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What does a war heroine from Massachusetts, a chef from northern Thailand, and a Holocaust survivor who coined the term “employment equity” have in common? They all immigrated to Canada. And they all helped build it into the country it is today.

Immigrant women have been ever-present in Canadian life but if you ask most Canadians to name the immigrant women who shaped this country, you’ll likely get a short list. Maybe Annie Gale. Maybe Adrienne Clarkson.

The silence after that tells you something. Immigrant women have founded hospitals, published newspapers, sat on the Supreme Court, won Nobel Prizes, built tech companies, and pioneered cancer research. A Jamaican domestic worker became the first Black woman elected to the House of Commons. A Romanian-born teenager beat Serena Williams at the US Open. These are Canadian stories, all of them. And they barely scratch the surface of our history.

This International Women’s Day, we’re highlighting 60 immigrant women across two centuries of Canadian history. Some are household names whose immigrant roots are underappreciated. Many more are women whose extraordinary contributions remain largely invisible.

Together, they tell the Canadian story, one that’s impossible to tell without immigration at its centre.

The list draws from the Top 25 Canadian Immigrant Awards (2007–2025), Order of Canada records, Governor General’s Awards, the Canadian Encyclopedia, CBC archives, academic sources, and community histories. Each woman's immigrant status has been verified to the extent possible.

Editor’s Note:The hardest part of this project was deciding who to include and who to remove to keep the list from getting too long.

These women arrived during a period when Canada's borders, laws, and cultural identity were still being forged. Discriminatory policies like the Chinese Exclusion Act (1923–1947) and South Asian immigration bans meant that women of colour in this era are severely underrepresented in the historical record, making the exceptions all the more remarkable.

Immigrated from the United States in 1851 | Journalism, Education, Civil Rights

The first Black woman to edit and publish a newspaper in North America. She launched The Provincial Freeman in 1853 in Windsor, Ontario (later moving it to Toronto and Chatham) and established a racially integrated school for Black refugees. Shadd also wrote educational booklets listing the advantages of Canada for settlers moving north, including A Plea for Emigration, encouraging Black Americans to move to Canada. She initially hid her gender on the masthead, signing off as "M.A. Shadd."  In 1944, Mary A was designated a Person of National Historic Significance in Canada.

Immigrated from England in 1832 | Literature

Roughing It in the Bush (1852) remains one of the foundational works of Canadian literature, a vivid and critical account of the immigrant settler experience. Before emigrating, Moodie worked with the Anti-Slavery Society in London, where she transcribed the narrative of Mary Prince, a formerly enslaved Caribbean woman. Atwood's celebrated 1970 poetry collection The Journals of Susanna Moodie drew directly from her work.

Immigrated from England in 1763 | Literature

Brooke wrote The History of Emily Montague (1769) while living in Sillery, Quebec. It is widely considered the first novel written in Canada and among the first in North America. The book captured life in Quebec during the decade following the Battle of the Plains of Abraham.

Immigrated from the United States in ~1795 | War Heroine

Born in Massachusetts, Secord moved to Upper Canada with her Loyalist family. In 1813, she walked 32 kilometres through wilderness to warn British forces of an American attack, contributing to victory at the Battle of Beaver Dams. She became one of Canada's most enduring folk heroines. Few Canadians remember she was an immigrant.

Immigrated from England in 1912 | Politics

Gale was elected to Calgary city council in December 1917, making her one of the first women elected to municipal office in the British Empire and the first woman in Canada to serve as acting mayor. She organized Canada's first Women's Ratepayers' Association and fought for public markets, free hospitals, and reformed city prison conditions.

Immigrated from Iceland (via the United States) in ~1890 | Suffrage, Journalism

Benedictsson launched Freyja (Woman) in 1898 from Selkirk, Manitoba, Canada's only women's suffrage publication at the time. She campaigned for women's right to vote through lectures, articles, plays, and fundraising events to support immigrant girls.

