Early Years
Ann Hansen was born on July 16, 1953 and was raised in Concord, a rural town outside Toronto, by working-class Danish immigrants. Her father worked as a produce manager at a local grocery store while her mother stayed at home to look after Ann and her four siblings.
Hansen describes herself as having been a "nature-loving tomboy who gladly helped around the house, hoed weeds in the evergreens on weekends, and did well in school." She attributes her idyllic childhood with having heightened her sensitivity to the negative aspects of society which she encountered as she grew older. Her life abruptly changed when her father died suddenly of cancer when she was 16.
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