The Pearson Medal of Peace is an award given out annually by the

United Nations Association in Canada The United Nations Association in Canada (UNA-Canada) is an historic, national charitable organization providing the leading policy voice on multilateralism in Canada. Established in 1946, UNA-Canada was a founding member of the World Federation of ...

to recognize an individual Canadian's "contribution to international service". Nominations are made by any Canadian for any Canadian, excluding self-nominations. The medal was first announced in 1979 and named in honour of

Lester B. Pearson Lester Bowles "Mike" Pearson (23 April 1897 – 27 December 1972) was a Canadian scholar, statesman, diplomat, and politician who served as the 14th prime minister of Canada from 1963 to 1968. Born in Newtonbrook, Ontario (now part of ...

Nobel Peace Prize The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Swedish industrialist, inventor and armaments (military weapons and equipment) manufacturer Alfred Nobel, along with the prizes in Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Chemi ...

winner and Canada's fourteenth

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...

. The medal was to be selected by a jury of "eminent Canadians" and awarded by the

Governor-General of Canada The governor general of Canada (french: gouverneure générale du Canada) is the federal viceregal representative of the . The is head of state of Canada and the 14 other Commonwealth realms, but resides in oldest and most populous realm, t ...

United Nations Day United Nations Day is an annual commemorative day, reflecting the official creation of the United Nations on 24 October 1945. In 1947, the United Nations General Assembly declared 24 October, the anniversary of the Charter of the United Nations, ...

, October 24. After the 2004 medal was awarded to

Roméo Dallaire Roméo Antonius Dallaire (born June 25, 1946) is a Canadian humanitarian, author, retired senator and Canadian Forces lieutenant-general. Dallaire served as force commander of UNAMIR, the ill-fated United Nations peacekeeping force for Rwanda b ...

, it was not awarded again until it was revived in 2011 to honour peace activist

Ernie Regehr Ernie Regehr, is a Canadian peace researcher and expert in security and disarmament. He co-founded Project Ploughshares, a peace research organization based in Waterloo, Ontario, with Murray Thomson in 1976 and served as its Executive Director for ...

.Campbell Clark
"Governor-General honours veteran of the war on war"
''

The Globe and Mail ''The Globe and Mail'' is a Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of approximately 2 million in 2015, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on weekdays and Saturdays, although it ...

'', January 20, 2011.

Recipients of the Pearson Medal of Peace

* 1979 -

Paul-Émile Léger Paul-Émile Léger (April 26, 1904 – November 13, 1991) was a Canadian Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Archbishop of Montreal from 1950 to 1967, and was elevated to the cardinalate in 1953 by Pope Pius XII. Early life an ...

* 1980 -

J. King Gordon John King Gordon (1900–1989) was a Canadian Christian minister, editor, United Nations official, and academic. Biography Gordon was born on 6 December 1900 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, the son of the novelist and future Presbyterian Church moderat ...

* 1981 -

E. L. M. Burns Lieutenant General Eedson Louis Millard "Tommy" Burns, (June 17, 1897 – September 13, 1985) was a senior officer of the Canadian Army and a diplomat. He saw active service in both World War I and World War II. He served as the first commander of ...

* 1982 - Hugh L. Keenleyside * 1983 - George-Henri Lévesque * 1984 -

George Ignatieff Count George Pavlovich Ignatieff, (russian: Георгий Па́влович Игнатьев; December 16, 1913 – August 10, 1989) was a Canadian diplomat. His career spanned nearly five decades in World War II and the postwar period. Ear ...

* 1985 -

Lois Miriam Wilson Lois Miriam Wilson (born Lois Freeman; April 8, 1927) is a retired United Church Minister who was the first female Moderator of the United Church of Canada, from 1980 to 1982. She was ordained a United Church minister in 1965, her husband hav ...

* 1986 -

Meyer Brownstone Meyer Brownstone (June 26, 1922 – April 3, 2019) was a Canadian activist, civil servant, and academic, particularly notable for his longtime involvement with Oxfam Canada. Early life Brownstone was born in Winnipeg in 1922 to a poor Jewish socia ...

* 1987 - Nancy Meek Pocock * 1988 - Edward Scott * 1989 -

Maurice Strong Maurice Frederick Strong, (April 29, 1929 – November 27, 2015) was a Canadian oil and mineral businessman and a diplomat who served as Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations.E Masood (2015) Maurice Strong, Nature 528(7583), 480. Strong ...

* 1990 -

Murray Thomson Murray McCheyne Thomson (December 19, 1922 – May 2, 2019) was a Canadian peace activist Thomson was born in Honan, China where his parents were Christian missionaries. Thomson founded many non-profits in Canada. He was the 1990 recipient of ...

