MI Tapestry

Binah Yeung
of Cairncross &
Hempelmann P.S.,
Seattle, USA introduces
us to Gretta Wong
Grant
Gretta Wong Grant
In autumn 1946, Gretta Jean Wong was called to the bar in Toronto. Chinese
immigrants first began to arrive in Canada in 1858, but it wasn’t until nearly a
hundred years later were any admitted to practice law. Shortly after Kew Dock Yip
(who was involved in repealing the Chinese Immigration Act) was called to the
bar, Gretta Wong Grant became the first Chinese Canadian woman to become a
qualified lawyer in Canada. She did so during a time of racial violence and anti-
Chinese sentiment in the country.
Wong was born on July 31, 1921 to father Lem Wong, who immigrated to Canada
in 1896, and mother Toye Chin, who landed in 1911. The family ran a successful
restaurant in London, Ontario, for many years. She was the former Regional
Director of the Ontario Legal Aid Plan and the former Chair of the City of London’s
Race Relations Committee. Grant was also the past President of Chinese Canadian
National Council, London Chapter.
“Never feel that you’re going to have any discrimination,” she advises younger
Chinese Canadians during an interview with Road to Justice. “You never worry,