Our Board
The Council of Canadians is governed by an exceptional volunteer board of directors. The Board is composed of a purposeful mix of the various voices in Canada who are committed to the protection of the commons, mother earth and social justice, and therefore along with Chapter activists, represents a mix of Indigenous, labour, environmentalist, student and human rights activists.
Chairperson, dedicated to building the strength of the Council of Canadians in every region while engaging Canada’s many diverse communities. Cartwright is the Past President of the Toronto & York Region Labour Council, representing 200,000 union members who work in every sector of the economy. Read more.
Elected Secretary-Treasurer of the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC) in June 2021, Lily is the first worker of East Asian descent elected to office at CLC. She started her career as a social services caseworker and saw first-hand how inequality and racism were linked to poverty. The disparities and education cuts affecting her children fueled her interest in labour work. A strong advocate for workers and public services, Lily previously served as Treasurer of CUPE Local 79 and on the board of the Toronto & York Region Labour Council.
Chapter representative, retired postal worker and union activist for 34 years, serving in executive and educational capacities. Condon helped to organize the Medicine Hat Chapter in 2016 to become a strong voice for progressive change across the country.
A Tsilhqot’in, is an activist who is passionate about water and food safety issues. Nita is a long-time member of the Council of Canadians and a strong advocate for Indigenous rights.
Retired as president of the Vancouver & District Labour Council in 2018. She has spent 40 years as a labour, community and social justice activist, including many years on staff of the Hospital Employees’ Union. In addition to the Council of Canadians, Joey is on the boards of the BC Labour Heritage Centre, Vancouver Community College and Pacific Blue Cross. She also serves on the Labour Studies Advisory Committee at Simon Fraser University.
Secretary, was a founding member of the Council’s NWT Chapter and previously served on the national Board of Directors as the Prairies/NWT representative. Lorraine has over two decades of professional experience with policy development and evaluation, and many years of experience in management. As a political activist, she has been a member of Ecology North, Amnesty International, Alternatives North, Fracking Action North, the Union of Northern Workers, and the Public Service Alliance of Canada. She also served as the President of the Northern Territories Federation of Labour (NWT/Nunavut).
An environmentalist for 40 years, Jerry first joined the fight against climate change as a member of Friends of the Earth in the 80s. He has since served as Atlantic Regional Development Director for Greenpeace Canada and worked at the Ecology Action Centre in Halifax, both of which he still supports today. Jerry serves as co-chair and treasurer of the HRM Chapter of the Council.
Leanne retired from paid employment in the labour movement in December 2020, after more than 30 years, but didn’t retire from her commitment to social, racial, gender, economic and climate justice. She is a former employee-side labour and employment lawyer and continuing pension geek who has lived in Ottawa, Kingston, Sudbury, Halifax, Toronto and now a small town in Glengarry County Ontario. She attended the founding meeting of the Council as a representative of the student
movement. She has been active in the fight for public childcare and the maintenance of public healthcare, water and other important services.
Before retirement, I worked in post-secondary education and as an advocate for battered women. I was a founding member of the Association of University and College Employees at SFU and SORWUC, two feminist unions now defunct and later active in CUPE and BCGEU where I was chair of the bargaining unit at Douglas College. Since retirement I served 7 years on the Board of West Coast LEAF, a feminist legal advocacy group and became active in the Council of Canadians in my new home in the beautiful qathet regional district, the ancestral home of the tla’amin and shishalh nations, where I get to garden beside the Salish Sea.
A long-time supporter of the Council of Canadians, Christie became an active member of the Hamilton, Ontario Chapter in 2021 and quickly became involved in local campaigns, helped update the chapter website, and took on the role of Chapter Secretary. Christie works in video production by day and is eager to utilize and develop her communication skills as the liaison between the Ontario Chapters and the Board, as well as between the Chapters themselves.
Through volunteer work as an organizer for Migrante, national committee member for United for Mining Justice, steering committee member for KAIROS and several other organizations, Marcelino has worked at the grassroots level to promote migrant and indigenous rights, and support ecological and social justice initiatives
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Active on a host of global and local social justice and environmental issues, Joe facilitates strategies to build more socially just and sustainable communities.
Bianca is the director of the Canadian Foreign Policy Institute and former Co-Executive Director and co-founder of The Leap. She is based in Montreal.
A dedicated water and climate justice activist, Tara brings coalition-building skills from her volunteer work with diverse grassroots networks, including Toronto Climate Action Network. Co-chair of the Toronto chapter since 2008, she’s energized by the new dynamic role of Chapters in the Council of Canadians. She currently works on the Fossil Banks movement at Greenpeace Canada.
A Canadian policy analyst and National Director of Policy and Advocacy for the Canadian Health Coalition, a non-profit organization that works to defend and expand public health care. He also founded the Rideau Institute.
Organizational affiliations are for identification purposes only.
