The Life of Wanda Robson—Canada's Advocate for Viola Desmond and Social Justice

Wanda Robson—The Woman Who Gave Us Viola Desmond

Canadians have come to know Wanda Robson as an author, storyteller and, above all, as an unceasing crusader in the fight to bring justice to her older sister Viola Desmond.

Wanda Robson’s friend, historian Graham Reynolds, introduces this biography: “On a wintry Cape Breton evening of February 6, 2022, 95-year-old Wanda Robson passed away peacefully at the Regional Hospital in Sydney, Nova Scotia. Her husband and companion of 51 years, Joe, was at her side. 

“Wanda was instrumental in raising public awareness about the wrongful arrest of her sister in 1946, for refusing to give up her seat in the ‘whites only’ section of the Roseland Theatre in New Glasgow, Nova Scotia. Largely because of Wanda’s efforts, Viola received an official apology and a posthumous free pardon from the Government of Nova Scotia in 2010. Today Viola’s face appears on the Canadian $10 bill—a permanent reminder of her courageous stand against racial injustice.” 

Declared by the Hon. Senator Wanda T. Bernard as a “guardian of her generation….Wanda was extremely generous in sharing her time, her wisdom and her talents. She was relentless in her advocacy.” 

Available in paperback and as a digital eBook, this book includes 32 exceptional photographs. 

Graham Reynolds is Professor Emeritus and the Viola Desmond Chair in Social Justice at Cape Breton University.