Fonds RC0157 - Hans Sinn fonds

Hans Sinn made a career of active involvement in all phases of national and international peace work. As a member of the editorial group Sanity: Peace Oriented News and Comment, Sinn observed Canadian and world affairs from a non-aligned peace perspective. Sanity, based in Montreal, was North America's leading independent peace newspaper.

Hans Sinn's wife Marion, a teacher who specialized in early childhood development and who worked with children with learning disabilities, was book reviewer for Sanity. In the summers of 1965, 1967 and 1968 Sinn was a staff member and participant at the Training Institute for Nonviolence, at Grindstone Island, Portland, Ont. This institute was sponsored by the Canadian Friends Service Committee, the peace and development wing of Canadian Quakers. The focus of the Grindstone Island Training Institute for Nonviolence was to explore non-violent ways in which a civilian population can defend itself from tyranny, from without or within, to maintain the cherished values and ways of the community. In 1976, when Diana Kingsmill Wright decided to sell the island, the Grindstone Co-operative was formed to take over the ownership and operations of the property. This led to Grindstone's transformation into a non-profit, cooperatively owned and operated peace education centre. Hans and Marion Sinn were members of the co-operative and on the co-operative's Board of Directors. Both were actively involved on the programming committee. On February 5, 1983, Hans and Marion Sinn resigned from the administration of Grindstone, citing other interests and a lack of time to devote to the co-operative's administration. The Grindstone Co-operative ceased operations in 1990. Hans Sinn became involved with Peace Brigades International, an organization founded in the summer of 1981 on Grindstone Island by Hans Sinn, Murray Thomson and ten others. Peace Brigades International is a unique grassroots organization which, when invited, sends volunteer peace teams to areas of conflict or political repression.