Fonds 1764 - Chandrakant P. Shah fonds

Dr. Chandrakant ("Chan") Padamshi Shah is a physician, public health practitioner, social advocate, and Professor Emeritus at the University of Toronto’s Dalla Lana School of Public Health.

He was born on 7 April 1936 in Nandurbar, India. He studied at Gujarat University receiving his Bachelor of Medicine (MBBS) in 1961; the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons, Glasgow (Diploma of Child Health, 1964; MRCP, 1965); and the Harvard School of Public Health (Master's in Science (SM), Health Services Administration, 1974).

After receiving his medical degree in 1961, he decided to pursue further training in the United States beginning in 1962. He worked in Cleveland and Chicago before pursuing postgraduate studies in Glasgow, Scotland. In 1965, he immigrated to Vancouver, and his wife Sudha joined him a year later. In 1967, he was hired as a Clinical Instructor in the Department of Paediatrics at the University of British Columbia. While in Vancouver he also served as the Medical Director of the Children’s Aid Society from 1970-1972. In 1972, he and his family moved to Toronto as he joined the University of Toronto’s Department of Preventative Medicine and Biostatistics as an Assistant Professor. He became an Associate Professor in 1976 and Professor in 1980, with cross-appointments in the Department of Paediatrics, Department of Health Administration, and the Department of Public Health Sciences, amongst others. From 1975-1988, he was also a frequent visitor to Northwestern Ontario as part of the U of T’s Sioux Lookout Program, providing health care and conducting research.

In 1990 he helped found the Faculty of Medicine’s Visiting Lectureship Program in Native Health (1990-2001), an annual three-week program that featured visiting Indigenous speakers discussing the health issues of Indigenous peoples in Canada, to further educate students, faculty, staff, and the public to these issues. He also played an important role in helping establish in 2000 an endowed Chair in Aboriginal Health and Wellbeing at the University of Toronto.

In 1996, he became a Staff Physician at Anishnawbe Health Toronto. He retired from the University of Toronto in 2001, but remained busy as a consultant, researcher, and physician at Anishnawbe Health Toronto.

Dr. Shah’s primary areas of research has been about improving the health and well-being of systematically marginalized people in Canada including Indigenous people, the unhoused, and children living in poverty. He has authored and co-authored over xx articles, reviews, chapters, and reports, throughout his academic career.

In addition, his textbook Public Health and Preventive Medicine in Canada (now in it's 6th edition) is still widely used in universities across the country. He has also served as a consultant to various branches of government including Peel Public Health, the Government of Ontario’s Ministry of Community and Social Services, and the Government of Canada.

In addition to his career as a physician and professor, Dr. Shah is an advocate for social change. Throughout the course of his life he has undertaken numerous causes and campaigns including: a letter writing campaign to urge the federal government to update the citizenship examination booklet and examination to include more content about Indigenous peoples in Canada; advocacy work on employment equity, in particular in the area of Canadian universities’ hiring policies with regards to racialized professors; and a letter writing campaign to urge the Canadian Blood Services to improve its policies, goals, and timelines with regards to the hiring of racialized individuals, women, Indigenous peoples, and persons with disabilities, so that its workforce composition is representative of the Canadian population.

He is the recipient of numerous awards, including the R.D. Defries Award from the Canadian Public Health Association (1999) for outstanding contributions in the broad field of public health; Honorary Life Membership of the Ontario Medical Association (2002); and the Order of Ontario (2005). In addition, in October 1999, he was gifted an eagle feather by elder-in-residence at First Nations House Lillian McGregor, on behalf of U of T’s indigenous community, in recognition of his work against injustices in indigenous health care, and in particular the establishment of the Visiting Lectureship on Native Health. In June 2021, he received an honorary Doctor of Science degree from the University of Toronto for outstanding service for the public good.

He published a memoir, To Change the World: My Work With Diversity, Equity & Inclusion in Canada (Toronto: Mawenzi House) in 2023.