Dr. Gulzar Cheema became the MLA for the riding of
Surrey-Panorama Ridge in the 2001 provincial general
election. He served as the Minister of State for Immigration
and Multicultural Services and as Minister of State
for Mental Health.
He was also a member of the Legislative Assembly
in Manitoba for five years and served as critic for
health, labour, housing, native affairs, sport and
co-operatives, and consumer and corporate affairs.
Before his election to the British Columbia Legislative
Assembly, Dr. Cheema was a family doctor in Surrey.
He has practised medicine in rural Manitoba and in
Winnipeg, and was a clinical instructor in the Punjab
before coming to Canada in 1979. His special interests
include neonatology, psychiatry, psycho-geriatrics
and geriatrics.
Cheema was born April 13, 1954 into a Sikh family
in Baryar Village, in a remote section of the Gurdaspur
District in Punjab, India.
He received his bachelor of medicine and surgery
from India's Punjab University, interned at the University
of Newfoundland and was a resident at Saskatoon's
University Hospital. He is fluent in Punjabi and Hindi,
and understands Urdu.
Dr. Cheema was a member of the Surrey Chamber of
Commerce and the Vancouver Television Community Council,
and was vice-chair of the Rainbow Community Health
Cooperative. He chaired the medical section of the
1998 B.C. Games for Athletes with Disabilities. In
1992 he was awarded the Canada 125 Medal for community
service.
Gulzar and Harinder Cheema have lived in the Surrey
area since 1993; they have two children.
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SUMMARY OF QUALIFICATIONS
Passed F.L.E.X December 1982
Passed L.M.C.C. (Licentiate of the Medical Council
of Canada) May 1982
Passed the Medical Council of Canada’s Evaluation
Examination 1980 for Medical Graduates of Foreign
Medical Schools
Passed E.C.F.M.G. (Educational Commission for Foreign
Medical Graduates) 1980
Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery 1977
Punjab University (India)
POST-GRADUATION MEDICAL EDUCATION
Resident 1
DEPARTMENT OF PAEDIATRICS July 1, 1982-June 30, 1983
University Hospital, Saskatoon, SK
Rotating Internship
MEMORIAL UNIVERSITY OF NEWFOUNDLAND June 10, 1981-June
9, 1982
St. John’s, Newfoundland
Recipient of the John Moorhead Post-Graduate
Scholarship in 1980-81
Pulmonary Research Fellowship
PULMONARY MEDICINE
University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK
Clinical Instructor February 1979-November
1979 DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL AND PREVENTATIVE MEDICINE
(COMMUNITY MEDICINE)
Daya Nand Medical College, Ludhiana, Punjab
(India)
This teaching position also included a period of 4
months working as a
Medical Officer In-Charge of an urban health clinic
run by the
Department of Social and Preventative Medicine.
Resident 1
INTERNAL MEDICINE July 1977-June 1978
Daya Nand Medical College, Ludhiana, Punjab (India)
Rotating Internship July 1977-June 1978
Daya Nand Medical College, Ludhiana, Punjab (India)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mrs. Harinder Cheema
Mrs. Cheema was born in Punjab, and moved with her
parents, who are both teachers, to Scotland when she
was six years old.
After living there for a few years and acquiring
a bit of the Scottish lilt in her voice, Harinder,
her parents and three siblings moved to Canada.
Harinder grew up in Hudson Bay, Saskatchewan and
received her Bachelor of Education at the University
of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon. She went on to teach
in Saskatchewan, Manitoba and later in BC.
Harinder and Dr. Gulzar Cheema were married in 1979
in Winnipeg and have lived in Newfoundland, Saskatchewan,
Manitoba, and now in British Columbia.
Dr. Cheema and Harinder have a son and a daughter
who both attend college. Both children attended Clayton
Elementary School in Surrey.
While raising their children, teaching, managing
her husband’s medical office and laser clinic,
volunteering in the community and supporting her husband’s
move to politics, Harinder has kept the importance
of family foremost in her mind and heart.
