Shai DeLuca, 47-48, was born and raised in Toronto.

In an interview with The Canadian Jewish News (CJN), DeLuca stated, “I grew up in an extremely Zionist family. The matriarch of my family, my grandma, and I had a very special relationship. She always said that if she’d had the opportunity, she would’ve gone to Israel. She talked a lot about the importance of defending our homeland. This was really strongly instilled in me. From the age of 15, I knew that, at 18, I’d go do my army service in Israel. I finished high school in Toronto and in November 1995, I went into the Israeli army. It was the day after former Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated.”

DeLuca served for three years. He told CJN, “It was life changing. If I had to do it again, I would. I was injured during my service, but that aside, it was a great experience. It was a way for me to give back to what I consider my homeland in the fullest way I could imagine. I was a combat engineer. It was very engineering-centred, but we were also in combat. We were taught to do things like clear areas of mines and build explosives to break through terrain, if needed.”

After finishing his service, DeLuca worked in Israel, and then spent time in New York and Toronto working and studying in design. He started his own design company in 2002. In 2011, DeLuca began appearing on CityTV’s Cityline show as a design expert.

In 2020, DeLuca launched a successful lawsuit against a Toronto grocery store owner that had criticized his service in the Israeli military in a way that a judge deemed to be defamatory.