LIFELINES

REMEMBERING RAVI (1945-2025)

Ravi Juneja at a TREWO event.

Ravinder S. Juneja, known as Ravi, who passed away on June 1, 2025, in Toronto at age 79 after a courageous battle with cancer, was posthumously honoured with a Lifetime Achievement Award by The Ripple Effect Wellness Organization (TREWO).

The much loved and respected community leader led a purpose-driven life and contributed immensely to the growth and development of the organization, said Dr Sudi Devanesen, President of TREWO.

“Ravi was fully committed, engaged and dedicated to the broader vision and mission of TREWO and a passionate advocate for justice and human rights.

“On a personal level he cared deeply for his family and friends and always expressed his gratitude for life and the support he received in good times and bad. He was generous and kind and shared his wisdom and knowledge to support and encourage numerous organizations and individuals whenever they sought his help and guidance. He was a proud Canadian

“We are grateful for Ravi’s leadership, friendship and commitment to the work that we do and will always remember him with love and admiration for his vision for a better and healthier world.

“In Ravi’s honour we are pleased to announce the launch of The Ravi S. Juneja Memorial Fund for cancer education, prevention and research. We invite you to join us and the Juneja family to contribute generously to this specially designated fund.

“Let us honour and keep Ravi’s legacy and memories of love, friendship, service and laughter alive.”

 His nephew wrote the following tribute after Juneja’s passing:

Ravi Juneja was born in Peshawar, British India, on November 28, 1945, the eldest and only son (and only child at the time). His family left Peshawar before partition and lived in Bombay, Faridkot, Agra, and Nagpur.

Juneja showed his intellectual acumen at a young age, placing 2nd in a statewide academic competition, despite just having moved schools. When he was 15, he left for Chandigarh to study engineering, and eventually decided to take a leap and travel abroad to York, England, to study accountancy. There he apprenticed for an accounting firm and learned the trade, before joining his father, mother, and younger sister in Canada in 1966. Given the new country context, Juneja once again apprenticed and retook the accountancy exams, earning his Chartered Accountant, Certified Public Accountant and Certified Fraud Examiner credentials from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ontario.

“Always willing to try anything once.”

His career in accounting and auditing took him across many firms, including Ernst & Ernst (now EY), Haskins & Sells (now Deloitte), Chemical Bank (now Chase), a Japanese bank, and William M. Mercer. He travelled across the country and around the world, from Japan to the Philippines to all over Europe, ferreting out fraud and abuse wherever he could find it. Juneja lived in Melbourne, Australia; Stamford, Connecticut; and Hartsdale, New York; before deciding to finally return to his favourite city, Toronto, to start his own practice.

Back in Canada, he offered his accounting and CFO services to small businesses in the local community he loved. He quickly got involved in charitable work, and became the youngest founding member of the East Indian Professional Residents of Canada (EIPROC), and served as its president for a year. He served as the Chair of the Jewel Heart Ball for the South Asian Community Council of the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Ontario, and was unanimously elected its president in 2004. He left that position to found TREWO in 2006, whose important educational and community health work continues to this day. He was also particularly proud to be an avid and involved sponsor in his local AA chapter.

Raoul Juneja at the tribute to his father with Ranji Narine, CIO, Intact Financial Corp. 

Juneja was a voracious reader and lover of spy novels, action thrillers, British comedies, literary fiction, and MAD magazine, of which he collected every published issue for many years. He was deeply concerned with and involved in local, national, and international politics. He was adventurous and always willing to try anything once, especially in his youth. His keen wit and sense of humour was bested only by his kindness.

Predeceased by his parents Diljit and Gulshan Juneja, he will live on in the memories of his wife of 50 years, Aneeta, to whom he was deeply devoted, as well as his beloved son Raoul, his cherished younger sister Nita and her husband Charles, his niece and nephews, his extended family, and his grand dog Grogu.