The Honourable Landon Pearson
Inquiry--Debate Adjourned
December 1, 2020
Rose pursuant to notice of November 5, 2020:
That she will call the attention of the Senate to the career of former senator the Honourable Landon Pearson.
She said: Honourable senators, I rise today to honour a remarkable Canadian, former senator Landon Pearson, who recently celebrated her ninetieth birthday.
Former senator Landon Pearson dedicated over 65 years to working for the betterment of children’s lives, both in Canada and internationally. Her distinguished career has also included being a published writer, public speaker, volunteer, school trustee, Foreign Service spouse and mother. Today, her voice remains strong, clear and as commanding as ever as she continues her life’s work.
Former Senator Pearson’s contribution to the lives of children has been immeasurable. She has been a leader and advocate for the development of children’s rights, even before they were officially recognized by the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Hers is the power of a life dedicated to children. She has proven the value of dedicating one’s life to the most vulnerable and, in doing so, demonstrated that through one’s passion and dedication, a whole society can be enriched.
Former Senator Pearson has helped to change the discourse on children’s rights in Canada. She has helped to bring children’s voices to the table. She took an approach that had children and adults working together to find solutions, a paradigm shift from the approach that had adults working to identify the challenges faced by children without their input.
Born in Toronto on November 16, 1930, Landon Pearson grew up in a small town in southwestern Ontario in a loving family setting. She was always encouraged to chart her own course. She attributes her sense of fairness to her upbringing.
She once said, “Many people come to human rights advocacy from an experience of oppression. I come from the other direction.” This sensitivity to injustice has informed both her career and her personal life. As a mother, she tried to instill in her children the same fundamental sense of fairness that she grew up with.
Landon Pearson graduated from the University of Toronto in 1951 with a B.A. in Philosophy and English. She met Geoffrey Pearson, one of the five sons of Lester B. Pearson, while attending university and married him immediately upon graduation. She accompanied her husband to Oxford, where he completed his master’s degree.
With her husband now a diplomat, her once sheltered life rapidly expanded as she travelled with their growing family to France, Mexico, India and the former Soviet Union. With each new relocation, her eyes and her heart were opened to the challenges and diversity of the larger world. She often cites this experience — watching her children adapt to their new surroundings and helping them to learn from what they encountered as they settled in — as being instrumental in informing her own understanding of children’s needs. She cites the importance of children having strong family support and the tools they need as key enablers for how much they are able to accomplish themselves.
In the 1980s, Senator Pearson was a leader in Canada’s work for the International Year of the Child and edited the commission’s report. In this role, she travelled throughout Canada to gather opinions directly from children and to understand their problems first-hand. It was then, as she stated in her maiden speech in the Senate, that she became aware of “how much children are affected, sometimes inadvertently, by legislation and government action.”
From 1984 to 1990, she was president, then chairperson, of the Canadian Council on Children and Youth. She has been involved in numerous community-based organizations and was instrumental in conceptualizing and implementing the program Children Learning for Living. She was also a founding member and chairperson of the Canadian Coalition for the Rights of Children from 1989 to 1994, when she was summoned to the Senate.
Former Senator Pearson has been referred to as “the senator for children” or “the children’s senator” by Prime Minister Chrétien when he appointed her in order to speak on behalf of the millions of Canadians who are under 18 years of age and disfranchised due to their lack of the right to vote.
As a senator, she did not speak for children; rather, she enabled them to speak for themselves by including them in meetings and even bringing them to the UN headquarters in 1991 for Canada’s ratification of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Senator Pearson was a strong advocate for ensuring that all government policies affecting children be considered from the perspective of their impact on children’s lives. She believed in constantly honing one’s perspective and having an individual approach as opposed to one-size-fits-all policies. She focused on the issues of child labour, youth criminal justice, child protection, children’s health and women’s prenatal health.
In 1996, due to her reputation as a child advocate, she was appointed as adviser to the Minister of Foreign Affairs on children’s rights and to three succeeding ministers. This enabled her to promote Canada’s reputation as a supporter of children’s rights. She regularly advised the minister on children’s issues in foreign and domestic policy.
She was appointed in 1999 as the personal representative of Prime Minister Jean Chrétien to the 2002 Special Session on Children of the United Nations General Assembly.
Senator Pearson retired from the Senate on November 16, 2005, upon reaching the mandatory retirement age. Her final act in the Senate was a study on Canada’s implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, concluding that Canada had been too slow to implement the measures needed to ensure the best outcomes for our children.
She has founded the Landon Pearson Resource Centre for the Study of Childhood and Children’s Rights at Carleton University since then, donating all her collected resources to the development of children’s rights. She retired from the directorship in 2010, but continues to work alongside it.
