Rick Smith is Executive Director of Environmental Defence, a national charity dedicated to protecting the environment and human health.  Rick is known for leading innovative and hard-hitting campaigns such as the successful push for the southern Ontario Greenbelt and the Toxic Nation project – which tests people for measurable levels of pollutants in their bodies.  Prior to joining Environmental Defence, Rick served as Chief of Staff to NDP Leader Jack Layton, and Executive Director of the Canadian and UK offices of the International Fund for Animal Welfare.  He received his Ph.D. in Zoology from the University of Guelph.  Rick is particularly proud that the National Post (which is hugely irked by the success of Toxic Nation) has recently dubbed him the “master of linking discombobulated facts with alarming suggestion and exaggeration” and “the king of junk science in Canada”.  He lives in Toronto with his wife Jennifer Story and their two young sons.