All of us here at CLIFF were shocked beyond belief when we learned of Carol’s death on 22 April 2023.
Carol came to the CLiFF board with a lot of history – all of it good and all of it benefitted CLiFF in ways that will be felt for a long time to come. We’ll leave it to others to detail her many accomplishments, from leading a diamond mine strike in NWT, to her work with the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists, in organizing within unions for greater equity and solidarity between workers, and her astonishing insurgent run for the Presidency of the Canadian Labour Congress.
She brought to CLiFF the same energy and leadership that made her so loved and influential in the many progressive local organizations that she threw herself into when she and Gerry left Toronto for Warkworth ON. She was loved and cared-for by so many; she was there when needed.
That she found time for any of us, CLiFF, Amnesty International Northumberland, Horizons and others, given the work she continued to do in her so-called ‘retirement’ is astonishing. To the very end of her life Carol was working with unions to make them more open, more inclusive and more effective.
Our condolences to us all, even, or perhaps especially, to those who never met her: they have lost the chance to say thank-you to someone whose work over many years has made their world a better place. Carol, her humour and energy and commitment, will be terribly missed.
She was loved by those of us at CLiFF and loved by so many others.
Our hearts go out to her family. She is greatly missed.