Immigrated from Lebanon (Beqaa Valley) in 1923 | Community Building

Hamdon founded the Arab Muslim Association in Edmonton, and in the late 1930s, she organized a group of Muslim women to approach Mayor John Fry about purchasing land for a mosque. They raised $5,000 by knocking on doors along Jasper Avenue, collecting donations from Jewish, Christian, and Muslim shop owners alike. The result was the Al Rashid Mosque, opened December 12, 1938, the first mosque in Canada. An Edmonton school was named after her in 2017.

Immigrated from China in ~1930s | Community Activism, Civil Rights

Lumb led a delegation to Ottawa in 1957 that successfully advocated for the repeal of race-based immigration restrictions against Chinese Canadians. She also led the Save Chinatown Committee to protect Toronto's Chinatown from urban redevelopment in the 1960s. Lumb was the first Chinese Canadian woman to receive the Order of Canada (1976).

Immigrated from Czechoslovakia in 1942 | Humanitarian Aid

Hitschmanova founded the Unitarian Service Committee of Canada in 1945 and raised $128.9 million (in non-inflation-adjusted dollars) for relief work across three continents over four decades. In a 2013 Canadian Museum of History poll, she was named the person who most shaped Canadian history. She was also a Holocaust survivor whose parents perished in the camps.

Immigrated from England in 1944 | Neuroscience

Milner is widely considered a founder of cognitive neuroscience and a pioneer of clinical neuropsychology. Her work with patient H.M. at the Montreal Neurological Institute transformed the understanding of human memory. She’s a recipient of the Kavli Prize, Balzan Prize, and Gairdner International Award and is still active in research past age 100.

Immigrated from Germany in 1949 | Physics, Peace Activism

Franklin was a Holocaust survivor who became the first female full professor of metallurgy at the University of Toronto. Her research on strontium-90 in children's teeth contributed to the atmospheric nuclear test ban. She’s the author of The Real World of Technology (a 1989 CBC Massey Lecture Series). Plus a Toronto high school also bears her name.

Immigrated from Scotland in 1949 | Law

Wilson was the first woman appointed to the Supreme Court of Canada (1982). Her landmark rulings reshaped Canadian law on women's rights, including the pivotal R. v. Morgentaler abortion decision.

Immigrated from Russia in 1931 | Visual Arts

Clark was one of Canada’s most socially committed painters, combining modernist technique with social realist content. She challenged the dominance of the Group of Seven and argued that art must serve society. Clark is featured in the National Gallery of Canada's Uninvited exhibition.

Immigrated from Russia (now Ukraine) in 1905 | Athletics, Sports Journalism

Rosenfield was named Canada's Female Athlete of the Half-Century (1900–1950). She won gold in the 4x100m relay (world record) and silver in the 100m at the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics as part of the legendary Matchless Six. A Jewish immigrant who fled anti-Semitism, Rosenfield later became a sports columnist at The Globe and Mail. The annual Bobbie Rosenfeld Award for Canada's female athlete of the year carries her name.

Immigrated from Russia in ~1929 | Architecture

Biriukova was the first woman registered with the Ontario Association of Architects (1931) and second woman architect registered in Canada. She trained in Petrograd and Rome and designed the Art Deco home of Group of Seven painter Lawren Harris.

This era saw the introduction of the Points System in 1967. This change meant Canada’s immigration policy was now based on merit and economic potential and not race and country of origin. The policy change opened the door to immigrants from the Caribbean, Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Caribbean women arrived in large numbers through the West Indian Domestic Scheme (1955–1967), many of them trained nurses and teachers who were then funneled into domestic work. These women fought entrenched racism while building institutions that endure till today.

Immigrated from Hong Kong in 1942 | Broadcasting, Governor General

Clarkson was Canada’s 26th Governor General (1999–2005) and the first person of Asian heritage and the first immigrant to hold the position. Before that, she was an award-winning CBC broadcaster for 18 years. Clarkson would go on to co-found the Institute for Canadian Citizenship (ICC) in 2006 alongside her husband, the philosopher and author John Ralston Saul after her term as Governor General ended.

