Janet Diane Barnsley

On June 8, 2026, Jan passed away peacefully, with Michelle and Hamish by her side. She left this world remembering those she loved and who had gone before her: her beloved partner, Andree Buchanan; her parents, Alice and Harry Barnsley; and her cherished furry companion, Wag.

She leaves behind a large and loving family who will miss her deeply, including her brother and friend Earl Barnsley, his wife Elizabeth and their daughters Melissa and her children Carlee and Ashton, and Stephanie and her children Hailey, Braeden, Alyssa and Sophia and Hailey’s daughter Addison. Jan is also lovingly remembered by Andree's children, Michelle and Hamish whom she loved as her own. She held a special place in the lives of Michelle's husband Greg and their sons Christopher and Daniel, and Hamish's wife Christine and their sons Chet and Christian.

A lifelong feminist, activist, researcher, mentor, and community builder, Jan dedicated her life to advancing the lives of women and challenging systems of inequality. Her political awakening began during her years as a library assistant at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education from 1968 to 1973, where she learned the importance of organizing women in the workplace and advocating for change.

In 1973, Jan became a key organizer of the first conference of Women for Political Action, helping encourage women to seek political office and speak for themselves rather than relying on others to represent their interests. Her remarkable organizational talents soon brought her to Ottawa, where she joined the federal Women's Program as one of its earliest liaison officers. Working with feminist organizations across Canada, she became known for her strategic thinking, her ability to connect people and ideas, and her unwavering commitment to projects that improved women's lives.

In 1978, Jan moved to Vancouver and joined the Women's Research Centre, where she spent decades helping women understand and challenge the structures that limited equality and opportunity. She played a central role in research and advocacy on issues including pay equity and violence against women, co-authoring influential works including Feminist Action, Institutional Reaction: Responses to Wife Assault. Her work helped shape public understanding and policy responses to gender-based violence throughout Canada.

It was through this work that she became active in Battered Women’s Support Services (BWSS). In 1979 Jan became one of the founding mothers of BWSS. Jan and the Women’s Research Centre were hugely influential to the development of BWSS theory and functioning. They considered Jan their own special guru. She served on the collective for several years and returned to the collective in 1993 for five years. Most recently she was invited to be involved with a group of women putting together the history of BWSS.

It was during her early years at the Women's Research Centre when Jan met Andree Buchanan, another formidable feminist who became her soulmate and companion in life and activism. After Andree's death in 1994, Jan's interests increasingly turned toward understanding loss, healing, and the ways people find meaning in the face of profound loss. She became involved with the Callanish Society, serving on its founding Board of Directors and helping to establish the governance and structure that continue to provide a healing community for people whose lives have been irrevocably changed by cancer. She remained a dedicated supporter for decades and, following her own diagnosis, found strength, connection, and support within Callanish groups. Even while facing the challenges of her illness, she continued to be a source of comfort and encouragement to others, offering her remarkable capacity to listen deeply with empathy and care.

Beyond her professional life, Jan found great joy in life’s simple pleasures. She was a lover of books, endlessly curious and always searching for answers to the many questions that intrigued her. She treasured long walks with family and friends and equally valued quiet walks on her own. She treasured her relationships with family and friends and could happily spend hours on the phone catching up. In more recent months she delighted in gathering with friends for lunch, affectionately dubbing these outings as the “Ladies Who Lunch,” as though she had founded an exclusive new society.

Jan was grateful for the meditation teachers and counsellors she encountered throughout her life, and for the mourners she came to know. She also found great joy in music and the artists who inspired her, especially Renée, whose work helped, set free the natural enthusiasm of her soul that she had long been shy to express fully. Renée's encouragement to honour “the courage it takes to come through loss and grief in an expanded rather than a reduced state” became a guiding principle in Jan's life. She carried this wisdom in her heart and shared it generously with others through more than two decades of volunteer service in hospices and bereavement programs, offering compassion, understanding, and hope to those navigating grief.

Jan was deeply grateful for the life she lived and especially thankful to have lived long enough to experience the true joy of loving—to feel, throughout her later years, the continual opening and expansion of her heart. Looking back on her life, she recognized that she had been consistently guided by love, remaining true to her intuition, passions, and deeply held values.

In her final days, Jan was thankful for the many visitors who came to spend time with her. In a moment of reflection Jan said “I am truly dying into love,” a thought that brought her great comfort and peace. Jan loved deeply and was deeply loved in return. Her warmth, compassion, and generous spirit touched countless lives. Though she will be profoundly missed, she will be lovingly remembered and forever carried in the hearts of those who knew her.

In memory of Jan, please consider a donation to BWSS https://www.bwss.org/ or the Callanish Society https://www.callanish.org/