Labour Activist Interviews documenting Canadian working class opposition to Apartheid
OBeginning in 2022, Doug Miller, a SACTU Solidarity Committee Quebec activist in the 1980s began the Canadian Anti-Apartheid Activist History Project in conjunction with CKUT 90.3 FM in Montreal [Amandla.ca]. In collaboration with alumni members of the SACTU Solidarity Committee 18 interviews have been completed and more are planned. These interviews have been deposited with the Library of Canada Archives and are being made available on-line through the SACTU Solidarity Committee Archive YouTube channel. A list of the interviewees and a short Biography of each is included below. Please note the interview with Mike Darnell is audio only and is not on the YouTube channel. It can be accessed by clicking here or through the link in the Darnell entry below.
List of Interviewees & Bios
Name: AGES, Robert
Date: June 22, 2022
Length: 34m51s
A machinist in the Winnipeg rail yard in the 1980s and a shop steward with the International Association of Machinists (IAM), Bob Ages engaged with the anti-apartheid coalition movement and the Winnipeg Labour Council. Later moving to Toronto, then Vancouver he continued to be engaged with the union movement, including the BC Federation of Labour and Indigenous struggles in BC.
Name: BICKERTON, Geoff
Date: July 21, 2022
Length: 51m28s
From the 1980s through to his retirement in 2021, Geoff Bickerton was the research director of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) working out of the national office in Ottawa.
Name: BISHOP, Fiona
Date: June 29, 2022
Length: 37m27s
In the 1970s in Regina, Saskatchewan, Fiona Bishop was a member of the Saskatchewan Government Employees Union and by the 1980s was on the union staff as well as the Human Rights Committee of the Saskatchewan Federation of Labour. She was on the staff until her retirement after which, she remained active in human rights issues.
Name: CLARKE, John
Date: June 24, 2022
Length: 33m34s
After emigrating from England, John Clarke started work at the Westinghouse plant in London, Ontario in the late 1970s. Soon after, he became a shop steward of United Electrical workers union (UE) Local 546. Following a layoff in 1982, he founded and remained the leader of the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP) for several decades. During the 1980s he was also active with the London Labour Council.
Name: CLAVETTE, Ken
Date: March 3, 2022
Length: Part 1: 53m02s Part 2: 2m26s
In 1979, Ken Clavette was working at Uplands Air Base and active with Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) local 611. By 1983, he was president of the Ottawa Labour Council for the duration of the 1980s and a union activist until he retired.
Name: DARNELL, Mike
Date: November 15, 2022
Length: 1h14m12s
A fisherman on the west coast of British Columbia from the time he was a teenager, Mike Darnell was a member of the United Fisherman and Allied Workers and by 1978 was a full-time representative of the UFAW for northern BC based in Prince Rupert where he remained for many years. Later sent by the UFAW in the 1980s to organize the Great Lakes Fisherman’s Union in Leamington on Lake Erie, he connected with Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) Local 444. By the late 1980s, Darnell was an executive assistant first to Ken Gerard, then Larry Bauer, both presidents of Local 444. He later returned to BC working in a variety of occupations, including union representation.
This interview was audio only and is not on the YouTube channel. Click here to listen.
Name: FLEMMING, Barry
Date: July 13, 2022
Length: 46m17s
A teacher in the 1970s, Barry Flemming went on to work at various times for both CUSO and OXFAM Canada. By the late 1970s, Flemming was an executive assistant to the management committee of the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) and later worked with the Public Service International in Brussels.
Name: GINDIN, Sam
Date: February 13, 2021
Length: 1h37m
Sam Gindin worked as Director of Research and assistant to the President of the United Auto Workers (UAW) which became the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) over the period 1975-2000. Sam describes the relationship between the Union and the SACTU SC.
Name: GREASON, Vincent
Date: December 09, 2021
Length: 1h04m24s
A lifelong popular educator in Ontario and Quebec beginning in the 1970s, he joined the staff of the SACTU Solidarity Committee for several years in the 1980s concentrating his work in Quebec with the labour movement and coalition activists in anti-apartheid work.
Name: HOOGERS, Evert
Date: May 23, 2022
Length: 45m52s
Hired in Vancouver as a postal worker in 1972, Evert Hoogers was elected shop steward with the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) a day after probation and by 1980 he was president of the Vancouver CUPW Local throughout the 1980s. Later he joined the national CUPW staff in Ottawa until retiring.
Name: KEIGHLEY, Jef
Date: January 26, 2022
Length: 1h06m35s
After working for CUSO (Canadian University Services Overseas) for a few years in the 1970s and the Vancouver based International Development Education Resource Centre (IDERA), Keighley took a job with Kenworth Truck plant. Within a short time he was shop steward of Canadian Association of Industrial, Mechanical and Allied Workers union (CAIMAW). Throughout the 1980s he was a CAIMAW staff representative and following the CAIMAW merger in 1992 with the Canadian Auto Workers union (CAW) he remained as a national representative until retirement.