Immigrated from Grenada in 1960 | Education, Politics

Augustine arrived in Canada via the West Indian Domestic Scheme. She would go on to become  one of the first Black school principals in Canada, then the first Black Canadian woman elected to the House of Commons (1993). In December 1995, Augustine introduced a motion in the House of Commons to recognize February as Black History Month across Canada, a motion that was unanimously passed. She was also appointed Ontario’s first Fairness Commissioner in 2007, a role created to make sure internationally trained professionals (like the immigrants coming through the Points System) could have their credentials recognized fairly in Ontario.

Immigrated from Jamaica in 1951 | Politics, Human Rights

Brown was the first Black woman elected to any provincial legislature in Canada (British Columbia, 1972) and the first Black woman to seek federal party leadership (NDP, 1975). She served as the Chief Commissioner of the Ontario Human Rights Commission and is featured on a 2009 Canada Post stamp.

Immigrated from Trinidad and Tobago in 1970 | Literature, Activism

Brand won the Governor General’s award in 1977 for her poetry collection Lands to Light On, and then the Griffin Poetry Prize in 2011 for Ossuaries. She was named Toronto’s third Poet Laureate in 2009, and became the first Black person to hold the title. She co-founded Our Lives, the first newspaper in Canada dedicated to the voices and issues of Black women. And was a recipient of the Order of Canada in 2017 for “her contributions to Canadian literature and for her dedication to social justice.”

Immigrated from Vietnam in 1979 | Literature

Thúy arrived in Canada as a boat refugee at age ten. Her novel Ru (2009) won the Governor General’s Literary Award for French-Language fiction in 2010. The book has been translated into 29 languages, making her one of the most successful contemporary Canadian authors on the international stage. Thúy was appointed to the Order of Canada in 2024.

Immigrated from Jamaica in ~late 1960s | Publishing, Feminism

Silvera co-founded the Sister Vision Press with Stephanie Martin in 1985, Canada’s first publishing house for women of colour. She’s also the author of Silenced (1983), a book that used oral histories to document the lives of West Indian women working as domestic laborers in Canada. The book exposed the systemic challenges and exploitation they faced. Many of these women were part of the same West Indian Domestic Scheme that brought Jean Augustine to Canada. Silvera also edited the first North American anthology of writing by lesbians of color, Piece of My Heart (1991).

Immigrated from India in ~early 1970s | Film

Mehta is one of Canada’s most internationally acclaimed film directors. Her Elements trilogy earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign Language Film. Water, the final installment of the Elements trilogy, was Canada’s official entry for the Oscars in January 2007. In 2012, Mehta received the Governor General’s Performing Arts Award for her contributions to Canada’s cultural landscape. She was also appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2013.

Immigrated from Switzerland in 1975 | Film

Pool was the first woman to win Best Film at the Quebec Cinema Awards (for The Passion of Augustine). Plus she’s the recipient of Quebec's highest cinema honour, the Prix Albert-Tessier. Pool’s films explore exile, identity, and uprootedness, drawn from her own experience as the daughter of a Polish-Jewish Holocaust survivor. She was also appointed as a Member of the Order of Canada in 2013.

Immigrated from Trinidad in 1960 | Theatre, Arts Education

Cudjoe originally moved to Canada to work as a nurse and a midwife, having previously trained in England. But after becoming disenchanted with the inflexible nature of the Canadian nursing profession, she went to study radio and television arts at Ryerson (now Toronto Metropolitan University). She went on to found the Black Theatre Canada (BTC) in 1973, an institution that became an important platform for Black Canadian performing artists for decades. 

