Interview Transcript:
Sebastien Sheldon: I’m here with Marion Burton, who is the former president of the Peterborough and District Labour Council from 2006 to 2018. She is also a former steering committee member of the Occupational and Environmental Health Coalition – Peterborough, and a founding member of the John Ball Legacy Project. Marion, tell me a little bit about your relationship with John and how you knew him.
Marion Burton: So, it was actually the labour council, when I was first getting involved in the labour movement back in the ’80s, our local affiliated to the Peterborough and District Labour Council, and I kept that connection, I’ve kept it throughout 35 years. They used to organize educationals that would be held in the evening as part of a labour studies program through Fleming College, and so when I first actually got to meet John a little bit closer was actually through an educational. I can’t remember the topic, but anyways he was a student in that class as well, and it was probably around, you know, 1982, ’83, somewhere in that timeline. And so, you know, then just continuing with that labour council connection, we would run, the labour council also would run weekend educationals and John would be our health and safety course instructor. The depth of knowledge that he had and his own experiences, you know, he would, and the training that he had, you know, he had a lot of certificates, through health and safety organizations to qualify him to be able to instruct other workers for workplace health and safety. So, you know, over the years, you know, you just keep that relationship.
Sebastien: So, in all of the time that you knew John, what quality in him impressed you the most?
Marion: He was very detailed, and he was a great story teller. You had to have time on your hands if you were going to sit with John for any length of time to hear a very fascinating story in whatever it might be. So not only about his experiences in the workplace, but also his personal life. Where he came from, and you may have heard these things before through others, he had in the ’50s, he was involved with the Canadian Navy, and learned about chemical warfare because we were in the cold war era at that time. And, so just some of his experiences through that time, there would be little glimpses, so just, you know, just a very interesting man. He, his, his grandmother was a Mohawk, from the Mohawk First Nations community, and we would reference him as our warrior as time went on through the work of the Coalition. He was very tenacious. He would not give up, and yeah, just great admiration for his desire to, but it was always selfless, it was more about wanting to help others.
Sebastien: And what impact do you believe that John’s work had on achieving justice for workers that had been injured by exposures at the GE plant?
Marion: Oh, I would almost give him sole credit. Without the work that John Ball undertook to document, to retain records, to continue to support coworkers, in a way that I don’t think anybody else was capable of doing, and then to bring that background to a community effort when, you know, serendipitously we formed the Coalition. Without that work, I don’t, we would have been spinning our wheels. You have to have evidence, you have to have documentation, and unfortunately the union that he belonged to didn’t necessarily support his undertakings at various times, and he was very meticulous in making sure that they had all the documentation as well. But at one point in time they accused him of taking all that documentation, which was not true. I, whether they hid it or disposed of it because they didn’t want to have it, I’m not sure. I can’t explain the behaviours that became evident, but he was very much wanting to provide the information to anyone who wanted it, but recognizing that he needed to also keep it secure, because he knew the threat always existed that others would destroy it if he didn’t, wasn’t the keeper of the documents. So before he died, he entrusted his records to myself, his very close coworker and friend Don McConnell, and Dr. Noel Kerin, and so… and his son was present at the time that he signed the document, and so his son Robin did work with us to gather them together, you know, as the house was being emptied, and to transfer the records over to us.
Sebastien: Well, Marion, thank you so much for providing these responses to these questions and participating in this interview. It’s been a pleasure speaking with you, thank you so much.
Marion: My pleasure, thank you very much.
End of Interview