New senator represents many diverse groups

Page 3

She's a researcher, an academic, an advocate and a role model. Now Dr. Lillian Dyck has taken on yet another role-that of senator.

Dyck was one of nine new senators named by Prime Minister Paul Martin on March 24, and nobody was as surprised by the choice as Dyck herself.

"I was just totally stunned and surprised. I mean, it's certainly something that I never really thought of in terms of what might happen to me. It certainly never even crossed my mind. It just came out of the blue," she said.

Dyck sees some irony in her appointment to the Senate. Her mother was Cree, her father immigrated to Canada from China. Both of her parents knew what it was like to not share in the rights and freedoms afforded to others. Yet today their daughter sits in the Canadian Senate.

"It's such a contradiction, but only in Canada could that happen. It's like its full of all these odd pieces of information that just seem to be at odds with each other but yet it makes some kind of sense, illogical sense. And I think that's what Canada's all about, that we're continually changing."

Dyck, who was born in North Battleford, has spent the majority of her career at the University of Saskatchewan (U of S). She earned her bachelor of arts (honours), master of science degree and PhD in biological psychiatry at the university, and first joined the U of S faculty in 1967 as an assistant in the biochemistry department.

With her new responsibilities in the Senate she will have to scale back the amount of time she dedicates to the research she's doing at the U of S, where she's a full professor in the neuropsychiatry unit in the department of psychiatry. The research she's been working on involves looking at how anti-psychotic drugs work and how they might be useful in treating conditions such as schizophrenia and Alzheimer's disease.

She'll also be resigning her position as associate dean of the college of graduate studies and research at the university, "because it's a job that requires constant attention," she said.

While for the time being Dyck is hoping to be able to dedicate at least some of her time to the research she's working on at the university, she suspects that as her workload as a senator increases, it will become increasingly difficult for her to do both jobs. She's also decided walking away from the Senate to return to research full time is not an option.

"I mean, I turn 60 this year, this summer. Theoretically I could work at the university until I'm 67. But I'm also at the age where I think if for some reason I found that I didn't like being senator, theoretically I could return to the university ... but on the other hand I'm also at the age where I think I could retire. And you know, a person also has to think, you have to make room for other people coming in. You can't hang on forever. And in all fairness, I think it's really good to allow younger people to come in, you know, because I've had a pretty good kick at the can and one needs to make space for other people that are up and coming."

Dyck will be spending a lot of time travelling back and forth between Ottawa and Saskatoon. Although most of her Senate work will require her to be in the Nation's Capital, as a senator representing Saskatchewan she must retain a residence in the province.

"The Senate, pretty much we meet Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays the first three weeks of every month except July, August and January. So pretty much those first three weeks are devoted to that. And then the last week of the month is open in terms of there aren't actually Senate meetings. However, there can be other meetings and I guess some committees do travel, you know, do go places and meet with various groups. So initially, of course, I'm going to plan to be in Ottawa the Tuesday to Thursday for the first three weeks of the month and then come home weekends."

Dyck and the other new senators were sworn in on April 12 and, although she is still fairl new to the role of senator, she has already found ways to link her new job to her old one. On April 22, she was one of a handful of senators to attend a lunch on Parliament Hill to mark National Parkinson's Disease Awareness Month

"From the department of psychiatry, some of the research we've done impacts on neurological as well as psychiatric diseases, so I thought it would be a good idea for me to continue to make appropriate contacts within that kind of field, because that's where a lot of my knowledge strengths are," she said.

"There's a number of groups in the mental health area, too, that I probably will be able to lend support to-the Schizophrenia Society, the Alzheimer's Society, those kinds of things-and I'm sure other things will come up too. I'm not even really sure what I can do as a senator yet. I'm not sure what all can be done, so that will be part of the steep learning curve," Lillian Dyck said.

As a scientist and academic who never aspired to a political career, the senator feels like the proverbial fish out of water in her new role.

"It's a huge change because I'm moving from something where I've had kind of a lifetime of learning, because I've been an academic all my life, you know, I've been a student my whole life. And the research work that I'm doing is coming along really well, I'm really loving my job, and it's really hard to think of the idea that suddenly I'm not going to be doing that all the time and I'm not going to be a tthe university where I feel that I know a lot of people, I know a lot of things that go on and things are very familiar. And then, all of a sudden, boom, I'm in a totally new job, I really don't know anybody and I don't really know anything. It's like, 'Oh, how am I going to manage that?' It will involve the travelling back and forth. And so then I have to sort out, 'Well, how am I going to manage that?' My friends and my family and my dog all live here in Saskatoon. But it will all work out."

Since herappointment to the Senate, Dyck has received many calls from people wanting to congratulate her. There has also been no shortage of calls from the media, most of whom wanted to talk to Dyck about comments made by NDP leader Jack Layton in response to the news that Dyck would be sitting as an NDP senator. At the time, Layton had indicted that the new senator would not be welcomed into the party caucus.

"We would have welcomed her with open arms as a member of our caucus had she run and won election as an NDP candidate in the last election, but since that was not the case, we encourage Dr. Dyck to sit as an independent in the Senate," he said.

Since those statements were made, Dyck has met with Layton and everything has been resolved, she said.

"He was very good and he said partly he thought that his comments were taken out of context and he didn't have all the information about me. He said the federal party would certainly be more than happy to work with me through members of his caucus on whatever issues we have in common," she said.

"I think that Mr. Layton probably thought that the prime minister had appointed me specifically as an NDP, but he hadn't done that. It was my choice."

Her affiliation with the NDP has afforded Dyck a bit more freedom than enjoyed by senators aligned with the ruling party or official opposition. If she had been sitting as a Liberal or Conservative senator, she would receive direction as to which Senate committees she would sit on, but as an NDP senator, the decision as to which committees to get involved in is hers alone.

Although she hasn't formally asked to join any committee yet, there are a number she would be interested in getting involved in. As senators are usually asked to join only two committees, the challenge before her now is deciding where she wants to focus her efforts.

"There's the Aboriginal committee, for example. There's one on social affairs, science and technology that also catches my interest bcause right now they're doing a lot of work in mental health. And of course I would assume that some of the biomedical sort of questions would go to that committee as well," she said. "And the human rights one looks really interesting, too, but there's only so many things a person can do," she said.

"That's one of the things that some of the other senators have said, is to try and focus, because there's just so many things a person can take on. To find sort of one major thing and then direct your efforts to that."

While she may be unsure of how much she'll be able to accomplish as a senator, Dyck believes she'll make a difference just by being in the Senate.

"I think the most important thing is for me just to be there because of who I represent. And I think that in itself causes change" she said.

Who she represents is a number of groups that are under-represented in the Senate-women, First Nations people, Chinese-Canadians, and the scientific community.

Though she sees herself representing all these diverse groups, there is yet another group she proudly represents in the Senate-the people of Saskatchewan.

"I also see myself as a typical Saskatchewanite, you know. I still feel that I'm still part of Saskatchewan," she said. "And I think that's certainly what surprises me, is the number of people I meet in the street who recognize me and congratulate me and it's quite clear that they're very happy that I was chosen ... because I think they accept me as part of their group, you know, as part of Saskatchewan. So that makes me feel really good."