Immigrated from Germany (displaced persons camp) in 1950 | Law, Human Rights

Abella was appointed to the Supreme Court of Canada in 2004 and was the first Jewish woman on the court. During her time as the sole commissioner of the 1984 Royal Commission on Equality in Employment, she coined the term “employment equity” to describe a system that removes barriers for four specific groups: women, Indigenous peoples, persons with disabilities, and visible minorities. At 29, Abella was appointed to the Ontario Family Court, which made her the youngest and first pregnant judge in Canadian history. Her appointment helped normalize the idea that a woman could balance a senior judicial career with motherhood.

Immigrated from Jamaica in 1960 | Nursing, Public Health

Like Vera Cudjoe, Johnson was a trained nurse and midwife with experience in Jamaica and the UK. However, she had to deal with the challenges of a Canadian medical system that was often resistant to recognizing the credentials and legitimacy of Black women. Johnson would become the first Black person to hold the position of Director of Public Health in Ontario, serving the Leeds, Grenville, and Lanark district. In 1981, she founded the Sickle Cell Association of Ontario (1981) and successfully lobbied for sickle cell disease's inclusion in Ontario's universal newborn screening. She was awarded the Order of Ontario in 2010 for her work in public health and sickle cell advocacy and the Order of Canada in 2023 for her contributions to public health and her dedication to equity and inclusion.

Immigrated from the Caribbean in 1952 | Nursing, Civil Rights

In 1964, after being denied a nursing position at Montreal's Hilton-operated Queen Elizabeth Hotel on racial grounds, Baylis became the first person in Canada to initiate a case under Quebec's new anti-discrimination legislation. She won in 1965, setting a legal precedent for racial equality in employment. Hilton appealed the ruling for over a decade, taking the hearing all the way to the Quebec Court of Appeal. In 1977, the court upheld the conviction. In 1986, she founded the Baylis Medical Company, which became one of Canada’s most successful medical technology firms. She was posthumously appointed as a Member of the Order of Canada in 2023.

Immigrated from Japan in ~1950s | Peace Activism

Thurlow was a Hiroshima atomic bombing survivor (hibakusha) who settled in Toronto. She’s dedicated her life advocating for the hibakusha and ensuring the world doesn’t forget the human cost of nuclear warfare. Thurlow is a leading member of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), and her testimony at the United Nations in 2017 was key to the adoption of the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons; the first legally binding international agreement to ban nuclear weapons. She was appointed a Member of the Order of Canada in 2006.

Immigrated from Sri Lanka in 1977 | University Leadership, Engineering

A renowned steel processing scholar, Samarasekera was the first woman and the first engineer to serve as the President and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Alberta. In 2018, she also won the Bessemer Gold Medal, one of the most prestigious international honors in the steel industry (previous winners include Henry Bessemer himself). She was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada the same year.

Immigrated from the Philippines in 1965 | Education, Community Building

Dacanay was one of the first Filipino immigrants to Alberta. She was recruited to teach in Taber, a town in Southern Alberta, due to the teacher shortage in rural Alberta. Dacanay would drive through prairie blizzards to welcome every new Filipino to the province. Her efforts to make sure no new arrival felt alone built the Filipino community network across the prairies.

This era brought waves of refugees from conflicts in Southeast Asia, Central and South America, the Middle East, the Horn of Africa, and the former Yugoslavia. This period also saw the beginning of Canada’s tech sector and the rise of its multicultural institutions.

Immigrated from India (via Iran, then Germany) in 1981 | Senate, Immigration Policy

Omidvar founded the Toronto Region Immigrant Employment Council (TRIEC) in 2003, where she served as its Executive Director until 2014. She is widely regarded as the individual who changed the conversation in Canada from “charity for immigrants” to “immigrant talents as an economic asset.” TRIEC became a national model for how to integrate global talent into the local workforce. She was appointed to the Canadian Senate in 2016 by Justin Trudeau, as an Independent Senator for Ontario. The Economist named Omidvar as one the top 10 Diversity Champions worldwide in 2015.

