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ROBERT HUNTER 1941-2005 A founder of Greenpeace, journalist, pioneer of North American non-violent direct action, lover of the earth. Wrote, “We must begin to inquire into the rights of rabbits and turnips, the rights of soil and swamp [and] come to terms with the politics of earth and sky, evolution and transformation, God and nature.”
GEORGE HISLOP 1927-2005 The city’s first queer activist, first openly gay man to run for public office and the founder of Gay Day, which became Pride Day. Though he received hate calls in those early days, he refused to have an unlisted number in case somebody needed to talk. In the last years of his life he led a campaign for same-sex survivor benefits.
BEN KERR 1930-2005 Country & western busker who turned dismal Yonge and Bloor into a happening corner. A booster of the medicinal uses of cayenne pepper and a mayoralty candidate in every election since 1985, Kerr was praised by Mayor David Miller for contributing to Toronto’s unique character.
JERI WINE 1939-2005 Feminist theorist, activist and creator of one of the first women’s studies courses in Toronto in the early 80s. A member of Women Against Violence Against Women and a brave lesbian at a time when gays were mere specks on the het landscape, she championed the cause of women sexually abused by therapists and doctors.
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