Yvonne Boyer (born October 25, 1953) is a Canadian lawyer who was named to the Senate of Canada on March 25, 2018, as a Senator for Ontario by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. A Métis, Boyer is the first Indigenous person appointed to the Senate from Ontario.^[1] She lives in Merrickville, Ontario, near Ottawa.^[2]

As a lawyer, Boyer has been outspoken in her criticisms of inequities in Canada's health care in its treatment of and availability to Indigenous peoples.^[1]

Boyer is a member of the Métis Nation of Ontario and has ancestral roots in the Métis Nation of Saskatchewan and Red River, Manitoba.^[2] As well as being a lawyer, at the time of her appointment to the Upper House she was a professor in the law faculty at the University of Ottawa and associate director at the school's Centre for Health Law, Policy and Ethics.^[1] She is also a former member of the Canadian Human Rights Commission and has also served as in-house counsel for the Native Women's Association of Canada, and as a senior policy analyst and legal adviser at the National Aboriginal Health Organization.^[2]

Boyer's appointment to the Senate was recommended by the Independent Advisory Board for Senate Appointments.^[2]

Activity

In May 2022 together with two other senators Senator Boyer issued a report calling for a review of the convictions of 12 indigenous women, including the Quewezance sisters, and their exoneration.^[3]

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