Immigrated from Iran in 1996 | Federal Politics

Monsef arrived in Canada as a refugee, fleeing the Taliban with her mother and two sisters. She was elected as the Member of Parliament for Peterborough—Kawartha and appointed Minister of Democratic Institutions at age 30, making her the fourth-youngest Cabinet minister in Canadian history. She later served as the Minister for Women and Gender Equality in 2017, overseeing the largest federal investment in women's organizations in Canadian history. Monsef was recognized by Apolitical in May 2018 as one of the Top 20 Global Influencers on Gender Equality, alongside international figures like Malala Yousafzai and Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka (UN Women).

Immigrated from Tanzania in ~1989 | Feminism, Academia

Thobani made history as the first woman of color elected to lead the National Action Committee on the Status of Women (NAC) in 1993. The association had been criticized for primarily representing the interests of white, middle-class women. With Thobani at the helm, she pushed the organization to center the experiences of immigrant, Indigenous, and racialized women. She was also a founding member of Researchers and Academics of Colour for Equity (RACE), an organization dedicated to challenging systemic racism within Canadian universities.

Immigrated from Laos in 1979 | Fiction

Thammavongsa’s short story collection, How to Pronounce Knife won the Giller Prize in 2020, the Trillium Book Award in 2021, and an O. Henry Award. In 2025, her debut novel Pick a Colour won the Giller again, making her the first author to win the prize twice in its 31-year history. Her stories capture the lives and struggles of immigrant labourers.

Immigrated from India in ~1996 | Poetry

Kaur is known as the face of the literary style often referred to as “Instapoetry.” Her book Milk and Honey, initially self-published in 2014 while Kaur was still a student at the University of Waterloo, has sold over 11 million copies and has been translated into over 40 languages. It spent over 100 consecutive weeks on the New York Times Bestseller list.

Immigrated from Chile in ~1970s | Writing, Theatre

Aguirre arrived in Canada as a refugee at age six, shortly after the 1973 Chilean coup. At age 18, she returned to Chile with her family to join the resistance against the Pinochet dictatorship. Aguirre wrote about those years in her first memoir, Something Fierce: Memoirs of a Revolutionary Daughter, which won the 2012 edition of Canada Reads. This made the book a national bestseller. She also starred in Quinceañera, which won both the Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival in 2006.

Immigrated from Iran in ~1996 | Technology

Rafati landed in Canada with limited English and a single suitcase. She would go on to found Broadband TV (now RHEI) in 2025, a company that identifies, manages, and monetizes video content for major media brands and individual creators. As of 2019, the company surpassed Facebook to become the second-largest video property globally in terms of unique viewers, trailing only Google, with 575 million unique viewers monthly. In 2018, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau appointed Rafati to represent Canada on the G20 Business Women’s Leaders taskforce.

Immigrated from Egypt in ~1990s | Banking

Llewellyn began her career as a part-time teller at Scotiabank in 1994. Over the next 26 years, she rose through the ranks, holding various leadership positions in Retail Banking, Global Business Payments, and eventually rising to Executive Vice President. In 2020, Llewellyn became the first woman to lead a Canadian-owned bank as President and CEO of Laurentian Bank. 

Immigrated from Iran in ~1980s | Engineering, Philanthropy

Cody is an important figure in Canadian engineering and a vocal advocate for women in STEM. She was the first woman in Concordia University's history to earn a PhD in building engineering and spent over 30 years in the private sector, rising the career ladder to become the Executive Chairman and principal shareholder of CCI Group Inc., a Toronto-based engineering firm. On September 24th, 2018, Cody donated $15 million to her alma mater to fund scholarships, research chairs, and initiatives to improve the representation of women and minorities in engineering. Subsequently, the faculty was renamed the Gina Cody School of Engineering and Computer Science. And it’s the first time an engineering faculty in Canada was named after a woman. 

