Interview Transcript:
Sebastien Sheldon: I’m here with Janet Branson, who is a former worker of the GE plant in Peterborough. So, Janet, tell me a little bit about your relationship with John and how you met him.
Janet Branson: I met him through health and safety when we had to make that call that day. And then he was telling us how dangerous it was, you know like I mean, you get three or four or five people sick at the same time with, you know, infection, you know there’s something not right. That’s when it first began, and then got to talk to him when I saw him out in the aisles and that, and he would tell me he was trying to help some people that were very, very sick, a lot sicker than most a lot of them, and he was trying to get to the bottom of it and find out where the toxins were and the chemicals were. I guess he did that for years and years ’cause after I left I saw it in the newspaper. I was reading it, keeping up on it in the newspaper.
Sebastien: You mentioned a call, now, I know what you’re talking about, but could you elaborate on, or would you like to elaborate on what you meant by that?
Janet: The call when we got, we were getting all sick and we couldn’t figure out why we weren’t getting better. And my doctor kept giving me medications and taking tests, blood tests, and saying that I just had a cold or something, that I was, I had an infection. I ended taking a bit of time off work and it was because of these, they hadn’t changed the filters upstairs, and they welded just across from us downstairs. So, he came over, him and Tina Flood, they worked together, Tina Flood was working with him at the time. They both came over and discovered these filters. And got them changed, and we all our sinus infections cleared up. But these sinus infections went on for about three months. Must have been about five of us that were sick from it.
Sebastien: Did you see John or hear from John frequently after that?
Janet: I heard from him when he, we would run into each other or sometimes he would give me a call. He never, ever told me who he was looking for or finding out who was sick, I just saw peoples’ names in the paper that were dying that had worked in GE. All I know is he never gave up. He kept going until he could get some satisfaction from helping these people that were dying, eh? And that’s how I knew it, and it was always in the paper, all wrote up in the paper, and I was so happy when I saw that they finally last year I guess there was a breakthrough, and they got somewhere. And now he continued this even when he retired.
Sebastien: Mhmm.
Janet: He continued working, like he was always on the bit about anybody that was, other people were involved helping and getting it all done, getting all the work done, but he did continue on it right until his death.
Sebastien: And so, in the time that you knew John, what quality in him impressed you the most?
Janet: Impressed me the most? He never gave up.
Sebastien: Mhmm.
Janet: He was always there for a person, and he always stuck for them. You know, stuck up for them. He never gave up. He always was there. Because I’d heard it from other people too of course, working with people, and then you run into them and they’d say what he was doing, eh, and how he had helped them, or they’d helped a husband when the husband had cancer and died, so.
Sebastien: And so, you’ve touched on it a little bit just there, but, what impact do you think that John’s work, because he didn’t give up, what impact do you think his work had on achieving justice for all those workers that had been injured or ill?
Janet: I think, because of his passion of work and his never giving up, they finally realized and accepted the fact that there was a problem there. And then some people started getting some money from the problems that were caused in there. Took them a long time to come around to finally, you know, giving people their money. But most of all, he was doing it, he wanted that place cleaned up so that other people wouldn’t die from it.
Sebastien: Well, Janet, thank you so much for taking the time to do this interview. It’s been a pleasure talking to you, and again I want to thank you for taking the time out of your day and putting some thought into these responses and providing such a wonderful interview.
Janet: Okay, thank you very much.
End of Interview