Sam Akinsanya
Racially Visible Persons Rep
Prairie Region Council January 2017
The 2016 Rise-UP conference was organized/hosted by Canadian Labour Congress. The event took place at Shaw Centre in Ottawa, from Thursday October 20th to Sunday 23rd. This was the last activity I was involved in but unable to report on for the November PRC meeting due to timing issue.
Thursday October 20th:
The event started at 3:00 p.m. on Thursday with registration of delegates that went on for most of the afternoon. Later in the evening there was a meet and greet gathering at the Shaw-Centre, Ottawa. The meet and greet gathering went on for a while into the night. There were roughly 900 delegates that attended the conference.
Friday October 21st:
The second day started in early morning with the completion of delegates’ registration while simultaneously the Women’s caucus and the Allies of women caucus was taking place.
At 9:00 a.m., the conference commenced in the plenary with the introduction of Panel speakers which included the CLC president, Danny Glover and others. This was titled “Success Story Unplugged”. Also on Friday was a PSAC caucus in the evening. At the caucus, the president of the PSAC – Robyn Benson provided us with updates on bargaining and other on-going issues.
Saturday October 22nd:
The third day was also full of workshops. Some of the facilitators spoke about empowering unions in other countries with lesser resources to combat employers’ oppression. Some spoke about their experiences in places like Bangladesh where the working condition in the garments Industry is deplorable. They suggested making the union in Canada very strong at home in order to help workers outside of our borders.
Sunday October 23rd:
The fourth day was primarily a summary of all the activities for the past three days and it took place at the plenary. The conference came to a close around noon.
As each delegate to the CLC conference was allotted three workshops to attend. I have attached a slide show of one the three I attended by myself – please see attached titled: “Human Rights and Labour Image”. Also attached is the general minutes for the conference provided by the conference organizer.
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Also attached below is a general report provided for the entire CLC conference titled: 2016-RiseUp-Report.
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November 3rd – 6th:
Attended and participated at the PRC meeting at the Palliser Hotel.
In Solidarity
Sam Akinsanya
Racially Visible Members Representative
Prairie Regional Council
Public Service Alliance of Canada
(403) 850-3951