Born in South Africa and with a career as a teacher in Durban, Jay Nair was forced to flee for political reasons and ended up in Canada, first as a security guard and then as a meat-cutter, where he became active in the United Food and Commercial Workers. In this...
For Marshall Jarvis, union activism started when he filed a grievance while a teacher at the York Region Catholic school board and was not satisfied with how his union handled it. Sixteen years later, he was provincial president of the Ontario English Catholic...
Description – Bill Heffernan, a long-time teacher in the Catholic system in the Dufferin-Peel area, discusses his activism in the Ontario English Catholic Teachers’ Association, as the organization transformed itself into a union. He highlights issues in teacher...
Maret Sädem-Thompson was the president of the Federation of Women Teachers’ Associations of Ontario (FWTAO) during the 1997 two-week teachers’ strike. Her wide-ranging interview portrays the women teachers’ union as important to the feminist movement in Canada and...
Judy Rebick, a leading Canadian feminist and founder of rabble.ca, discusses her involvement with the labour movement, particularly the push to put abortion rights on the agenda of the labour movement. Interviewed by Sara Tatelman and Elizabeth...
Joan Westcott was the executive director of the Federation of Women Teachers Associations of Ontario (FWTAO) when the two elementary unions amalgamated. She had held that position since 1987. She was local president of the Waterloo women teachers during the one-day...
