Yuen Pau Woo
Yuen Pau Woo | |
|---|---|
胡元豹 | |
Woo in 2025 | |
| Facilitator of the Independent Senators Group | |
| In office September 25, 2017 – January 1, 2022 | |
| Deputy | Raymonde Saint-Germain |
| Preceded by | Elaine McCoy (interim) |
| Succeeded by | Raymonde Saint-Germain |
| Canadian Senator from British Columbia | |
| Assumed office November 10, 2016 | |
| Nominated by | Justin Trudeau |
| Appointed by | David Johnston |
| Personal details | |
| Born | March 2, 1963 |
| Party | Independent Senators Group |
| Website | www |
Yuen Pau Woo (born March 2, 1963) is a Canadian politician who has been a senator from British Columbia since 2016. He is the first Malaysian-born senator, and the inaugural facilitator of the Independent Senators Group (ISG), taking on the role from September 2017 until January 2022. He was also the president and CEO of the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada, a Vancouver-based think-tank on Canada–Asia relations, until August 11, 2014.
He has consistently spoken out against anti-Asian racism, Sinophobia, and the racial profiling of Chinese Canadians. He has also taken a pro-Palestinian stance in the Senate, calling for stronger Canadian action to support the Palestinian people. Those positions have made him a target of online harassment amid rising anti-Chinese prejudice since the start of the COVID-19, with some opponents portraying him as a “mouthpiece” for Beijing, telling him to “go home" or that he should be "sent back to China.”