Identity area
Type of entity
Authorized form of name
Parallel form(s) of name
Standardized form(s) of name according to other rules
Other form(s) of name
Identifiers for corporate bodies
Description area
Dates of existence
History
Julie Jai was born in October 1957 in Canada and adopted by Beatrice and Raymond Jai in 1961. Growing up, Julie spent many evenings in the Toronto Yet Hoy Cantonese Music Club watching her parents practice, and Cantonese Opera became the “wallpaper” of her childhood. Raymond wrote music scores for Julie, taught her how to sing, while Beatrice taught Julie how to act on stage. Although unable to read Chinese characters, young Julie could sing a few Cantonese Opera titles and performed in several Yet Hoy shows, often in child or supporting youth female roles. As adolescence kicked in, Julie started to feel the pressure to “fit in” and gradually stopped participating in Cantonese Opera performances.
Julie studied Chemistry at the University of Toronto for her undergraduate degree, yet later decided to take law as her life career. She finished a Bachelor of Laws at Osgood Hall Law School, York University in 1980 and soon became the first female to work for the Legal Branch of Correctional Services of Attorney General Ministry 安省司法改良部法律科. Her later work experience related to justice policies and Native affairs led to her decision to obtain a Master of Laws degree with a focus on Aboriginal Law from the University of Toronto, Faculty of Law in 2000. Since then, Julie has served various executive and senior legal counsel with the governments of Ontario, Yukon and Canada and was the Yukon's Chief Negotiator on self-government negotiations in the justice field.
On September 25, 2008, Julie married David Trick. The couple split their time in Toronto, Ontario and Whitehorse, Yukon. After her mother passed away in 2017, Julie inherited her parents’ life collection related to Cantonese Opera along with other materials. She decided to find a better home for these materials and donated them to the Chinese Canadian Collections at the University of Toronto Libraries on May 31st, 2018. This forms the Beatrice and Raymond Jai Cantonese Opera Collection and the Beatrice and Raymond Jai family fonds, while some non-archival materials have been acquired into UTL’s library collections.
Julie’s love and passion for art that she inherited from her parents since childhood never fade away. She set a goal to invest more time on art for her semi-retirement plan. In 2019, she co-founded with David the Yukon Prize for Visual Arts to honour Yukon artists and promote their work across Canada and internationally. She also sat on the Board of Trustees of Canadian Museum for Human Rights from 2019 to 2022. Most recently, Julie has been serving the Board of Trustees of National Gallery of Canada since December 12, 2022.
Places
Legal status
Functions, occupations and activities
Mandates/sources of authority
Internal structures/genealogy
General context
Relationships area
Related entity
Identifier of related entity
Category of relationship
Type of relationship
Dates of relationship
Description of relationship
Related entity
Identifier of related entity
Category of relationship
Type of relationship
Dates of relationship
Description of relationship
Access points area
Subject access points
Place access points
Occupations
Control area
Authority record identifier
Maintained by
Institution identifier
Rules and/or conventions used
Status
Level of detail
Dates of creation, revision and deletion
Language(s)
Script(s)
Sources
Chan, Arlene. “Stories, Struggles and Song: Cantonese Opera in Toronto.” Spacing Toronto, March 11, 2019. https://spacing.ca/toronto/2019/03/11/stories-struggles-and-song-cantonese-opera-in-toronto/.
“Julie Jai, Whitehorse, Yukon.” Board of Trustees | National Gallery of Canada. Accessed October 28, 2024. https://www.gallery.ca/about/governance/board-of-trustees.
Julie Jai. Accessed October 28, 2024. https://ca.linkedin.com/in/julie-jai-8442326.