Interview Transcript:
Sebastien Sheldon: I’m with Heather Brooks-Hill, who is a former steering committee member of the Occupational and Environmental Health Coalition – Peterborough, and is a founding member of the John Ball Legacy Project. So, Heather, tell me about how you knew John and what your relationship with him was like.
Heather Brooks-Hill: For sure. So, I first met John in the spring of 2007, and we were meeting in a small, old, run down office that was the labour council office of the day in Peterborough. And John had such dignity, that it was impressive that this small man, I mean he was, he already had some physical, you know, challenges, that this small man had such dignity, and that was my first recollection of him. We did an interview before our first seminar, and when I say our, I mean the Coalition, the Occupational and Environmental Health Coalition of Peterborough, at Fleming College in the spring of ’07. And we were at a meeting, doing the planning, and we had arranged for an interview with John by the Peterborough Examiner. So, the young journalist showed up, and it was so impressive to watch what happened, and it was all because of John’s comprehensive knowledge of the situation at GE after so many years of being there, and his dignity was so impressive, and that was my first experience with John. And the second one, I just want to mention it, because John was not so much part of the political strategy, but everything he shared with us informed the political strategy. So, the first meeting we had with the then minister of labour, Kevin Flynn, in the fall of ’15, so that’s eight years later, so there we are in Kevin’s Office, the board room on University Avenue, and I remember that meeting because Kevin is a very, you’ll meet him on Zoom eventually, but he is a very personable person, and a politician, but he is very genuine. And there was a bureaucrat there who was suggesting that we do an inventory of all the chemicals in the plant. So I think, Sebastien, you already know about this big report that was done called the retrospective study, that is the title, but the birth of that report happened in Kevin Flynn’s office in the spring of ’15. John was very excited about that idea, but he said “It’s never gonna happen”, but it did happen. So, although John had this dignity and commitment, he had so many years before I ever met him, where everything that he believed should happen was stymied by either the union, the local union, or the company, his fellow workers, and government.
Sebastien: So you talk a lot about John’s dignity. Is that what impressed you the most about him?
Heather: Yes, and the central part of that, and remember that I only met him in ’07, okay? Because this may not be the John of the ’80s, 1980s, I have no idea. Other people may talk to you about that. But, by the time I met him, his deep spirituality was so integrated in who he was as a person, that he became very persuasive not by pressuring, but just by who he was. And, there’s a French expression, you don’t have to use it but it’s “Très confortable dans ma peau”. It means “I’m comfortable in my own skin”, right, that “I’m at ease in my body”. And he just manifested that, and, you know for me that was extremely powerful. And I always did whatever John told us to do, and that’s why we became friends as well, right, because he was so impressive to me. He walked the talk. He walked the talk.
Sebastien: And with his work, what impact do you believe it had on workers who had been injured by exposures at the GE plant?
Heather: Okay, directly, he impacted everything that happened out of what you’re looking at. Okay, so every single post you’re going to put on the website, will be because of John’s initial advocacy. Specifically for the workers, he kept very copious files, which you already know a little bit about, where he was documenting, because of his own expertise in knowing what the chemicals were that were in that plant, and the impact of what, he wasn’t a PhD scientist, but he was very, very knowledgeable and wise about why it was so dangerous to be working in that plant. So, it was his commitment to justice for these workers that was the biggest impact. And, though, I think it all, the people who gathered around him, and mainly I would say the steering committee, from the time I met him anyway, they were people that could not, we could not ignore his commitment to justice.
Sebastien: That’s wonderful. Thank you very much for the interview. For every, for the viewers of this interview, Heather will likely be featured on the website a little bit as well, so you can read that. Thank you for the interview, again.
Heather: You’re welcome.
End of Interview