Thanh Hai Ngo (; born January 3, 1947) is a retired Canadian politician who served as a

senator A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

from

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

between 2012 and 2022. A member of the

Conservative Party The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right. Political parties called The Conservative P ...

, Ngo was appointed to the Senate on the advice of Prime Minister

Stephen Harper Stephen Joseph Harper (born April 30, 1959) is a Canadian politician who served as the 22nd prime minister of Canada from 2006 to 2015. Harper is the first and only prime minister to come from the modern-day Conservative Party of Canada, ...

. He is the first senator of

Vietnamese Vietnamese may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Vietnam, a country in Southeast Asia ** A citizen of Vietnam. See Demographics of Vietnam. * Vietnamese people, or Kinh people, a Southeast Asian ethnic group native to Vietnam ** Overse ...

descent. He retired from the Senate upon reaching the mandatory retirement age of 75 on January 3, 2022.

Background

Ngô was born in

South Vietnam South Vietnam, officially the Republic of Vietnam ( vi, Việt Nam Cộng hòa), was a state in Southeast Asia that existed from 1955 to 1975, the period when the southern portion of Vietnam was a member of the Western Bloc during part of th ...

and was an officer of

Republic of Vietnam Military Forces The Republic of Vietnam Military Forces (RVNMF; – QLVNCH), were the official armed defense forces of the defunct Republic of Vietnam and was responsible for the defense of the state since its independence from France in October 1955 to its de ...

.Phỏng vấn Thượng nghị sĩ Canada Ngô Thanh Hải
RFI, 2.1.2013 He immigrated to

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

after the

Fall of Saigon The Fall of Saigon, also known as the Liberation of Saigon by North Vietnamese or Liberation of the South by the Vietnamese government, and known as Black April by anti-communist overseas Vietnamese was the capture of Saigon, the capital of ...

in April 1975. Senator Ngo has been very concerned with allegations of abuse of human rights in Vietnam.Upper House Watch: Five new senators headed for the Red Chamber
CBCnews, September 7, 2012, Accessed September 7, 2012 He has a Bachelor of Arts (Honors) from the

University of Paris , image_name = Coat of arms of the University of Paris.svg , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of Arms , latin_name = Universitas magistrorum et scholarium Parisiensis , motto = ''Hic et ubique terrarum'' (Latin) , mottoeng = Here and a ...

and Bachelor and a Master of Education from the

University of Ottawa The University of Ottawa (french: Université d'Ottawa), often referred to as uOttawa or U of O, is a bilingual public research university in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is located on directly to the northeast of Downtown Ottawa ...

. Until his appointment to the Senate in 2012, he had been a citizenship judge from 2007 to 2012. He retired from the Senate upon reaching the mandatory retirement age of 75 on January 3, 2022.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ngo, Thanh Hai Canadian senators from Ontario Judges in Ontario Conservative Party of Canada senators Vietnamese emigrants to Canada University of Ottawa alumni University of Paris alumni Canadian politicians of Vietnamese descent Vietnamese community activists South Vietnamese military personnel of the Vietnam War Vietnamese refugees Living people 1947 births 21st-century Canadian politicians Canadian citizenship judges