Our History - Pallium Canada

Pallium Canada's story

For 25 years, Pallium Canada has been dedicated to improving the quality and accessibility of palliative care across Canada. Through our innovative programs and collaboration with health care systems, we’ve reached over 60,000 learners, becoming the largest provider of palliative care education for health systems and organizations in Canada.

From our early days as a small regional project to becoming a national leader in palliative care education, each milestone has been a step toward fulfilling our mission of improving access to high-quality palliative care for all Canadians. Here is a look at our journey.

Our beginnings

In the mid 1990’s, a middle-aged Canadian man with advanced cancer named George walked into Dr. José Pereira’s office in a small rural town in southern Manitoba. Dr. Pereira was the third physician George had visited for help. He was experiencing severe pain and none of the physicians had been able to help him. George knew he was terminally ill, was not afraid of dying, but was fearful of suffering in whatever time he had remaining.

Unfortunately, Dr. Pereira, not yet trained in palliative care, could not offer the relief George needed. George was devastated. George took his wife by the hand and, as he left the clinic room, turned to Dr. Pereira and said, “I hope one day doctors like you can better look after people like me.”

This moment became the inspiration behind Pallium Canada.

Watch Dr. José Pereira, co-founder of Pallium Canada, share the story.

Our journey

From one patient’s plea to a national movement, our journey has been one of growth, collaboration, and impact. Explore the milestones that have shaped Pallium Canada over the past 25 years.

2000–2003

In 2000, Pallium was founded to address the growing need for palliative care education, particularly in rural and remote communities. During this period, the groundwork was laid for what would become a national effort to improve palliative care across Canada.

2000: The PALLIUM Project was founded in Alberta, Canada by Dr. Jose Pereira, Michael Aherne and Dr. Srini Chary.
April 27, 2001: Educators, health system leaders, and researchers from across Canada and the United States convened at the University of Calgary medical school to launch the PALLIUM Project and engage in needs assessment activities.
March 2001: Secured $250,000 in funding from Health Canada’s Rural and Remote Health Innovations Initiative, marking a crucial step in Pallium’s ability to expand its outreach and impact.
2001: Developed and piloted the first Rural Weekend Retreat (RWR), a two-day interprofessional training program tailored to primary care providers in rural and remote communities.
2003: By 2003, Pallium had grown to include around 20 facilitators, including physicians, nurses, social workers, and pharmacists, all working together to expand palliative care education across the Prairie provinces.

2003–2007

During this period, Pallium Canada expanded its national footprint, secured critical funding, and introduced new educational programs that laid the foundation for the LEAP course and our decentralized model.

2003: Secured $4.2M from Health Canada’s Primary Health Care Transition Fund, enabling Pallium to expand its programs into British Columbia, the Yukon, and the Northwest Territories, as well as establish satellite operations in Atlantic and Eastern Canada.
2003 to 2005: Delivered 43 courses across Canada, reaching more than 1,000 learners and beginning to build a national network of health care providers trained in palliative care.
2006: Transitioned to a decentralized model for LEAP courses, empowering local organizers across Canada to plan and coordinate courses independently.
2006: Introduced the first Learning Essential Approaches to Palliative Care (LEAP) course, evolving from the earlier Palliative Regional Weekend Course.
2007: Launched the French version of LEAP Core, marking an important milestone in making our education accessible to Quebec and francophone communities across Canada.
2007: Published the first edition of the Pallium Palliative Pocketbook, a practical resource for health care providers delivering palliative care.
2008: Partnered with key organizations such as Ontario’s Cancer Agency and McMaster University to integrate LEAP into Ontario’s palliative care initiatives for the first time.

2012–2017

As Pallium transitioned to a non-profit organization, we made significant investments in infrastructure, updated our educational offerings, and introduced new programs to meet the growing demand for palliative care education.

2012: Received two significant gifts from the Estate of the Late Patrick Gillin, which played a critical role in supporting our continued growth.
2012: Officially became the Pallium Foundation of Canada (Pallium Canada), relocating from Edmonton, Alberta to Ottawa, Ontario, and securing non-profit status.
2013: Received $3 million in funding from the Federal Economic Action Plan 2013 to increase our education capacity and expand our programs nationwide.
2013: Revitalized and updated our LEAP Courses, launching LEAP Core, a 2 day, in-person course and piloting LEAP Long-Term Care for the first time.
2013: Partnered with the Champlain Regional Palliative Care Consultation Team to build the capacity of the family health teams to provide palliative care using LEAP.
2014: Hosted the “Mobilizing Your Compassionate Community Symposium” in Ottawa, marking the beginning of our Compassionate Communities work.
2014: Launched the Pallium Portal, our online learning management system.
2014-2017: Partnered with Cancer Care Ontario on the INTEGRATE Project, a three-year initiative to provide interprofessional palliative care education to primary care providers, oncologists, and nurses, through the creation of LEAP Oncology.
2015: Worked with the provinces of Nova Scotia (NS) and Prince Edward Island (PEI) to develop LEAP Paramedic, which trained all ground ambulance paramedics in NS and PEI.
2016: Published the 2nd edition of the Pallium Palliative Pocketbook, including an e-book version, and introduced the Pallium App for mobile access to our courses and resources.

