Wanda Robson

Wanda Robson (December 16, 1926, in Halifax – February 6, 2022) was a Canadian civil rights activist.

Activism
Robson became an activist when her sister, civil rights activist Viola Desmond, was arrested in 1946. Robson spent years working to get her sister's arrest pardoned, which occurred in 2010 through the Nova Scotia legislature. Because of the considerable effort Robson put into this, Canada gave a posthumous free pardon for the first time.

Robson believed that education was extremely important. She spoke at many educational events, where she discussed the importance of a future free of racial discrimination.

Robson served three terms on the Nova Scotia Advisory Council for the Status of Women.

In 2022, Robson received the Order of Nova Scotia.

Writing
Robson wrote two books. The first, co-written with Cape Breton Professor Graham Reynolds, was Viola Desmond, Her Life and Times, a biography for her sister. Robson’s second book, Sister of Courage (2010), recounts her own life.

Personal life
Robson met her husband, Joseph Robson, in the 1960s, when they were co-workers at a lab. The couple had one son.

Robson completed her lifelong dream of having a University education in 2004, graduating from Cape Breton University with a Bachelor of Arts degree.

Robson died on February 6, 2022, at the age of 95. At the time of her death, she and her husband lived in North Sydney, Nova Scotia. She was buried alongside her sister in Camp Hill Cemetery in Halifax.