Immigrated from Somalia in 1984 | Journalism, Media

Nalayeh launched the first Somali-English television show targeted at a global audience. Called Integration TV, the program aired on OMNI TV and Citytv in Canada before becoming an international success on social media. She was also an advocate for women’s rights and representation, providing expert testimony before the House of Commons Standing Committee on the status of women in 2014, where she spoke about the challenges and contributions of Somali-Canadian women. Nalayeh moved back to Somalia in 2018 to report on the ground. Sadly, she was killed alongside her husband, Farid Jama Suleiman, on July 12, 2019, during an al-Shabaab terrorist attack on the Asasey Hotel in Kismayo. She was pregnant with her third child at the time of her passing.

Immigrated from Vietnam in 1992 | Peace, Philanthropy

Phúc is known globally as the “Napalm Girl,” the iconic 1972 photograph by AP photographer Nick Ut. After defecting from Vietnam via Cuba, she settled in Ajax, Ontario and founded the Kim Phúc Foundation International to help child victims of war. She was appointed a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador in 1997 for her work in promoting peace. Phúc is a recipient of the Order of Ontario and the Dresden Peace Prize (2019) for her reconciliation work and support for injured children.

Immigrated from Iran (via France) in ~1990s | Photojournalism

Kazemi was a seasoned freelance photojournalist who documented conflicts and social issues in the Middle East, Africa, and Central America. She returned to her birth country in 2003 to document student-led demonstrations against the country's clerical establishment. On June 23, 2003, she was arrested when she refused to hand over her camera’s film, despite possessing a government-issued press card. On July 11, 2003, after days of relentless torture, Kazemi died at Baghiyyatollah al-Azam Military Hospital. Her death permanently altered Canada-Iran relations and became a major international human rights case.

Immigrated from India in ~1980s | Music

Ahluwalia is one of Canada’s most celebrated global music artists. She’s a two-time Juno Award winner, and is known for her ability to blend classical Indian vocals with contemporary world music. She initially worked as a trader on Bay Street, Toronto. But chose to leave her corporate career in 2000 to focus on music.

Immigrated from India (via the United States) in 1995 | Culinary Arts

Dhalwala is the co-owner and executive chef of Vij’s in Vancouver, which The New York Times praised as among the finest Indian restaurants in the world. She’s a self-taught chef, and was inducted into the BC Restaurant Hall of Fame in 2009. Dhalwala was awarded Honorary Doctorates by the University of British Columbia in 2016 and by the Simon Fraser University in 2022.

 Immigrated from Northern Ireland in ~1968 | Women's Ice Hockey

Often called the ‘Bobby Orr of women’s hockey,” Heaney played over 1,000 games with the Toronto Aeros across 18 seasons, won six Ontario provincial championships, and represented Canada at the first seven Women's World Championships, winning gold each time. She’s also a two-time Olympian; winning silver at Nagano (1998) and gold at Salt Lake City (2022). Her diving goal in the 1990 World Championship final remains one of the most replayed moments in women's hockey. Heaney was inducted into the IIHF Hall of Fame (2008), the Hockey Hall of Fame (2013), and Canada's Sports Hall of Fame (2014).

The twenty-first century has seen Canada attract immigrants at an unprecedented pace. This cohort includes Afghan refugees rebuilding their lives post-Taliban, tech entrepreneurs building multi-hundred-million-dollar companies, and artists whose hyphenated identities are producing some of Canada's most vibrant cultural work.

Immigrated from Romania (via the United States) in 2000 | Artificial Intelligence

Precup is a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Machine Learning at McGill University, where she leads research into how AI can make decisions under uncertainty. She’s also served as the head of Google DeepMind’s Montreal office since 2017, overseeing a team of researchers working on the next generation of general-purpose AI. In the same year she joined Google, she co-founded AI4Good Lab, an initiative that aims to address the gender gap in AI by providing training and mentorship to women and gender-diverse individuals.

