One didn’t have to go far in Toronto to run into Jack Layton. Over the past three decades Jack personally crossed paths with tens of thousands of people. I’d like to share a few of my own experiences working with Jack on a variety of political projects and activities in Toronto. None of them were electoral campaigns.

Toronto City Hall

I first met Jack in the early ’80s. I was a member of a human rights group called the Coalition against the Marcos Dictatorship (CAMD – Philippines). Jack was a city councillor and a “go-to” guy for progressive groups that needed to book a meeting room or use the square for a not infrequent demonstration or rally. Jack not only booked the space and endorsed, but would also attend and speak at many events. He was one of several councillors who publicly and actively supported the solidarity and peace movements. Having elected representatives board helped us build legitimacy and get coverage for issues. Jack’s roots in Toronto were deep and no doubt many others can add to the web of solidarity and support that Jack provided to causes big and small while at city hall.

G7 – Toronto

In 1987-88, I was an organizer with a coalition called the Popular Summit Facilitation Committee. We were coming together to protest the June 1988 G7 Summit in Toronto. Jack was an early endorser. About 140 groups and numerous individuals lent their names to the coalition. The PSFC was an umbrella for a number of initiatives including an academic conference, war crimes tribunal, civil disobedience (CD), tent city and mass rally. When things started to heat up in the media because of the CD and squabbles with the police about a parade permit, the PSFC started to draw heat from the Toronto Sun. Jack was directly in the line of fire.

“On one side are pro-summit forces, represented by the upper crust of the national political and business worlds. Representing the other side are the energy organizers of the so-called ‘alternate summit’ — fronted in large part at the local political level by Toronto NDP Councillor Jack Layton” – Ted Welch, Toronto Sun, April 7, 1988

Welch would later go on to call us “pea-brains for peace” and “fired up yuppie loons.” In a Toronto Sun editorial on May 16, they say “Layton … supported protests against the ‘fundamentally destructive policies the seven leaders have been party to.'” Not a bad way to get the message out.

White Ribbon Campaign

In 1992, Jack was teaching a course on public administration in the MacDonald Block where I worked. I was the local union (OPSEU) president at the Ministry of Education head office. David Rapaport and I would see Jack after work some times. This was the second year of the anti-violence against women White Ribbon Campaign which has now been commemorated in more than 60 countries. Jack quickly enlisted our local as participants. He came to a local meeting to talk to our members about the campaign and we distributed white ribbons and literature on December 6 for a few years.

1992 – Fundraiser for the Rotisken’rakéhte (Mohawk Warriors)

In the wake of the 78-day, 1990 armed standoff on Kanien’gehaga (Mohawk) territory in Quebec that came to be called the “Oka Crisis,” I was part of a core group convened by Ann Pohl to initiate a new solidarity organization. We became the Turtle Island Support Group.

One of the projects that TISG initiated was a fundraiser for the members of the Rotisken’rakéhte (Warrior Society) legal defense fund to help them receive a good legal defense and fair trials. With the 500th anniversary of the arrival of Christopher Columbus approaching in 1992, we came up with the idea of an art show and auction to commemorate 1492-1992. The call was put out to local and indigenous artists. More than 100 people  responded. The show ran for a month at Toronto’s Partisan Gallery. The auction was held at the nearby Gladstone Hotel.

Jack readily agreed to be our auctioneer. With over 130 pieces of art on the block, he had his work cut out for him. The auction went on all afternoon and into the early evening. I had the exciting experience of being one of Jack’s relief auctioneers. By the time it was over, we raised $13,000 for the legal defense fund, the largest organized fundraising effort in the country. The artists also received a cut of the proceeds which means that Jack pulled at least $20,000 from a room of about 150 people. (All of the members of the Rotisken’rakéhte were later acquitted.) A birch bark piece from that auction hangs in my front hall.

1996 – Ontario Public Service strike

The second thing that Ontario’s Mike Harris did when he came to power (after cutting social assistance payments) was to re-write Ontario’s labour laws. This included striking down Bob Rae’s anti-scab legislation enacted while he was the NDP premier. Harris’ goal was to make it more difficult for workers to bargain collectively by giving employers the legal right to continue operating with replacement workers.

In February 1996, the Mike Harris Conservative government forced more than 50,000 civil servants — members of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU) — out on to the street. At issue were the futures of thousands of people who were losing their jobs through Harris’ plan to contract out, privatize, divest, re-organize and downsize anything that moved.

Harris and company crafted a strategy that would turn union members against each other by encouraging its employees to defy the union and become strikebreakers. Our members were invited to come to work during the strike and promised full pay for doing so.

