Senator Pate: I’m pleased to add that Gretta Wong, in addition to opening some of the first Chinese-Canadian legal clinics in this country, largely because she was not provided with other opportunities and provided legal aid, is also the grandmother of my Director of Parliamentary Affairs, Emily Grant, and the great-grandmother to Emily’s daughter, Isabel Gretta.

Hon. Kim Pate: Would you take a question, Senator Simons?

Senator Pate: I would be remiss in not asking if you knew that, in fact, Gretta Wong, whom you mentioned, has a direct link back to this chamber.

Hon. Kim Pate: Honourable senators, family and friends, it is a humbling honour as well as a significant responsibility and magnificent privilege to have been one of the thousands and thousands of fortunate friends, mentees and collaborators of the spectacular senator we are all rising to recognize today.

I won’t repeat any of my or your previous tributes today. Rather, as Landon taught us so well, I want to take this opportunity to give voice to those who knew her best, those who inspired her intellectual curiosity, incomparable rigour and insistence on promoting and representing the rights and interests of children — her beloved Hilary, Anne, Michael and Patricia.

These are their words, and I am honoured to be their messenger in this place:

Mum’s Senate appointment came for her at exactly the right moment… she had accumulated many years of education, research, volunteer advocacy and experience working with children and youth in Canada and other parts of the world. She was ready to put all of this knowledge and experience into action…to mobilize concerted commitment in Canada to protect and give voice to children and youth within a framework of human rights…children’s rights.

No question… she had an agenda!

She believed in the role of the Senate as Canada’s second legislative chamber... one that has the opportunity to reflect, revise and improve on Canada’s statutory and legal frameworks for the protection of rights.

The Senate gave her a platform and she made unique and productive use of it —

— and she taught many of us well.

She spoke for children —

— she spoke for all children —

— and brought them to the Chamber to speak with her. She believed in enabling children and youth to have their say on decisions and laws that directly affected them. In this she was far ahead of her time.

And she left many admirers in her wake… admirers of her diplomacy, her intelligence, her discipline, her willingness to work every lever she could on behalf of the children and youth she cared so much about. She was a model for future senators, women like her, with determination, commitment, courage and motivation to make change for social justice.

She made social justice, and she encouraged others to achieve and strive for social justice.

Thank you for your words and for inspiring each of us to emulate the light, life and legacy that was your mum.

Most especially, though, thank you to each of you and your children, her grandchildren, great-grandchildren, nieces, nephews and all those attached to your family for sharing this incredible woman — really, the dean, not just “the Children’s Senator” but an example for all of us in this chamber. We are beyond grateful and so blessed with the contributions and memories that the Honourable Landon Pearson, Canada’s “Children’s Senator,” leaves us. Thank you.