Ahmed Hussen appointed Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship

Ahmed Hussen was appointed to the Canadian cabinet today as the Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship.

Ahmed Hussen came to Canada as a refugee from Mogadishu, Somalia, when he was a teenager.

A lawyer and community activist, Hussen became the first Somali-Canadian to be elected to the House of Commons in 2015.

He won his seat in the Toronto riding of York South-Weston by defeating NDP rival Mike Sullivan.

Hussen served as national president of the Canadian Somali Congress, where he worked on integration and boosting the civic engagement of that community.

While studying at York University in the 1990s, Hussen co-founded the Regent Park Community Council and served as its president.

The group advocated for the residents of the oft-troubled Toronto neighbourhood he lived in as it went through a $500-million revitalization project.

He worked as a special assistant for intergovernmental affairs to then-Ontario premier Dalton McGuinty and sat on the board of directors of Journalists for Human Rights.

Hussen takes over the immigration file from John McCallum, who is being appointed Canada’s ambassador to China.