Early years The Walter and Duncan Gordon Foundation was founded in 1965 by
Walter L. Gordon, his wife, Elizabeth (née Counsell), and his brother, Duncan Gordon. Walter Gordon was a Canadian businessman and politician; he was the
Minister of Finance from 1963 to 1965 and the president of the
Privy Council from 1967 to 1968. Later on in his life he was the Chancellor of
York University. Duncan Gordon was a chartered accountant at various Toronto firms. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, the Gordons made a number of contributions to healthcare, the arts and public policy, including donations to hospitals, hospices and art programs in and around the Toronto area. Various Canadian think tanks such as the
Canadian Institute of International Affairs (now the
Canadian International Council) were supported by the Foundation. In the 1970s the foundation refocused its funding towards Canada's economic independence, and helped create the Committee for an Independent Canada. During the 1970s and 1980s the Foundation also focused much of their attention on peacekeeping, peacemaking and nuclear disarmament. There were many recipients of grants from the Foundation, including
Science for Peace, the
Club of Rome,
Amnesty International,
Physicians for Social Responsibility,
United Nations Association of Canada, and the
Canadian Institute of Strategic Studies. The Foundation also helped to publicize the problem of
acid rain in 1981; this contributed to amendments to the U.S.
Clean Air Act of 1990. After the death of Walter Gordon in 1987, Duncan Gordon asked
Pierre Trudeau's former primary secretary and speechwriter
Thomas Axworthy to help develop a focus for the foundation with regards to peace-building. After the death of Duncan Gordon later on that year, Walter's children took over the foundation and headed the board of directors. They also expanded the Foundation from a family to a private foundation model. The directors decided to refocus the Foundation's mandate to concentrate on four areas of interest: secondary education; peace, security and conflict management; the environment and the Arctic.
1990s The Foundation endowed the Walter Gordon Forum on Public Policy in 1990, which continues as an annual event at
Massey College with the
School of Public Policy and Global Governance at the
University of Toronto. After the amendments to the U.S.
Clean Air Act, the Foundation started to focus on federal environmental policy. The Foundation narrowed its environmental to focus air quality and water issues. In the 1990s the Foundation also helped to create
MiningWatch Canada, People for Education and the Manitoba School Improvement Program. The foundation's efforts for peace, security and conflict management eventually combined with their concentration on the Arctic. The Walter and Duncan Gordon Foundation along, with
Science for Peace and Finnish researchers, worked to promoted the creation of the
Arctic Council. Arctic scholars, including Franklyn Griffiths, John Lamb and Bill Fox, as well as politician
Tony Penikett, and indigenous advocates
Rosemarie Kuptana Mary Simon and the
Inuit Circumpolar Council, collaborated with the Canadian government to create the
Arctic Council and the Canadian Ambassador for Circumpolar Affairs in 1994. The Foundation also supported
Sheila Watt-Cloutier during her leadership as the Chair of the Inuit Circumpolar Conference.
2000s In 2009,
Thomas Axworthy became CEO and President of the Walter and Duncan Gordon Foundation. Because of reduced funding, some of the programs were wound down, and the Foundation at that time focused its activities on policies about fresh water and the Arctic. The Walter and Duncan Gordon Foundation funded a legal analysis which clarified the circumstances under which First Nations were eligible to receive grants from foundations, clarifying First Nations as legal donees under
Canada Revenue Agency's Income Tax Act. The Walter and Duncan Gordon Foundation helped create the IBA Community Toolkit, a resource to
First Nation,
Inuit and
Métis communities to educate them about the benefit agreements in their areas. The toolkit is based around the mining sector, and is applicable within the natural resource industry. The Union of BC Indian Chiefs, Ecotrust Canada and the Walter and Duncan Gordon Foundation came together to fund and publish
Living Proof, a how-to manual written by Terry N. Tobias for designing and carrying out data-collection during indigenous use and occupancy map surveys. In the 1990s the Walter and Duncan Gordon Foundation collaborated with
David Schindler a limnologist at the
University of Alberta. More recently, the Foundation along with Tides Canada, helped fund studies which, unlike a joint industry-government panel report, supported the view that pollutant levels in the north are due to human development rather than natural sources. in the Alberta Oilsands. The foundation has also collaborated with the Circle on Philanthropy and Aboriginal Peoples, a network which promotes social investing in Aboriginal communities in Canada. == Programs ==