Toronto’s 50 Most Influential: #31, Zunera Ishaq
Toronto’s 50 Most Influential: #31, Zunera Ishaq
Our annual ranking of the people whose smarts, connections and clout are changing the city as we know it
By Toronto Life | November 19, 2015
By Toronto Life | 11/19/2015
(Image: Ishaq, Harper by Getty Images)
Zunera Ishaq
Reluctant Activist
31 No one predicted a shy immigrant would end up altering the course of the 2015 federal election. Harper, hoping to energize a xenophobic swath of the electorate, challenged Ishaq’s right to wear the niqab during her oath of citizenship ceremony. Ishaq, a mother of four with a master’s in English lit and no particular desire for attention, might have caved. But she had chosen to wear the niqab as a girl in Pakistan and saw no logical reason to stop here. Harper doubled down, promising a “barbaric cultural practices” tip line. Ten days before election day, Ishaq recited her oath wearing whatever she felt like that day (it just happened to be a white and pink floral niqab). Now Harper’s out, Trudeau is in, and Ishaq is Canadian. Her life has returned to some degree of normalcy, but her impact endures.
Fun Fact:
Ishaq was an English literature lecturer for a year in Pakistan.
Today, as far as the rest of the world is concerned, Drake is Toronto
John Tory has taken the first steps toward defining his legacy
It’s been a rocky year for the premier
Cope is the head of Canada’s largest telecommunications company
Butts is now the most powerful non-elected person on Parliament Hill
Laurence is now entering year three of his attempted turnaround of Rogers
Black is the regional head of a global corporate scofflaw
Keesmaat is Toronto’s defiant, outspoken chief planner
Tanenbaum is the city’s most powerful sports figure
Klein is one of the world’s leading critics of capitalism
Telford led Justin Trudeau’s ground campaign
Bautista’s three-run homer elevated him from star slugger to cult hero
Brown is the second most powerful person in Queen’s Park
Handling and Bailey rep the most important movie marketplace not named Cannes
Lennox has domain over Bell’s original and in-house television productions
Ruffolo commands one of Bay Street’s largest private venture capital firms
Kouvalis is the ultimate guy behind the guy
This was the year The Weeknd achieved monster commercial success
Shanahan is the man responsible for returning the most hallowed franchise in hockey to greatness
Livingston suddenly finds himself in the upper echelons of the mobile start-up world
Omidvar is one of the city’s staunchest champions of diversity
Thomson is the public face, however reluctantly, of his family’s $30.7-billion fortune
Saunders heads up the country’s largest municipal police force
Weston has redefined grocery shopping for the 21st century
Khabouth is Toronto’s leading club and restaurant mogul
Hoskins has his hands full with Ontario’s $50-billion health ministry
Hockey is responsible for the bulk of TD Canada Trust’s net income
Donaldson helped lead the Jays to the post-season for the first time in 22 years
Remedios deals with Bieber, the Weeknd and Drake
Maslany is the most buzzed-about Canadian actor since Gosling
At age 75, Atwood is more relevant than ever
Rose is Toronto’s restaurant oracle
Henein runs the hottest criminal defence firm in Toronto
Taylor’s cheerful prints have appeared on the likes of Taylor Swift, Beyoncé and Michelle Obama
The king of Queen West has taken his quirky brand of Canadiana on the road
Stewart is winning the battle to convince networks that Twitter is a reinforcement to—not a distraction from—their programming
Freeland may have the most impressive resumé in Canadian politics
Powerful people start quaking when Kevin Donovan’s name pops up on their call display
Rafi turned the city’s Pan Am cynicism into pride
The head of the Slaight Family Foundation followed up on a generous 2014
Cochrane is easily the most powerful person in the Canadian book publishing industry
Galloway’s voice is the first thing 392,000 Torontonians hear every morning
Taylor is Canada’s first female bank chair
Mizrahi has dominion over what is arguably Toronto’s most significant undeveloped piece of land
The GTA’s residential construction titan is headed downtown
Canada finally has another sprinter worth getting excited about
Pride’s fresh-faced francophone executive director has the diplomatic skills and savoir-faire for the gig
Deluce closes out the year with no shortage of headaches
Kain put the National Ballet back on stable financial footing
. Now Harper’s out, Trudeau is in, and Ishaq is Canadian. Her life has returned to some degree of normalcy, but her impact endures.
Fun Fact:
Ishaq was an English literature lecturer for a year in Pakistan.
[sjmcm layout="built-in:general_archive_list_10" numslots="10" posts="49:post_tag:50-most-influential-2015" numslots_override="49" label="More%20of%20Toronto's%20Most%20Influential%20People" sponsored_by="" sponsor_image="" sponsor_link="" sponsor_text=""]){kind=link}