Hosek, Chaviva, 1946- : Dr. Chaviva Milada Hosek O.C. is a Canadian academic, feminist and former politician. She was born 6 October 1946 in Czechoslovakia from a Hungarian Jewish family living in Bohemia and raised in Montreal. She is a child of Holocaust survivors. She received her undergraduate degree from McGill University and earned a doctorate in English literature from Harvard in 1973 (specializing in the poetry of Walt Whitman).
Chaviva Hosek taught at the University of Toronto for 13 years as a professor of English literature. Under her guidance, the university's courses in women's studies became a full program. In the early 1980s, this long-time champion of Canadian education and human rights joined the National Action Committee on the Status of Women and, in 1984, became its president. She served as president of the NAC from 1984 to 1986. Chaviva Hosek was named B'nai Brith Woman of the Year in 1984 and received the YWCA Woman of Distinction Award in 1986 for Community and Public Service.
During the federal election of 1984, she lobbied to have the three main political parties address the issue of women's rights. Her foray into political life continued into provincial parliament of Ontario. In the 1987 Ontario election, Chaviva Hosek sought and won a seat in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario as the Liberal Member of Provincial Parliament for the Toronto constituency of Oakwood, defeating Ontario New Democratic Party incumbent Tony Grande. She was immediately appointed to David Peterson's cabinet as Minister of Housing, and embarked on a program to expand social housing.
Chaviva Hosek resigned from cabinet on October 1, 1989, due to charges that she had hired a developer in her department. She had also attracted controversy by not reappointing popular former Toronto mayor John Sewell to the board of the Metro Toronto Housing Authority. She was later cleared by the provincial auditor of any wrongdoing. The Peterson government was defeated in the 1990 Ontario election, Chaviva Hosek lost her riding to Tony Rizzo of the New Democratic Party.
Chaviva Hosek became director of the Liberal Party of Canada's caucus research bureau in 1990. Along with Paul Martin, she co-authored Creating Opportunity: The Liberal Plan for Canada, (the party's Red Book) as the party's campaign platform for the 1993 federal election was called. After Liberal leader Jean Chrétien became Prime Minister of Canada, Chaviva Hosek was appointed Director of Policy and Research in the Prime Minister's Office, and wrote the Liberal platforms for the 1997 and 2000 federal elections.
In January 2001, Chaviva Hosek left the Prime Minister Office to become President and Chief Executive Officer of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR).
Chaviva Hosek is also a director of Central European University, The Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation, the Leading Edge Endowment Fund and AllerGen NCE Inc. and is a Governor of the Council of Canadian Academies. She has held senior governance positions at the University of Toronto and the University of British Columbia.
Chaviva Hosek is the recipient of two Honorary Doctorate at Ottawa University (2002) and University of Waterloo (2003). In 2006, she was made an Officer of the Order of Canada.
