Jerry Grafstein

Jerry Grafstein

The Honourable Jerry S. Grafstein, B.A., J.D., Q.C., is a Canadian lawyer, businessman and former politician, who served on the Senate of Canada from 1984 to 2010. Grafstein was the longest serving member of the Standing Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade. He served as Co-Chair of the Canada-United States Inter-Parliamentary Group and as a Senior Officer of the Organization for Security and Co-Operation in Europe (OSCE) Parliamentary Assembly for over a decade.

Grafstein is a former Partner of Minden Gross LLP, a prominent business law firm in Toronto where he is now Counsel. He was appointed to Queen's Counsel by the Province of Ontario in 1972. He specialized in Communications Law, Corporate Financing and Administrative Law.

Grafstein is also known as one of the founders of CityTV, MTV-Multilingual (now Omni TV), YTV, and a series of other media companies in Canada, the United States, South America and Europe. He served on the board of several enterprises including Petro-Canada. Most recently, he has started a series of online newspapers, including The Wellington Street Post (Ottawa), The Penn Ave Post (Washington) and The Holly Post (Hollywood).

Grafstein is well known for his participation in the community and his key role in the organization of events such as “Canada Loves New York” in the aftermath of September 11th, “Toronto Rocks” Concert during the SARS outbreak, and the “Canada for Asia” telethon in the aid for relief of Tsunami victims.

Grafstein holds numerous awards including Honourary Chief of the New York Fire Department and Honourary Commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps by the Canada-United States Inter-Parliamentary Group. He was named one of Canada’s 100 most important “Public Intellectuals” in 2005 by the National Post.