Established in memory of former Senator, the Hon. Landon Pearson, this fund will honour Landon who dedicated her life to advocating for the rights of children and young people in Canada and around the world.

Landon was the spouse to Geoffrey Pearson, mother, grandmother, daughter-in-law to former PM Lester B. Pearson, advocate, author, speaker, Senator, and champion for the voices of children and youth. Over the course of her long life, she worked tirelessly to build “a Canada fit for children”, inspiring and encouraging innovations in policy, law and practice that give children a chance to flourish.  She insisted on letting children and youth speak for themselves, believing that they have the right to be heard and a voice in shaping their own lives.

The birth of her own five children sparked her intellectual curiosity in the study of childhood. In 1979, she served as Vice-Chair of the Canadian Commission for the UN International Year of the Child, where she first articulated a program for bold action on behalf of Canada’s children. As she travelled the world, she missed no opportunity to observe and reflect on the experiences of children, authoring a book on child development in the Soviet context of the 1970s and 1980s, Children of Glasnost.  From 1984 to 1990, she served as president and Chair of the Canadian Council on Children and Youth. In 1994, she was appointed by Prime Minister Jean Chretien to the Senate of Canada, serving eleven highly productive years during which she became known as the “Children’s Senator”.

The Honourable Landon Pearson was the Personal Representative of the Prime Minister to the UN Special Session on Children in 2002.  After she left the Senate in 2005, she continued her activism and intellectual leadership by founding the Landon Pearson Resource Centre for the Study of Childhood and Children’s Rights at Carleton University. In 2008, she was appointed to the Order of Canada for her extraordinary contributions which changed the way in which children’s rights are understood and affirmed across Canada. She was as dedicated to children and youth in her private life as she was in her public life. In 2022, Landon received a Janusz Korczak Award in Child Advocacy, recognizing her as one of the world’s foremost advocates for the rights and well-being of children.

Through your generosity, Landon’s legacy will continue at Carleton University. It will help ensure that future generations of students benefit from over six decades of Landon’s extensive research, and to expand the largest collection of children’s rights resources found in one place in the country at the Landon Pearson Resource Centre for the Study of Childhood and Children’s Rights.

As Canada’s premier and only children’s rights Centre in the country, your donation will support Landon’s vision to advance the rights of children and young people through teaching, mentorship and meaningful collaboration.