EDITH FOWKE’S BEQUEST TO THE GROUP OF 78
In early 2016, the Group of 78 was notified that it was one of ten organizations that had been named
beneficiaries of a bequest from the estate of the late Edith Fowke, who died in 1996. The disbursement
of the bequests was delayed for twenty years, until after the death of Edith’s husband Franklin in 2003.
Additionally, Edith Fowke’s will did not make a definitive list of beneficiaries, but instead stipulated that
up to ten beneficiary charitable organizations were to be named by Alan and Hanna Newcombe, peace
activists of Dundas, Ontario. In 2004 Hanna Newcombe provided a list of ten charitable organizations
working in the field of peace, development and human rights, in a letter to the Fowke estate trustees,
but the letter was not acted upon until after Hanna’s own death in 2011. Further delays were caused by
litigation.
The ten organizations included Amnesty International, USC, Canadian Peace Alliance, World Federalists
of Canada, Science for Peace, Quaker International, Project Ploughshares, Canadian Friends Service
Committee, Peacefund Canada, and the Group of 78. During the court proceedings, the Canadian Peace
Alliance was found ineligible as it is not a registered charitable organization.