Day 17 - Anne Pearson

Letter to peace-building relatives (past and future)
(initiative the Mahatma Gandhi Canadian Foundation launching for the Season For Nonviolence Jan. 30-April 8)

January 30, 2026

To my family: past, present, future

As the world seems to be descending into another convulsion of darkness, where forces of disintegration assail us on all sides, I write to call out, honour, and be inspired by those of my family members who, in their various ways, contributed to the creation of a culture of peace—a culture whose shape we still only dimly perceive, but which I believe is the destiny of humankind.

I honour that distant direct relative in the southern United States, Lucy, who, when she had the legal capacity to do so, freed hundreds of enslaved people that she had “inherited”. 

I honour a great-grandmother, Annie, who chose to become a vegetarian, refusing to harm animals that she didn’t need to in order to survive.

I honour a great-aunt, Grace, who joined the “Moral Rearmament” movement after her husband died serving in WWI because she felt that the fundamental immorality of war was fostered by a lack of moral commitment and imagination, among both leaders and citizens.

I honour a grandfather, Lester, who, appalled by his experience in WWI, spent his life seeking to work with others to help build an architecture of peace in international laws, agencies, “peace keepers”; through his life as a diplomat, politician, and writer (including his book “Peace in the Family of Man”). Indeed, you helped to prepare me to understand that my ‘family’ is in fact the entire family of the human race, to whom I owe a duty of care.

I honour my father, Geoffrey, who carried on influences from his own father in his work as a diplomat, arms-control specialist, and director of the Institute for International Peace and Security.

I honour my mother, Landon, who became a renowned children’s rights advocate, worked on the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child; as a Canadian senator described herself as “the children’s senator”, and set up a centre at Carleton University that focuses on children’s rights.

I honour my sisters Hilary, Katharine, Patricia who, in their own varied ways, work on social justice issues. I honour my husband Mark, former director of the Centre for Peace Studies at McMaster, a dedicated teacher of ethics, and author.

I honour my daughters who also continue, in their various ways, to address injustice and inequity.

And, I honour my wider family of human-rights defenders, community peace-builders, enablers of interfaith dialogue, and defenders of the rights of nature.
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I centre my hope in the vision of my faith community, the Baha’is, who, working with others for the betterment of the world and the acceleration of the forces of integration, believe that we will arrive at the stage when, at last, recognizing the unity and wholeness of humankind, the nations will “put away the weapons of war, and turn to the instruments of universal reconstruction” that signal a true culture of peace.

(Anne Pearson, Hamilton, Ontario)