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John was born in Bellshill, Scotland and emigrated with his family to Canada in 1974 when he was only two year old.

As unlikely as it seems, while growing up in Oshawa, John was surrounded by Scottish culture as Oshawa at that time featured both the Oshawa Rangers Youth Soccer Club and the famous Tartan Tavern.

Beyond the boundaries of suburban Oshawa, John's parents kept the connections to Scotland alive by taking the family every year to many of Ontario's highland games as well as hosting relatives over from Scotland.

Although there have been several trips back to Scotland over the years, the highlight of his trips back home came in 2014 when he got to attend Edinburgh's fabled Military Tattoo.

Today John is proud to lead the Scottish Society having first joined the Society's Board of Directors in March of 2022.

In his spare time - when he is not organizing and hosting Scottish Society events - John practices labour law in Ottawa working on behalf of many trade unions here in the nation's capital.