Michael Wernick (born September 1957) is a Canadian retired public servant who served as the 23rd clerk of the Privy Council for Canada from 2016 to 2019. Following his tenure as clerk, Wernick joined the University of Ottawa, where he was named Jarislowsky chair of public sector management. Wernick joined the public service in 1981. Before becoming clerk, Wernick was the deputy clerk under Janice Charette. He was previously the deputy minister for the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development from May 2006 to July 11, 2014. He has held several other positions in the Privy Council Office and as associate deputy minister for the Department of Canadian Heritage. Personal life Born in Montreal, Quebec, Wernick attended Nelson High School in Burlington, Ontario, graduating in 1975. Wernick graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in 1979 and a Master of Arts in economics in 1980 from the University of Toronto. He has been a member of the board of governors for Carleton University in Ottawa. He is a recipient of the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal. He and his wife adopted both of their two children, and wrote about meeting his son's biological mother in 2011. Wernick's parents immigrated from the United Kingdom in August 1956, landing in Montreal and moving on to Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario in 1959. Wernick attended Queen Elizabeth Public School and Alexander Muir Public School in Sault Ste.Marie in the 1960s and John T. Tuck Public School and Nelson High School in Burlington in the 1970s. His sister is Rachel Wernick, a senior official at Employment and Social Development Canada responsible for skills training and youth programs, who was one of the key figures in the WE charity controversy that unfolded after his departure. Career Wernick worked at the constitutional affairs unit of the Federal Provincial Relations Office from 1991 to 1993 and in its successor unit when the Office was merged into the Privy Council Office in 1993, leaving in the summer of 1996. Wernick was deeply involved in the process leading up the Charlottetown Accord of August 1992, supporting the Cabinet Committee chaired by Joe Clark and chairing the multi-jurisdiction committee that drafted the political accord. He was the Assistant Secretary, Constitutional Affairs at Privy Council Office in the period leading to and including the 1995 Quebec referendum on secession. From 1996 to 2002, Wernick was an assistant deputy minister at the