Interview Transcript:
Sebastien Sheldon: I’m here with Natasha Luckhardt, who is the producer of Town of Widows, which is now streaming on CBC gem. Natasha, how did you know John?
Natasha Luckhardt: I first met John when I started my Master’s thesis on the issue of exposures at GE in Peterborough, and I was connected to him through the original Occupational and Environmental Health Coalition. For our first interview, I remember he showed up with a whole trunk of binders that he didn’t actually need to read. It was more for me, but yeah, he was throwing words at me like methyl ethyl ketone, trichloroethylene, words I had never heard before, and just transcribing his interview was a research project in itself. And I also remember him saying that going into GE was like a battlefield, you didn’t know if you were going to live or die. So while I can’t remember every single detail of what shared, the science of it all, the collection of stories is what the film became.
Sebastien: Mhmm. And through your experiences with John, what was the quality in him that impressed you the most.
Natasha: It’s hard to choose just one quality, so, I’m sure many people have said that, but I’d have to say his mind and his might. He had a superhero ability to recall information. Like I said those trunk full of binder, that were actually all up here, and I came across one of my notebook from my first interview with him, and it said, you know, instead of playing cards at lunch he would be reading. He was a lifelong learner, and he also had such a keen sense of justice, and no time for anything that got in the way. So, I think conceivably if someone were to offer him a million dollars to, you know, keep quite, he would only speak up louder. That’s just the kind of guy that, that he was.
Sebastien: So you’ve paid a lot of attention to the stories surrounding these events. What do you think that John’s work, and John himself, what impact do you think that he had on the workers who had been injured by exposures at the GE plant?
Natasha: I think the entire movement has been a community fight for justice, but I think all widows and workers would say that John was one of the original, if not the original, trailblazers of the movement. He held the institutional knowledge of that workplace. He was the one who said, “Something’s not right here”, and kept collecting the evidence all throughout the years since day one. He stepped into GE with a clean bill of health, and then instantly became sick, he said. So I think he wanted to make sure that no workers would have to go through that, I’d say that was his living and dying wish.
Sebastien: It was a pleasure speaking with you Natasha, thank you so much for your time.
Natasha: You as well.
End of Interview