John Mah arrived in Canada in 1956 as a young boy from Sunkok, Toishan, in China’s Kwangtung province, joining grandparents who had immigrated decades earlier and opened the Union Cafe in Edson, Alberta. He would go on to become the fourth person of Chinese descent admitted to the Alberta Bar, a Lieutenant-Colonel in the Canadian Armed Forces reserves, and one of the most senior leaders in the global Order of St. John. In 2020, the Government of Alberta named him to the Alberta Order of Excellence for more than 40 years of legal work, military service and volunteer leadership.
From Boyle Street to the Bar
Mah’s family settled in Edmonton’s Boyle Street neighbourhood, a working class community where he learned to navigate a wide range of people and circumstances at a young age, even as he lost fluency in his first language while immersing himself in Canadian life. After high school, he studied at the University of Alberta, served with the Loyal Edmonton Regiment, and spent time at the Yale-in-China Chinese Language Centre in Hong Kong, where he met his future wife, Anny Leung. He completed his Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Laws and was admitted to the Alberta Bar in 1977, later becoming a senior partner at Chomicki Baril Mah LLP and earning appointment as Queen’s Counsel in 1992. Throughout his career, he provided pro bono legal guidance to Edmonton’s Chinese Canadian community on family reunification and government matters.
A Soldier and a Sub-Prior
Mah’s military path began as a private with the Loyal Edmonton Regiment and carried him through officer training to the rank of Captain, then, after joining the Canadian Army Reserves’ Office of the Judge Advocate General in 1986, to Lieutenant-Colonel before his retirement in 2009. He established the Military Law Section of the Canadian Bar Association in Edmonton to help civilian lawyers better advise clients serving in the forces. Alongside that service, Mah rose through the Order of St. John, chairing its Alberta Council, serving as National Chair and Chancellor of St. John Ambulance in Canada, and eventually becoming Sub-Prior of the Order of St. John International, with oversight of chapters across more than 30 countries. He was the first ethnic Chinese person to hold each of those Canadian roles. His full record is detailed on the Alberta Order of Excellence’s profile of John Mah.
A Builder of Community Institutions
Mah helped establish Chinese radio programming in Edmonton in 1983 through CKER, now home to programming in 15 languages, and served as honorary legal advisor to the Chinese Benevolent Association, which supports the city’s Chinese seniors. He was part of the planning committee behind the Edmonton Chinatown Continuing Care Centre and helped found the Chinese Canadian Pioneer Museum Foundation in 1996 to preserve the history of early Chinese Canadian pioneers. He also served two terms as a public member of the University of Alberta’s Board of Governors and as a director of the Edmonton Community Foundation.
What does it take to become a first in three different institutions while still finding time to answer a stranger’s request for help translating a government letter?