Immigrated from Spain (via the United States) in 2014 | AI, Autonomous Vehicles

After an accomplished academic and research career at MIT and UC Berkeley, Urtasun moved to Toronto and joined the Department of Computer Science at the University of Toronto. In 2017, she co-founded the Vector Institute for Artificial Intelligence alongside other industry leaders like Geoffrey Hinton. The institute’s goal is to keep Canada at the forefront of AI research and stop the migration of talent south of the border. In 2021, Urtasun launched Waabi, a startup that is working towards solving the “final hurdle problems” of self-driving technology. The company announced a $1 billion (USD) investment in January 2026, one of the largest funding rounds in Canadian tech history. Urtasun was also named in TIME100 in 2023 and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada (2024).

Immigrated from Lebanon (via France) in early 2000s | Pediatric Cancer Research

Jabado is a renowned pediatric hemato-oncologist and is famous for her discovery of oncohistones in 2012. Her research showed that pediatric brain tumors are molecularly distinct from adult versions, which explained why adult treatments often failed in children. Jabado’s discovery led to the reclassification of pediatric brain tumors by the World Health Organization (WHO) and a new wave of targeted clinical trials. She won the L'Oreal-UNESCO For Women in Science International Award and was appointed Officer of the Order of Canada in 2024 for her work in pediatric neuro-oncology.

Immigrated from India in 2003 | Quantum Physics

Ghose is the Founder of the Laurier Centre for Women in Science and the first person of colour elected president of the Canadian Association of Physicists. She and her colleagues at the Wilfrid Laurier University were the first to observe a direct connection between chaos theory (the "butterfly effect") and quantum entanglement. This research helped explain how quantum systems transition into the world we experience every day. Her 2019 TED Talk titled “A beginner’s guide to quantum computing” has over 5.5 million views, making it one of the most-watched physics talks on the platform.

Immigrated from Iran in ~2000s | Health Technology

Sadeghi co-founded MataOptima Technology in 2012, after completing her PhD at Simon Fraser University. The company has developed MoleScope, a mobile dermatoscope that attaches to a smartphone to take medical-grade images of moles, and DermEngine, an AI-powered platform that helps doctors analyze those images with high accuracy. She was an RBC Top 25 Canadian Immigrant Award winner in 2019.

Immigrated from Nigeria (via Finland) in ~2010s | Engineering, STEM Advocacy

Olubamiji is the first Black person to earn a PhD in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Saskatchewan in its over 100-year history. She’s held senior leadership roles in the 3D industry and currently serves as the Director of Additive Manufacturing Solutions at Desktop Metal, Inc. Olubamiji founded the STEMHub Foundation in 2017 to provide STEM programming and mentorship to students and early-career professionals from minority backgrounds. She was named on CBC’s 150 Black Women Making Canada Better in 2017 and L'Oréal Paris Women of Worth in 2019.

Immigrated from Thailand in 2006 | Culinary Arts

Originally a registered nurse, Regular started cooking after immigrating to Toronto, introducing the flavors of Northern Thailand to a city that was largely familiar with ‘Westernized” Thai food. She’s the co-owner of 13 restaurants across six brands in Toronto, including the renowned PAI Northern Thai Kitchen and Kiin. In 2022, the PAI Northern Thai Kitchen was featured in the Michelin Guide Toronto and honored with a Bib Gourmand (an award for quality food at a great value). It has retained that status ever since. Regular was the first Thai chef in Canada to receive the Thai Select Premium designation from the Government of Thailand, certifying the authenticity of her ingredients and techniques. In 2022, she was named one of WXN Canada’s Most Powerful Women.

Immigrated from Morocco in ~2000s | Music

Faouzia is a Moroccan-Canadian pop singer-songwriter whose career blossomed from Carman, a small town in Manitoba.. She’s often remarked as an example of immigrant talent that found success outside of Canada’s major urban centers like Toronto or Vancouver. Faouzia has collaborated with John Legend (on the hit “Minefields”), David Guetta, and Kelly Clarkson. She received her first Juno Award nomination in 2022 for Breakthrough Artist of the Year.