Name 1: LANG. John
Name 2: RITCHIE, Laurell
Date: February 07, 2022
Length: 1h17m49s
Both John Lang and Laurell Ritchie were trade union leaders in the Confederation of Canadian Unions (CCU). Lang was elected Secretary-Treasurer from 1978-1992 when the federation merged with the Canadian Auto Workers CAW union. After completing a law degree Lang joined the legal staff of the CAW until he retired. Laurell Ritchie was an organizer with the CCU in 1972 and later an officer with the Canadian Textile and Chemical Union (CTCU). Following the merger with the CAW in 1992 Ritchie became a national representative with the union until her retirement.
Name: PHILLIPS, Carol
Date: April 15, 2021
Length: 1h09m
With the Canadian Auto Workers, Carol Phillips served as the Bargaining Committee Chair and Chair of CAW Local 673, Dehavilland Aircraft when she established relations with SACTU SC. Later she was Director of Education Development and Director of International Development, before becoming Assistant to the President. Carol was also Head of the Canadian Labour Congress Women’s Bureau and Executive Assistant to the President of the Canada Labour Congress.
Name: POLLOCK. Marion
Date: May24, 2022
Length: 30m42s
Marion Pollock was hired in the Vancouver post office in 1974 and six months later was elected Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) shop steward. Later she rose to the position of vice-president of the Vancouver Labour Council. She remained an activist within her union and the labour council, in particular on gender issues, but also in the 1980s on international solidarity. After retiring, she remained active advising CUPW members on pension issues.
Name: ROBB, Bill
Date: November 08, 2022
Length: 47m11s
During the 1980s Bill Robb worked with the “One Sky Education Centre” in Saskatoon and later with the Saskatchewan International Labour Program (SILP). Robb later went on to join the national research staff of the Canadian Union of Public Employees for 25 years until his retirement.
Name: SHNIAD, Sydney
Date: June 15, 2022
Length: 48m52s
A political economist, Sid Shniad was hired in 1980 by the BC based Telecommunications Workers Union (TWU) and continued in that position with an activist orientation for several decades until he retired.
Name: SINCLAIR, Jim
Date: July 14, 2022
Length: 57m09s
An activist from his high school days in the 1970s, Jim Sinclair went on to work in radio in Vancouver, as a journalist with the Nelson Daily News then with the United Fishermen and Allied Workers (UFAW) in Vancouver putting out its newspaper, The Fisherman. After the UFAW merged with the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) union, Sinclair, a 17 year member of UFAW, was elected for a total of 15 years as the president of the BC Federation of Labour from which he retired
Name: STOUT, Susan
Date: February 24, 2022
Length: 53m50s
Susan Stout began working at Air Canada in 1972 and soon became active in the Canadian Airline Employees Association (CALEA). After the merger with the CAW in 1986, she was a delegate to the Vancouver Labour Council and active in many social issues along with the SACTU Solidarity Vancouver committee.
Name: WALKER, Cathy
Date: June 24, 2022
Length: 39m39s
Cathy Walker joined the Canadian Association of Industrial, Mechanical and Allied Workers Union (CAIMAW), became a local union president, then on the staff of CAIMAW in the 1980s. Upon the merger with the CAW in 1992 she became health and safety director for over a decade.
Name: WORTH, Garry
Date: May 11, 2022
Length: 35m48s
Active in the Pulp and Paper Workers union (PPWC), later the Private and Public Workers Union of Canada in the late 1970s, Garry Worth was elected president of the Kamloops local 10 in the 1980s. Then in 1995 he was elected national president of PPWC.
Name: YUSSUFF, Hassan
Date: April 15, 2021
Length: 1h
Hassan Yussuff traces his evolution through the union movement as a young immigrant worker of colour at CanCar auto parts and then elected plant chairman of Local 252 CAW and later into the CAW national office becoming Director of CAW Human Rights Department. He worked closely as a member of SACTU SC and promoted the support of SACTU in many union fora. He retired as President of the Canadian Labour Congress and was named to the Canadian Senate in 2021.
TORONTO WORKERS HISTORY PROJECT ZOOM Presentation April 13, 2021
Name: ARMSTRONG, Jane
Name: GREASON, Vincent
Name: LUCKHARDT. Ken
Name: TRAYNOR, Ken
Name: WALL, Brenda
Date: April 13, 2021
Length: 1h59m
Toronto Workers History Project invited the SACTU SC members to present the history of their organisation and how it interacted with Canadian unions and its impact.