Prior to his appointment as Director, Office of the Worker Adviser (OWA) in 2006, Jorma Halonen was the Manager of the OWA's Northwest Region in Thunder Bay. He held this position since 1988, having come to the OWA in 1986 as a Worker Adviser. From 2000 to 2002, Jorma was seconded to the Workers' Adviser Office in British Columbia where he served as the Assistant Director.

Prior to joining the OWA, Jorma had a long history of advocating for and educating working and vulnerable people. Most notably, Jorma established the Psychiatric Patient Advocate Office at the Lakehead Psychiatric Hospital. He acted as Business Manager for the Labourer's Union in Thunder Bay for a period of seven years and taught a variety of labour education courses. While working for the Union, Jorma completed his Honours Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics and Anthropology and subsequently took a number of post-graduate business courses.

Jorma experienced some very personal encounters with workplace accidents in his formative years. His Father died in an explosion at work when Jorma was five years old, leaving his 24 year old Mother a single parent with three small children. Even now, the events of that day remain etched in his mind as one of his earliest childhood memories.

Later, as young workers, he and his Brother were employed as drillers on a pipeline. When told to re-drill an area that had only partially detonated, his Brother hit a "bootleg" -- a piece of unexploded dynamite. Luckily his Brother survived a lengthy hospitalization, but is still peppered with small stone chips as a reminder of the mishap. This marked the end of their youthful aspirations of earning a living as labourers.

Jorma's outside interests involve the great outdoors and Finnish immigrant history. He is an avid skier, cyclist, paddler and fisherman. He served fourteen years as Chair of the Thunder Bay Finnish-Canadian Historical Society. He has written a number of articles on Finnish immigrant history and co-edited a book on sauna bathing customs in North America, called Sweating with Finns.

His prized archival possession is displayed on the desk in his office. It is one of two copies of the Finnish translation of the Ontario Workmen's Compensation Act from 1915, which he stumbled upon in the attic of an abandoned farm house. The other copy of the Act is housed in the archives of the Lakehead University Finnish Historical Society which Jorma helped establish.

Jorma brings dedication, commitment and valuable experience to his role as OWA Director, together with in-depth knowledge of workplace insurance.