Ron Shimizu

Ron Shimizu was born in a Canadian prison camp in 1944. His issei parents had originally settled in Ucluelet, B.C. in 1919 and lived there until they were forced to leave in 1942. The Shimizus were removed to an incarceration camp in Slocan, B.C. where Ron was born, the youngest of six children. The family remained there until the end of the Second World War.

Following the expulsion of Japanese Canadians from B.C., his family moved to Ontario in 1947 and resettled in Hamilton in 1951 where Ron grew up and attended school. He went on to university and received a master of arts in political science from McMaster University.

Ron worked at Environment Canada in Toronto for 30 years and has done consulting work federal, provincial and international agencies and governments. He is married to Edy Goto and has two adult children.

Actively involved in the Toronto JC community since 1976, Ron served on the board of the Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre (JCCC), chaired the Centennial Youth Conference and was a member of the JCCC Annex Drop-In Centre (1979-84). In the early 1980s, he was a member of the Sodan Kai, one of the vital steppingstones in the redress campaign. He volunteered at the Toronto Buddhist Church with the sangha (men’s auxiliary) and served on its board of directors.

In 2014, he joined the board of directors of the Toronto Chapter of the National Association of Japanese Canadians (NAJC) and helped develop a public lecture series. In 2017, he initiated and led the organizing team of the special luncheon for JCs on the 75th anniversary of their internment and displacement in Canada. He stepped down from the board in 2020, but now serves as convenor on the elders council.