Mr. Grafstein was a co-founder of a range of media companies, in Canada, the United Kingdom, United States and South America. He was appointed to the Senate of Canada in 1984 by then Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau. Mr. Grafstein served on all Senate Committees, especially the Foreign Affairs and Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee. He also served as Chairman of the Senate Banking, Trade and Commerce Committee.
He retired from the Senate on January 1, 2010 and continued his law practice as counsel to Minden Gross LLP in Toronto until March 2015 and he is now Counsel Emeritus. He was named one of Canada’s top intellectuals by the National Post. He is an Honorary Commandant of US Marine Corps and Honorary War Chief of the Peigan Nation of North Alberta. He continues to serve as a director of public companies and as a key investor in several Canadian based tech start-ups.