History of the F.A. McGrand Trust
Background
The Frederic A. McGrand Trust is a capital fund established by the late Senator F.A. McGrand in support of humane societies and SPCAs in Atlantic Canada. It originated as the Rose E. Doyle Foundation, named in memory of Senator McGrand’s daughter, with a wider scope of interests, and then became the Frederic A. McGrand Foundation in 1980. In 1987, at Senator McGrand’s request, administration of the trust was turned over to the Canadian Federation of Humane Societies.
Senator McGrand was a medical doctor who made his home in New Brunswick. He was elected to the New Brunswick Legislature in 1935 and was Speaker of the Legislature from 1939 to 1944. He served as Minister of Health and Social Services from 1944 to 1952. He was appointed to the Senate of Canada in July 1955.
Senator McGrand was an early advocate of the animal welfare movement and a founding Director of the Canadian Federation of Humane Societies. He served as our President from 1961 to 1965 and as a Director until the time of his death in 1988.
Senator McGrand promoted a philosophy of respect for all life. One of his favourite sayings was, “A handful of soil is not a handful of dirt, it is a handful of millions of living things.” His thinking was well ahead of his time. While we tend to think that the connection between violence to animals and violence to humans is relatively recent, this is what Senator McGrand wrote in the 1961 journal of the Canadian Federation of Humane Societies:
Human behaviour is often governed by emotions of love, hate, fear, joy, sorrow, sympathy, compassion. Sometimes human conduct is governed by hate, suspicion, envy, which results in cruelty; sometimes by sympathy or compassion, which results in kindness.
There are genetic influences, which we all inherit, but most of the influences which govern our conduct are provided by the environment in which a child is reared. A child at birth is neither kind nor cruel, because he has no experience or knowledge. His emotions are influenced by what he learns from others, mostly by what he sees and hears.
Hardened criminals, in the commission of crime, place a low value on life as does the young tough who uses a knife in a street fight; in either case there is no reverence for life. Cruelty to humans is often preceded during childhood by cruelty to animals. If children in the lower grades were taught the fundamental principles of kindness to animals and humans as a means of developing character and a reverence for all living things, there would be less juvenile delinquency and crime.
Senator McGrand was the primary driving force behind the Senate’s study of violence, completed in 1980. Their report, called Child at Risk, examined early childhood experiences as causes of criminal behaviour. Among the committee’s recommendations were the following:
- If we are to teach children how to respect their human and natural environment and all its elements, they must be taught they are a part of nature: “A life is one and all its manifestations are ascending the ladder of evolution.” One of the objectives of education from nursery school onwards must be to give children a balanced sensitivity to life – a humane education.
- Humane education in the school should work on various levels, including:
- factual information about animals, people and the environment and their inter-relationship
- values, or moral education, focusing on the rights of other living beings and human responsibilities toward them.
In the report, Senator McGrand wrote:
We can prevent the spread of violence if, in the home and in the classroom, we teach children that our species must be protected from violence in any form. At the same time we should teach them that, since all animal and non-sentient life is interdependent, in order to preserve our species we must respect and preserve the other species that co-inhabit the earth.
Thus Senator McGrand’s primary and enduring interest was humane education. In 1962 he and another representative of CFHS attended the Canadian Conference on Education in Montréal. They presented a brief and urged the consideration of a study on humane education. They were the only people at the conference interested in that work. In 1979, he partially financed and sponsored a conference on humane and values education held in Ottawa.
Administration
When the trust fund was turned over to CFHS in 1987, it was with the stipulation that the interest generated by the principle of the trust would be used to support animal welfare organizations in the Atlantic provinces of Canada. The CFHS Board of Directors established the McGrand Trust Management Committee to administer the trust. The committee, which can have up to 7 members, is comprised in the majority by CFHS Board members, but can include other members (the latter must be from the Atlantic provinces and are invited to serve on the committee by invitation of the board). The committee reviews all requests for grants and is responsible for the financial management of the trust. The capital of the trust is invested and the interest generated by this capital is what is given out in grants each year.
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