Dec
7
By Anne Moon
The world’s longest-serving Raging Granny has been awarded a prize for peace activism.
It was 27 years ago that Fran Thoburn, of San Jose Ave., helped found the Raging Grannies, a group of older women who use song and satire to achieve a better world for their grandchildren. The Grannies are now active across North America.
At 82, Thoburn is the only original member still involved. The mother of four lives in James Bay with her two poodles and has recently been campaigning to get dogs allowed on buses.
The Voice of Women organization, headquartered in Toronto, has awarded her the Muriel Duckworth Award for Peace Activism. Duckworth, a centenarian who died in 2009, was named to the Order of Canada for her work as a pacifist.
The citation reads: “For many years you have dedicated tireless hours to civil society’s peace and environmental communities. As an advocate through word, song, lobbying and organizing, especially for nuclear disarmament and particularly with the founding of the Raging Grannies, your voice has encouraged and exemplified transformative non-violence practice.”
Thoburn, an ardent environmentalist, prefers not to fly so the award was accepted November 8 in absentia by a Toronto Raging Granny.
“While this award is a great honour for me, it actually is a strong recognition of the daring and sometimes scary work that the Victoria Raging Grannies have done since our beginnings in 1987,” Thoburn said. “I am thanking those who have stuck with our group singing off key as we see heartbreaking governmental decisions that endanger the future of the world’s grandchildren. Honours like this remind us that we are not alone.”