Colleagues, what are the lessons that we can learn from such a woman? From a life well spent? I think there are many. We can learn from her that the best response to being gifted with a happy and healthy life is to dedicate it to those less fortunate.
We can learn from her that the best use of a voice is to lend it to those who do not have one. We can see, in her work, meaningful and real progress. But we can also see the work she has left for us to do; the work to make our democracy a more child-friendly democracy, and that it’s not yet complete.
We must consider the impact of legislation on children and youth. Children and youth do not have a strong voice within our democracy. And, colleagues, the rights of children and youth are still up for debate.
Former senator Landon Pearson had a vision of Canada where our children would have every opportunity to grow and thrive, regardless of their postal code, their gender, their race or other factors.
This is a vision shared by countless Canadians who believe children should be a priority for our institutions. It is why so many have joined with Senator McPhedran to say that more Canadians should have the right to vote.
I join with those voices, with many of the voices in this chamber and with Landon Pearson, to say that children must be a priority and that that is the greatest part of her legacy.
She showed us that considering children in every aspect of our work, and making sure that they are a priority, is the right thing to do. History will surely smile on her for teaching us this lesson.
Please join me in thanking former Senator Pearson for her dedicated work and legacy, and to wish her a happy ninetieth birthday. Thank you.
Honourable senators, last month, as you’ve already heard, was the ninetieth birthday of the indomitable “Senator for Children,” Landon Pearson.
In addition to learning about children by having five of her own, Landon has devoted her life’s waged and unpaid work to promoting the rights and amplifying the voices of children and youth.
In the 1970s and 1980s, she worked with and founded numerous groups and services focused on promoting the rights of children. These ranged, as you’ve heard, from setting up a preventive program for children’s mental health for the Ottawa board of education to serving as vice-chair of the Canadian Commission for the International Year of the Child and editor of the commission’s report.
In 1990, as part of the Canadian delegation to the United Nations World Summit for Children, then the largest gathering of world leaders, Landon spearheaded efforts that resulted in Canada playing an essential role in building support for the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Landon Pearson was summoned to this place in 1994, and left it 11 years later. In the intervening years, she continued her life’s work to create international awareness of the importance of children’s rights and the need to provide a voice for children at all levels: local, regional, national and international. She is well recognized for consistently and persistently providing opportunities for children to be integrally involved in the development of policies and decisions that directly affect them.
In addition to her 1996 designation as the first Advisor on Children’s Rights to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, in 1998, Landon co-chaired Out from the Shadows, an International Summit of Sexually Exploited Youth, with Cherry Kingsley, a young Indigenous woman who was in care, and who worked and lived with me for several years before she and Landon met. Cherry introduced us, and described us as her tormentors, and we both called on her to gather youth and assist us in breathing life into their rightful demands for seats at the table, and not merely tokenistic or nominal youth representation at federal and international policy and legislative development fora.
In 1999, as you heard, Jean Chrétien asked then-Senator Pearson to become his personal representative to the United Nations General Assembly Special Session on Children. She agreed, and then selected young Canadians as delegation members to attend the first substantive session of the Preparatory Committee. Landon’s work commenced a Canadian initiative that other countries subsequently adopted.
As deputy chair of the Senate Standing Committee on Human Rights, Landon shepherded a report on Canada’s international obligations in respect of the rights and freedoms of children. When she retired from the Senate, Landon Pearson moved to Carleton University, where she established her resource centre on children and children’s rights.
Former Senator Pearson continues to be an incredible advocate for the human rights of children. Her work has earned wide acclaim in the international arenas and led to a nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2005.
War-affected children, physically and sexually abused children, child victims of pornography and Indigenous children have all found a staunch ally and advocate in Landon Pearson. Cindy Blackstock of the Caring Society calls her a child-rights advocate extraordinaire. Indeed, as many have witnessed over the years, Landon Pearson is not someone who can rest easy when there is work to be done. She simply digs in and gets it done.
Appointed as an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2008, her vital work and lifelong commitment to promoting the rights of children in Canada and throughout the world were recognized, as was her tenacious, tireless and truly inspirational leadership.
Testimonials gathered by Dr. Virginia Caputo in the hot-off-the-press book The Children’s Senator chronicle many accounts of invaluable mentorship, inspirational advocacy, research and writing. So many aspire to demonstrate even a modicum of her skills, perseverance and grace as they continue in her footsteps to address the egregious inequalities that persist for far too many children and youth.
At 90 years and counting, former senator, the Honourable Landon Pearson continues to be a strong and abiding force with and for children and young people throughout Canada.
Thank you, Senator Moodie, for launching this exploration of the remarkable and indomitable Landon Pearson. Thank you.
Honourable senators, Landon Pearson is a living proof that there is life after the Senate.