2017–2020

As we entered this phase, we embraced new leadership, technologies and approaches to keep pace with the changing needs of health care providers. During this period, we significantly broadened our course offerings to include specialized programs for specific health care settings and expanded outreach efforts to further engage communities and workplaces in palliative care education. This period was marked by fresh perspectives and innovative strategies to connect, educate, and support our community more effectively.

2017: A new CEO was appointed in late 2017, followed by the hiring of a VP, Operations in early 2018, bringing fresh leadership and strategic direction to the organization.
2017: Expanded LEAP courses to include LEAP Mini and to cover specialized areas, such as LEAP Renal.
2018: We introduced new LEAP online modules, including Taking Ownership, and modules for LEAP Facilitator training and LEAP Paramedic.
2018: Pallium adopted a social enterprise model, leveraging a mission-driven approach to generate revenue while maintaining a strong focus on social impact and expanding access to palliative care education and resources.
2018: Released the Compassionate Communities Start Up Toolkit, designed to help community members create more compassionate and supportive communities.
2019: Launched the Compassionate Workplace Campaign, aimed at integrating more compassion and support within workplaces across Canada.
2019: Began work on the Canadian Atlas of Palliative Care with the Dr. Joshua Shadd – Pallium Canada Research Hub.
2019: Submitted application for charitable status in August, which was granted in March 2020.
2019: To support long-term sustainability and revenue diversification, a fund development role was established to explore and secure new funding opportunities, alongside the creation of an account management function to identify and pursue strategic growth initiatives.

2020–today

Pallium Canada continues to evolve and expand, with a focus on providing more accessible and flexible educational options while strengthening our national network. Through ongoing redevelopment and the relaunch of specialized courses in online and hybrid formats, we’re making palliative care education more accessible than ever before. This innovation empowers health care professionals to integrate palliative care into every community, clinic, and home.

We’re ready for what’s next, and we’re eager to take the next steps in our journey—because the work is far from over.

2020: The global pandemic presented unprecedented challenges; however, Pallium swiftly responded by transitioning to online learning with the release of LEAP Core (online), marking a major milestone for the organization.
May 2020: Our study of our Curriculum Development Model: A Framework to Support Large-Scale Courseware Development and Deployment was published in the Journal of Palliative Medicine
December 2020: Launched the Palliative Care ECHO Project, with a financial contribution from Health Canada, a new initiative designed to support health care providers through continuous learning, building a national community of palliative care professionals
2021: Released our Research and Evaluation Framework to help guide the study LEAP and ECHO programs and their impact.
June 2021: Launched LEAP Personal Support Worker, our first self-learning course to support frontline PSWs receive accessible palliative care training.
July 2021: Our work on Primary-level Palliative Care National Capacity: Pallium Canada was published in BMJ Supportive & Palliative Care, discussing our evolution, including the national spread of our education and compassionate communities’ programs and the factors that accelerate or impede success.
August 2021: We published an article on our experience Navigating Design Options for Large-Scale Interprofessional Continuing Palliative Care Education in Palliative Medicine Reports that explored the learning design decisions behind all of our courses.
January 2022: We studied the experiences and benefits of learners in interprofessional palliative care education in a study published in the Journal of Pain and Symptom Management.
2022: Launched the Care Connections Program, providing support to the millions of Canadians caring for someone with a serious illness.
October 2022: Assumed the role of Secretariat of the Palliative Care Coalition of Canada.
2023: Relaunched the Compassionate Workplace Campaign to better support workplaces in a digital age.
May 2023: Launched the Provincial-Territorial Palliative Care Advisory Group (PTAG), a forum to meet and exchange information on matters pertaining to palliative care.
June 2023: Launched LEAP Leaders to provide health care leaders with the knowledge and skills they need to improve access to palliative care and integrate palliative care into the health systems and services they lead.
November 2023: Released the first pilot study results of the Canadian Atlas of Palliative Care, providing valuable insights into the state of palliative care in Central East Ontario.
December 2023: Launched LEAP Core online training for Israeli and Palestinian health care providers, demonstrating palliative care’s power to bridge even the most deeply divided cultures.
January 2024: Launched the Canadian Serious Illness Conversations Course, our first non-LEAP course, designed to equip health care providers with essential communication skills for discussing serious illness with patients and families.
October 2024: Hosted the World’s Largest Palliative Care ECHO Session at the McGill International Palliative Care Congrès, a major milestone in our effort to improve palliative care on a global scale.
December 2024: Launched the Quebec LEAP adaptation project to review and update LEAP Core (online) to ensure it continues to meet the educational needs of French-speaking learners in the province.
2025: As of this year, over 3,5000 LEAP courses have been delivered to more than 60,000 learners across Canada.

Make an impact

Pallium is grateful to the many people who continue to share their time, effort, passion and commitment with us. With your support, we are innovating education, strengthening palliative care capacity, and transforming palliative care in Canada —one life, one family, one community at a time.

Discover how you can support our mission for 2025 and beyond