* 1991 -

Muriel Duckworth Muriel Helen Duckworth (née Ball; October 31, 1908 – August 22, 2009) was a Canadian pacifist, feminist, and social and community activist. She was a practising Quaker, a religious denomination committed to non-violence. Duckworth maintain ...

* 1992 -

Eric Hoskins Eric William Hoskins (born November 29, 1960) is a Canadian physician and former politician who served as Ontario Minister of Health and Long-Term Care from 2014 to 2018. A member of the Liberal Party, he sat as a member of the Provincial Parli ...

* 1993 -

Escott Reid Escott Graves Meredith Reid, CC (January 21, 1905 – September 28, 1999), was a Canadian diplomat who helped shape the United Nations and NATO, author, international public servant and academic administrator. Early life and education Born i ...

* 1994 - Martin Connell * 1995 -

Gisèle Côté-Harper Gisèle Côté-Harper, (born 1942) is a Canadian lawyer and professor. She is the 1995 recipient of the Pearson Medal of Peace for her work as a human rights activist. She is the first Francophone woman to receive such an honor. Education Sh ...

* 1996 -

Gerry Barr Gerry Barr is the 1996 recipient of the Pearson Medal of Peace for the creation of the Steelworkers Humanity Fund. He is currently the National Executive Director and CEO of the Directors Guild of Canada The Directors Guild of Canada (DGC) is a ...

* 1997 -

Hanna Newcombe Hanna Newcombe (February 5, 1922 – April 10, 2011) was the co-founder of Peace Research Abstracts and Peace Research Reviews, was the recipient of the 1997 Pearson Medal of Peace and was elected a member of the Order of Canada in 2007 for her wo ...

* 1998 -

Pat Roy Mooney Pat Roy Mooney, for more than thirty years, has worked with civil society organizations on international trade and development issues related to agriculture, biodiversity and emerging technologies. He was born and lived on the Canadian prairies f ...

* 1999 -

Flora MacDonald Flora MacDonald ( Gaelic: ''Fionnghal nic Dhòmhnaill'', 1722 - 5 March 1790) was a member of Clan Macdonald of Sleat, best known for helping Charles Edward Stuart evade government troops after the Battle of Culloden in April 1746. Her famil ...

* 2000 - ''No award made'' * 2001 - Ursula M. Franklin * 2002 - Alex Morrison * 2003 -

Stephen Lewis Stephen Henry Lewis (born November 11, 1937) is a Canadian politician, public speaker, broadcaster, and diplomat. He was the leader of the social democratic Ontario New Democratic Party for most of the 1970s. During many of those years as leade ...

* 2004 -

* 2005 - 2009 - ''No award made'' * 2010 -

* 2013 - Donald S. Ethell * 2014 -

Nigel Fisher Sir Nigel Thomas Loveridge Fisher, MC (14 July 1913 – 9 October 1996) was a Conservative Party politician in the United Kingdom. Early life Son of naval officer Sir Thomas Fisher and Aimée Constance, daughter of Walter Loveridge, of Oaken, St ...

* 2016 -

Louise Arbour Louise Bernice Arbour (born February 10, 1947) is a Canadian lawyer, prosecutor and jurist. Arbour was the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, a former justice of the Supreme Court of Canada and the Court of Appeal for Ontario and a former C ...

* 2017 -

Lloyd Axworthy Lloyd Norman Axworthy (born December 21, 1939) is a Canadian politician, elder statesman and academic. He served as Minister of Foreign Affairs in the Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Jean Chrétien. Following his retirement from parliament ...

* 2018 -

Willie Littlechild J. Wilton Littlechild (born 1944), known as Willie Littlechild, is a Canadian lawyer and Cree chief who was Grand Chief of the Confederacy of Treaty Six First Nations and a member of Parliament. A residential school survivor, he is known for ...

* 2019 - 2020 - ''No award made'' * 2021 -

Beverly McLachlin Beverley Marian McLachlin (born September 7, 1943) is a Canadian jurist and author who served as the 17th chief justice of Canada from 2000 to 2017. She is the longest-serving chief justice in Canadian history and the first woman to hold the p ...

* 2022 -

John McGarry John McGarry, OC (born 1957) is a political scientist from Northern Ireland. He was born in Belfast and grew up in Ballymena, County Antrim. He is currently Professor of Political Studies and Canada Research Chair in Nationalism and Democracy a ...

References

{{Reflist

External links

UNAC Pearson Medal information
Peace awards Canadian awards Canada and the United Nations

Recipients of the Pearson Medal of Peace

See also

References

External links