Interview Transcript:
Sebastien Sheldon: For today’s audio interview I’m here with Sandy LeBeau, widow of former GE Peterborough worker, Ron LeBeau. So Sandy, tell me a bit about how you knew John.
Sandy LeBeau: Well, when Ron got sick, we found out he was sick in December, and around the first part of January of ’95, John phoned me and wanted to express, you know, how sorry he was that Ron was sick, and told me that there was a lot of cancer going through the plant, and with deceased being the end result. And he asked me, if I could do it, is to make sure Ron had an autopsy, just because without an autopsy then there was a lot of questions not being answered and that sort of thing, so. We had a good talk on the phone that night, and that was the first time I had heard of John and what he represented with the company and stuff. So, yeah, I didn’t tell Ron that that was what the conversation was about, but I did have an autopsy done, and then after Ron passed away, John would contact me quite often and see how I was doing and if I’d heard anything from the company and, you know, that kinda stuff. Yeah, so, John was a good part of my life, with being, you know, on my side. Ron always felt that his cancer was GE. He actually told us five years before he passed away that the chemicals of GE will kill him first before he’d ever retire, and five years later he was gone. But, so, I didn’t know that it was an issue with GE. And then when John was filling pieces of what he worked with and what he did with whatever, things would make sense to me. It was very good that way.
Sebastien: So in either the time before or after Ron’s passing, what impact do you believe that John had on achieving justice for workers injured by exposures?
Sandy: Well, John had so much knowledge, like. I don’t know of anybody that would have the memory of what John did. John could tell you about locations in the plant, who worked at the plant at that time, because he was on health and safety for a long time, even quite in the early years at the plant. And, you know, you might think ‘Well, did so and so work in that part of the plant, or whatever?’, and John could say “No he didn’t,” or “Yes he did, and he worked on whatever, and the chemicals that he used,” and that really impressed me with John, because, you know, John was getting up into age when I got to know him, and, you know, the older you get, the less things that you kinda remember, you know? But he could almost read it off like a book. So he must have had a photographic memory or something, because his knowledge of the plant, the building, the people, the chemicals, he had, like if you wanted to know anything you could just ask John Ball and he would be able to fill in the, you know, what you were asking. But, yeah, he always felt that when he would work with health and safety and the WSIB or whatever, people would come in to check things out and tell them to assess the change that has to be changed or whatever, and he would say “Well, you know, yeah it was on paper, but that’s as far as it went. The company didn’t do nothing about it. They didn’t clean up any of the stuff that should have been cleaned up or, help the guys with what they were wearing and to work with different chemicals and stuff. And, anyway, he really felt that the company could care less about the people. And I think with the whole thing from how WSIB ended up, like, GE never even got penalized for any of the claims that were solved. And you think ‘Well, if they, somebody fell over a, some wires or something like that, then GE could get penalized for having those wires out there that were not in proper place and somebody got hurt over it, well then they get penalized. But then somebody dies and they don’t get penalized?’. That just really didn’t make sense to me, at all, and I don’t think it did to John either. He felt that they should have been accountable for the deaths that went on in there especially when they had writeups and stuff to clean up sections and that sort of thing. But, yeah. Are there anything else?
Sebastien: No, Sandy it’s been wonderful getting the chance to speak with you, thank you so much for your time.
End of Interview