Interview Transcript:
Sebastien Sheldon: I’m here with Kathy Dracup-Harris, who is a former steering committee member of the Occupational and Environmental Health Coalition of Peterborough, and is a founding member of the John Ball Legacy Project. So, Kathy, what was your relationship with John like and how did you know him?
Kathy Dracup Harris: I met John, I’m, I was trying to remember what year it was, probably 2007, and I met him through a group of other people who were involved in trying to get justice for people that became sick after working at GE. And so I knew John and I worked closely with him for, oh gosh, probably eight, nine years, and then his health deteriorated. But yeah, that’s how I got to know John, was just, and I worked in public health, Sebastien, and there was some articles in the newspaper about workers from GE getting sick. And so, for me, when I read the article, I though ‘Well how can that happen in Peterborough? That’s not, something needs to be done’, and so I was quite interested in, in the issue and working with people to try and help these workers. And the key person at that point in time was John.
Sebastien: Mhmm. And what quality in John impressed you the most?
Kathy: That, that’s a tough question to answer, but, you’re gonna get a variety from people, but for me it was his commitment to justice for these GE workers, and the other thing is his tenacity. He just, he just never gave up, he never stopped believing that justice was possible. And so that drove the work that he did, documentation that he kept, the people that he stayed in touch with, so his commitment and his tenacity.
Sebastien: And what impact do you think John’s work had on workers injured via exposures at General Electric Peterborough.
Kathy: I think it has had a huge impact, and I would even go so far as to say had John not continued to be committed and tenacious, this whole issue would have dies many, many years ago. Because a few people got compensated, the ones that were just so obviously linked to huge asbestos exposures, but all of the other people that had now received compensation, which is still not a high enough level in my view, but all of those are directly related to the work that John started and continued to do until his health failed him. So, you know, it’s been huge. These workers would never, many of these workers would never have received compensation if it weren’t for John.
Sebastien: That’s really amazing, thank you.
End of Interview