Raymonde Folco | |
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Member of Parliament for Laval West | |
In office June 2, 1997 – June 28, 2004 | |
Preceded by | Michel Dupuy |
Succeeded by | riding dissolved |
Member of Parliament for Laval—Les Îles | |
In office June 28, 2004 – May 2, 2011 | |
Preceded by | first member |
Personal details | |
Born | Raymonde Goldgrav[1] March 16, 1940[2] Paris, France |
Political party | Liberal |
Profession | Business administrator/public servant/educational advisor |
Raymonde Folco (née Goldgrav; born March 16, 1940) is a Canadian politician, member of the Liberal Party of Canada. She represented the Quebec riding of Laval—Les Îles in the House of Commons of Canada through 5 successive parliaments from 1997 to 2011, when she left politics.
Born in Paris in 1940 to a Jewish family, she survived the Holocaust being hidden by Christian families outside the city; her father escaped an Auschwitz-bound transport and both her parents fought in the French Resistance.[1] She received a Bachelor of Arts (History) from the University of Melbourne (Australia), a Baccalauréat Spécialisé in Linguistics from the Université du Québec à Montréal, and a Master of Arts in Applied Linguistics from Concordia University (Montreal).
Folco was vice president in 1988 and president from 1990 to 1995 of the Conseil des Communautés culturelles et de l'Immigration. This agency's role is to advise the government on matters relating to the immigration and integration of ethnic minorities.
In 1996–97 she acted as Commissioner with the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, an independent administrative tribunal, responsible for making well-reasoned decisions on the status of persons seeking refugee status in Canada, in accordance with the law.