Joanna Marie Rolland recently became a proud legacy donor to Dying With Dignity Canada, an organization she has long supported. 

She was born in Orillia, Ontario in 1949, the year NATO was born. 

“I like to tell young people in Canada that it was this agreement that has allowed them to live in peace and without wars.” 

She was one of only four women from two high schools in Orillia to attend university in 1968. Joanna chose bilingual Glendon College of York University, graduating with an Honours BA in History. Later, she obtained a Master of Library & Information Science and a Master of Higher Education (Community Colleges), both from the University of Toronto. 

Her first employment was with the Orillia Public Library as a reference librarian, followed by positions at Georgian College in library management and in the management of numerous Special Projects. Upon leaving Georgian College, Joanna implemented the Municipal Freedom of Information & Protection of Privacy Act in the City of Barrie. Subsequently, she founded a social research consulting company. 

“My mind is one of my most prized possessions. I have found membership on community boards to be very challenging and personally rewarding. I have been on five high profile boards. One of my proudest achievements was as Chair of the Orillia Library Board. We won funding for the construction of a new public library, in the downtown heart of Orillia, to replace an aged and much too small Carnegie building.” 

Joanna’s father died tragically young at age 37, when she was 12. She had four younger sisters, the youngest only four years old. “This experience with death made me think about end of life much earlier and much more than most young people”. 

Later in life, Joanna had two British friends endure long painful deaths in a country that did not provide MAID. It is now under parliamentary consideration in Britain. 

Joanna strongly believes “Everyone should have the right to choose when they die. When it is a law, it is an option for those who are eligible, subject to future revision and improvement.” 

Joanna has arranged, with advice from her lawyer and financial adviser, to leave a significant bequest to Dying With Dignity Canada in her will. 

“My circumstances have allowed me to leave this bequest to an organization that I believe is doing very important work and doing it very well.”