Rick Smith

Rick Smith is a prominent Canadian author and environmentalist and Executive Director of Environmental Defence Canada (since 2003). A biologist by training, Rick completed his doctoral research on an endangered subspecies of freshwater harbour seal in arctic Quebec with a nearby community of Cree hunters. From 1997 to 2002 Rick was Executive Director of the International Fund for Animal Welfare's Canadian office and acting Director of the Fund's UK office for a year. While at the Fund, Rick created high-profile and successful public efforts to end Ontario's spring bear hunt, won a groundbreaking Supreme Court of Canada ruling striking down the patenting of higher life forms and spurred the adoption of Canada's first federal Species At Risk Act. As Executive Director of Environmental Defence Canada, Rick has established a reputation as one of the country's leading environmental campaigners with efforts such as the high-profile Toxic Nation campaign, which has tested prominent Canadians for measurable levels of pollutants in their blood. Other important new government policies that he has played a leading role in shaping include the Greater Golden Horseshoe Greenbelt, the largest in the world; Ontario's new Endangered Species Act, widely viewed as the most progressive in North America; and Canada's recent decision to become the first jurisdiction in the world to ban the toxic chemical bisphenol A from children's products. Rick lives in Toronto with his wife Jennifer Story and their two young sons.