term starting on January 2, 2009.[1] She was a trustee of the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) from 1983 to 1989 and a director of the ROM Foundation from 1996 to 2002.[2] She retired from the Senate upon reaching the mandatory retirement age of 75 on January 21, 2020.[3] She served as Speaker Pro Tempore of the Canadian Senate from 2015 until her retirement from the Senate.

In 2011 Eaton called Canada's national symbol, the beaver, a "dentally defective rat", and suggested that the polar bear should replace it in Canadian iconography.[4] She gained further notoriety in 2012 by leading the Conservative government's charge in the Senate against environmental charities, making unsubstantiated accusations that the charities are involved in "influence peddling" and "political manipulation".[5] On October 3, 2014, the day that Canada's involvement in a military mission against ISIS was announced, she tweeted, "The apple does not fall far from the tree. PM Trudeau refused to fight the Nazis in WWII, Stayed home comfortably in Outremont."[6]

On August 26, 2016, Eaton ignited a controversy online when she tweeted that "Bicycles are a luxury, most of us use public transportation or walk. Never seen a bike rider obey traffic laws. They are special."[7][8] This was in response to the addition of dedicated bike lanes to Bloor Street in downtown Toronto. She later deleted her Twitter account.[9]

Family

She is the daughter of Edmond Jacques Courtois.

Her brother, E. Jacques Courtois Jr, is a convicted insider trader having peddled confidential takeover information while a vice-president in Morgan Stanley's mergers and acquisitions department from 1974 to 1977. Courtois Jr fled to Bogota, Colombia, where he was a fugitive for several years before pleading guilty to insider trading charges in New York in 1983. In 1984 he was sentenced to six months in prison.[10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17]

She is the widow of Thor Edgar Eaton (1942–2017) of the Eaton family.[18]

References

  1. ↑ "Senators – Detailed Information". Parliament of Canada. Archived from the original on February 5, 2009. Retrieved December 23, 2008.
  2. ↑ "ROM – Our History – The Eaton Family". Archived from the original on December 9, 2008. Retrieved December 23, 2008.
  3. ↑ Well documented at the Senate of Canada page and on the Senate's website.
  4. ↑ "Nicole Eaton, Canadian Senator, New National Symbol Should Be A Polar Bear". The Huffington Post Canada. The Canadian Press. October 27, 2011. Retrieved June 5, 2017.
  5. ↑ McIlroy, Anne (June 3, 2012). "Nicole Eaton: The philanthropist who rattles charities". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved June 8, 2012.
  6. ↑ @SenEaton (October 3, 2014). "The apple does not fall far from the tree. PM Trudeau refused to fight the Nazis in WWII, Stayed home comfortably in Outremont" (Tweet). Archived from the original on January 29, 2015. Retrieved June 5, 2017 – via Twitter.
  7. ↑ "twitter.com". Archived from the original on November 8, 2020. Retrieved August 26, 2016.
  8. ↑ Hains, David (August 26, 2016). "Senator Nicole Eaton Hates Toronto's Bike Lanes". Torontoist. Retrieved June 13, 2017.
  9. ↑ Hudes, Sammy. "Senator deletes Twitter account after bike lane rant". Toronto Star. Retrieved August 31, 2016.
  10. ↑ "The Montreal Gazette – Google News Archive Search". news.google.com. Retrieved December 29, 2017.
  11. ↑ Arenson, Karen W. (February 14, 1981). "Ruin of 2 Wall Street Careers". The New York Times. Retrieved December 29, 2017.
  12. ↑ Cole, Robert J. (September 3, 1983). "Insider Fugitive Surrenders". The New York Times. Retrieved December 29, 2017.
  13. ↑ PALTROW, SCOT J. (June 28, 1988). "$19 Million in Insider Trades Laid to Trainee : SEC Links Temporary Morgan Stanley Worker, 24, Taiwan Businessman to Second-Biggest Case". Retrieved December 29, 2017 – via LA Times.
  14. ↑ Ross, Nancy L. (July 3, 1983). "'Black Box' Polices the Big Board". Retrieved December 29, 2017 – via www.washingtonpost.com.
  15. ↑ Neuman, William (June 19, 2014). "Support From the Left Helps Keep a Right-Wing President in Power in Colombia". The New York Times. Retrieved December 29, 2017.
  16. ↑ "A Harvard Business School graduate and son of A".
  17. ↑ http://3197d6d14b5f19f2f440-5e13d29c4c016cf96cbbfd197c579b45.r81.cf1.rackcdn.com/collection/papers/1980/1987_0212_ProsecutionsInsiderTrading.pdf
  18. ↑ "Eaton's department store heir Thor Eaton loved horses and rock music".
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