The centerpiece of their strategy was known as scab alley, an underground tunnel that ran from the Queen’s Park subway station to the sprawling MacDonald Block complex with its 8 or 9 government buildings. Both the Toronto Transit Commission and the Ontario government took the position that picketing would not be allowed on either side of the entrance to the tunnel because it was “private property.” All a scab had to do was arrive by subway and they were to find “safe passage.” They could avoid their striking co-workers and the picket lines on ground level.

As one of the local presidents in the complex, I took on the role of co-ordinator of our “cluster” to ensure that all the local unions and picket lines in the complex were working together. As part of my role, I worked with David Rapaport (OPSEU Toronto VP) and others to persuade the TTC to take a neutral position by either allowing picketing or by locking the entrance to the tunnel altogether for the duration of the strike. Rapaport and I attended a TTC meeting to make our case. Jack was there to support us and spoke at the meeting. The TTC was taking sides in our dispute and Jack called them out on it. Of the commissioners, we had the support of (Vice-Chair) Howard Moscoe and Joe Pantalone who moved a number of motions that were defeated 5-2. Jack was there when we needed him. He understood the significance and implications of the issue at hand.

However, failing at the Commission left us (the strikers, not Jack) little choice but to blockade the tunnel. With the help of the Toronto-area Steelworkers, Labour Council and a few others, the scabs were forced above ground where they had to pass through a picket line if they wanted to go to work. They were not going to be anonymous. The blockade landed us with an injunction. The arbitrator didn’t take long to figure out that the employer (Mike Harris), with the collusion of the TTC, was pushing the envelope way too far.. We were allowed up to 8 picketers at a time on either side of the tunnel’s revolving entrance door — our choice. This was a landmark ruling given that no third party had ever picketed on TTC property before.

The story got even better as our vindictive employer dragged us back to the Labour Board, claiming that, among other things, we were in contempt of its earlier order because there were 9 or 10 people in the station, instead of 8, for a couple of minutes during a shift change. The arbitrator must have found the complaint to be frivolous because he ordered that OPSEU could now picket in any subway station in Toronto that connected to a government worksite. Jack made several visits to OPSEU picket lines in that strike (and again in 2003).

2004 – Paul Martin appoints a new Ethics Commissioner

From about 1989 until 1993 I was involved with a human rights grievance called Charles Chan versus Ministry of Education. “The union claimed that there was a poisoned work environment in the Ministry’s mailroom where neo-Nazism was propogated and anti-semitic comments and degradation of various racial groups was rampant.”

Before grieving, Charles Chan complained about the harassment and assaults he faced all the way up the management chain to the Deputy Minister. The Deputy called in a Bay Street law firm to clean up the mess but they only made it worse by telling Chan that his complaints were not substantiated and that he had acted maliciously. Management, under the leadership of the Deputy Minister had abrogated its responsibility to take action. Chan was assaulted at least twice after the Deputy’s investigation. Chan’s grievance would later vindicate him (1993) and change the way that the Ontario government managed human rights internally.

In 2004, I read in the news that this same Deputy Minister had been nominated by Paul Martin as Canada’s Ethics Commissioner. Parliament would get a vote. Jack was the new leader of the NDP but did not yet have a seat. I quickly put together a package of materials and tracked Jack down as he was walking between Cecil Street Community Centre and the Steelworkers Building down the street.

I presented him with the package and told him what it was about. He said that the former Deputy Minister had received all-party approval in Parliament, including from the NDP. I asked if it was not possible to re-open the matter and make the case that Martin didn’t do his homework. Jack said that the same could then be said of the NDP and it was too late to do anything further.. The discussion ended with Jack saying, “we’ll keep an eye on him.” Less than two years later, Ed Broadbent was calling for the Ethics Comissioner’s resignation. Jack delivered (although it was Harper who dumped him).

Closing

That was probably the last time that I had any “business” with Jack. I’d see him around at events (like his book-launching) or pub parties. He (and Olivia) were regulars on the viewing stand at Toronto Labour Day Parade. The last time I think I saw him speak in person was at Labour Council just prior to last year’s municipal election. Joe Pantalone was at the meeting.

Jack told a story (after putting in one of his regular plugs for proportional representation) about Toronto’s first mega-city council led by Mel Lastman. Jack met with Mel to talk about committee assignments. Jack asked to be put on the Toronto Hydro Board. Mel asked him why. Jack told him that a big U.S. energy company had just opened an office on Yonge Street — very posh, very large, very ambitious. They had a billion dollars to spend and they wanted to buy Toronto Hydro. Mel looked at Jack and said, “if they want it so badly, then it’s not for sale.” Jack was appointed to the Hydro Board. The company was called Enron.

Like so many others, I will miss Jack Layton.

Gary Shaul

Gary Shaul is a life-long Torontonian and retired Ontario civil servant. He's been involved with a number of issues over the past 45 years including trade unionism, proportional representation, Indigenous...