2014 Pearson Peace Medal

Mr. Fisher was invested as an Officer of the Order of Canada on September 12, 2014, for his leadership in humanitarian assistance efforts, and for improving the lives of children and families around the world. He has lived and worked in more than a dozen countries in Asia, the Middle East, Africa and the Caribbean, as well as in Canada, where he was president and CEO of UNICEF Canada for almost five years. Most recently, Mr. Fisher was the regional United Nations humanitarian coordinator for the Syria Crisis in the Middle East.

The Governor General, who is also honorary patron of the United Nations Association in Canada (UNA-Canada), presented the 28th Pearson Peace Medal to Mr. Nigel Fisher during a ceremony at Rideau Hall.

Mr. Phillip Ponting, National Chair of UNA-Canada, also spoke on this occasion.

The Pearson Peace Medal is awarded to a Canadian who has personally contributed, through his or her working life and voluntary commitments, to those causes to which Lester B. Pearson devoted his distinguished career: aid to the developing world; mediation between those confronting one another with arms; succour to refugees and others in need; equal rights and justice for all humanity; and peaceful change through world law and world organization.

These boots saved 987 250 children’s lives. Mr. Fisher wore those boots through 13 countries in some of the world’s most remote areas. They survived mudslides, sandstorms, earthquakes and civil war in the effort to save children’s lives.