JASON SETNYK
The Cornwall and District Labour Council marked International Women’s Day with a community gathering at the Royal Canadian Legion. The evening featured a supper, speeches, and a silent auction showcasing artwork by Pierre Giroux. Mayor Justin Towndale and Councillors Elaine MacDonald, Carilyne Hébert, and Claude McIntosh were in attendance.
This event’s theme, “Bread and Roses,” echoed the 1912 Lawrence Textile Strike of 1912 in Lawrence, Massachusetts, where thousands of immigrant textile workers, many of them women, demanded fair wages and dignity. “Bread” symbolized economic security, while “roses” represented quality of life beyond survival.
Keynote speaker Ginette Guy Mayer drew on her 2024 book, The Women of Stormont, Dundas, Glengarry and Akwesasne: True Stories of Extraordinary Lives, to highlight local women who shaped the region’s labour history.
“For this one tonight, because it’s Labour Council and International Women’s Day, I’m going to talk about Mamie Lavigne,” Mayer said, noting Lavigne was vice-president of the Cornwall Rayon Workers’ Union when a Cornwall textile strike began in 1936. “She initiated the strike and the walkout.”
Mayer said her book spans from the 1780s to today, profiling 21 women in different fields. “There’s a variety of women that have done different things in different fields,” she said, adding that recognition should extend beyond famous names. “It doesn’t have to be somebody that’s done something that changed the world, but that at least changed their world.”
Labour Council president Louise Lanctot said the event focused on the care economy and ongoing wage gaps. “Women earn 89 cents for every dollar that men earn in Canada,” she said. While the gap has narrowed somewhat, Lanctot noted many women in service and care sectors remain close to minimum wage.
She emphasized labour’s broader role in advancing social change. “Most of the social programs that have come to Canada have come through the unions,” Lanctot said. “A rising ship lifts all boats.”
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