Immigrated from the Philippines in ~2000s | Entertainment

Pornel is the co-host of CBC’s The Great Canadian Baking Show alongside fellow comedian, Alan Shane Lewis. Her performance as host earned her back-to-back Canadian Screen Award nominations for Best Host or Presenter in 2022 and 2023. She’s also written and starred in three critically acclaimed revues at the Second City Toronto Mainstage; Come What Mayhem! (2016), Everything is Great Again (2017), and Party Today (Panic Tomorrow) (2017–2018). Pornel won the Canadian Comedy Award in 2017.

Immigrated from Afghanistan in 2021 | Journalism

Nekzad is a prominent Afghan journalist and human rights defender who fled Kabul following the Taliban takeover in August 2021. She arrived in Canada that same year and was appointed as a journalist-in-residence at Carleton University’s School of Journalism and Communication. Nekzad previously served as the director of the Centre for the Protection of Afghan Women Journalists (CPAWJ), which she co-founded in 2017 to support women in media.She is a recipient of the International Women’s Media Foundation (IWMF) Courage in Journalism Award and the CPJ International Press Freedom Award.

Immigrated from Afghanistan in 2022 | Journalism

Ahad is a Hazara Afghan journalist who moved to Toronto after the Taliban’s takeover. A former multimedia journalist for BBC Afghanistan, she has continued her vital reporting from exile, with her work appearing in The Guardian, Al Jazeera, NPR, and The National. Ahad was honored as the 2022–2023 William Southam Journalism Fellow at the University of Toronto (Massey College), where she focused on the intersection of human rights and conflict. She also serves as an associate editor for Chatelaine and volunteers as a translator for the Calgary Catholic Immigration Society (CCIS), helping other Afghan newcomers with their resettlement.

Immigrated from Pakistan in ~1990s | Writing, Photography

Habib is a queer Muslim writer, photographer, and activist best known for her memoir, We Have Always Been Here, which won the 2020 Canada Reads competition. The book tells her story of hiding her Ahmadiyya faith in Pakistan, figuring her way through a childhood arranged marriage in Canada, and finding her voice. Habib is also the creator of Just Me and Allah, a global photography project that documents the diverse lives of LGBTQ Muslims.

Immigrated from Hong Kong in 1980 | Settlement Services

Choo is a prominent leader in Canada's social service sector, serving as the CEO of S.U.C.C.E.S.S., one of the country's largest non-profit immigrant settlement organizations. Under her, S.U.C.C.E.S.S. serves over 40,000 unique clients annually in British Columbia, providing essential programs in language training, employment, and affordable housing. Choo has been recognized as one of BC's Most Influential Women and was a recipient of the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal (2012) for her dedication to community building and the integration of newcomers.

Immigrated from Palestine in ~2000s | Social Enterprise

Sharrab moved to Canada to study at York University before dedicating her career to helping displaced communities. She’s the co-founder and CEO of Sitti Social Enterprise, a lifestyle brand that currently employs over 30 refugee women and people with disabilities to craft handmade goods. In 2015, Sharrab was honored with the Arab Women of Excellence Award by the Arab Women’s Council, and in 2022, she was recognized as a Top 25 Canadian Immigrant Award winner.

Immigrated from India in ~2010s | Biotechnology

Dhayagude is a biotech entrepreneur who co-founded Chinova Bioworks in Fredericton, a company that develops natural food preservatives derived from white button mushrooms. Her work has helped put New Brunswick on the map as a hub for sustainable food science. In 2023, she was named a Top 25 Canadian Immigrant Award winner, and she has also been honored as one of Canada’s Top 100 Most Powerful Women.

As an immigrant myself, I kept having the same reaction while putting this together. How did I not know about her? And her? And her? But also, if you  read this list to the very end and still think immigrants are a net-negative to Canada, I don’t know what else to say. 

Happy International Women’s Day to all the amazing Canadian immigrant women out there. Our country’s story is incomplete without you.

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