Nurses from across Canada took a historic step forward in our shared journey toward reconciliation. With solemn reflection and renewed purpose, delegates unanimously adopted a resolution acknowledging our profession’s responsibility for truth, reconciliation, and dismantling racism against Indigenous Peoples in health care.
More than a statement, it is a pledge to act. The resolution acknowledges the harms committed by our profession – from neglect and abuse in Indian Residential Schools and Indian Hospitals to the systemic racism that persists today. It recognizes our collective responsibility and charts a path forward. Through this commitment, nurses pledge to embed reconciliation into their daily practice by demanding equitable health policies, increasing Indigenous representation in nursing, implementing robust cultural safety education and supporting the integration of Indigenous healing practices across care settings.
The resolution was introduced with moving testimonies. Retired nurse Kim Fraser, who cared for Jordan River Anderson, reminded delegates of the human cost of bureaucratic indifference. Indigenous nurse Kirston Blom urged her peers to be the “embodiment of our ancestors’ hope,” calling on nurses to become champions of change. Their words stirred the room, met with deep emotion and unwavering support.
When the resolution passed with a standing vote, the hall turned toward healing.
What followed was unforgettable. Inuit throat-singing duo PIQSIQ delivered a performance that echoed with grief, strength and hope. Their haunting blend of ancestral sound and modern artistry took delegates on a sonic journey through pain, survival and resurgence. Set against images of the North’s stark beauty, their voices wove a tapestry of remembrance and resilience.
PIQSIQ’s performance was more than music. It was a call to remember, to reflect and to rise.
This was a powerful chapter on reconciliation that began on day one of our convention. It represents a hopeful beginning for the work ahead. The resolution’s commitments will guide education, policy development, and advocacy efforts across the nursing profession in the months and years to come.
Together, we are “All In” for truth, reconciliation and justice.
Well-known throughout Canada and throughout the world as a fierce champion of public health care, workplace rights and social justice, Linda Silas was acclaimed to her 12th two-year term as CFNU president in Niagara Falls Friday morning.
In her role as chair of the CFNU Nominations Committee, Nova Scotia Nurses’ Union President Janet Hazelton rose to make the nomination and Silas was acclaimed to the cheers of delegates.
At the end of her new term, Silas will have served 24 years as the bilingual and articulate voice of Canada’s nurses.
“It is a great honour to be able to continue to have the opportunity to serve Canada’s nurses as president of the CFNU, especially as we continue to work toward building a trusted advocacy role for Indigenous Peoples, among our members and throughout Canada,” she said.
With the election of a new federal government in April, Silas said, CFNU must play a critical role in ensuring that all Canadians understand the importance of preserving publicly financed and publicly delivered health care in all parts of the country.
“Health care is a human right, not an opportunity for profit,” she said.
Born in Dalhousie, N.B., where her father was a leader of the mill workers’ union at the Abitibi newsprint plant, Silas was president of the New Brunswick Nurses Union from 1993 to 2003. At the time she was the youngest nurses’ union president in Canadian history.
Silas has advocated tirelessly for federal and provincial policies that enhance social equity and the social determinants of health, including retirement security for all workers, universal childcare, national pharmacare and access to public services for Indigenous communities.
Just last month, she was appointed as an Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Nursing in the United Kingdom, honoured for her contributions to nursing with the RCN’s highest award.
The energy that was growing throughout the week of the convention hit a terrific crescendo when close to 1,200 nurses rallied in the streets of Niagara. The rallying cry: Canada must protect and defend public health care.
CFNU President Linda Silas kicked off the demonstration with a callout to Prime Minister Mark Carney: “Do not touch our health care system unless you improve it!”
Activists from across Canada took to the stage as the crowd of nurses waved flags and chanted in support. They spoke of the shameful acts of government leaders who have let corporations infiltrate Canada’s health care system.
Cries of “shame!” filled the air as Ontario Nurses’ Association President Erin Ariss pointed to Premier Doug Ford’s exorbitant spending on private nursing agencies. Over the past decade, Ontario hospitals have paid for-profit staffing agencies $9.2 billion – all on taxpayers’ dime.
“The premier has created a huge crisis in health care,” said Ariss. “He is allowing private companies to waltz in and profit from people’s surgeries, care, exams – everything. Ford’s privatization scheme has made the nurse staffing crisis the worst it has ever been. Ontario is short more than 25,000 nurses!”
The rally created a sense of hope as activists spoke to the power of solidarity and unionism in the fight for public health care.
“In nursing, we see and go through a lot of very tough things. It takes a toll,” said SUN President Bryce Boynton. “But when we come together as one, we cannot be defeated!”
Siobhan Vipond, Executive Vice-President of the Canadian Labour Congress, echoed these sentiments: “You are not alone. 3 million workers across Canada stand with you in the fight!”
The rally ended, but the movement certainly carried on as Silas led the crowd in a chant: “We’ll be back!”
To close CFNU’s 2025 Biennium in Niagara Falls, entertainer Geneviève Côté provided a quiet meditation on the noises in our minds, and why they make it almost impossible for most of us to sleep on an airplane.
Well, to be fair, Côté’s performance wasn’t all that quiet. Indeed, it was so unquiet, it couldn’t really be called a meditation. Still, it included some remarkable human generated noises of potential application to nursing, and of definite value to union negotiations.
Côté bills herself as a noisemaker, and that is undeniable – especially when she is assisted by a powerful sound amplifier, as at the Niagara Falls Convention Centre.
Now, as it also happens, nurses know a thing or two about human-generated noise as well. About 1,000 participants in the CFNU Convention demonstrated that fact at lunchtime Friday in front of the building, assisted by a small percussion band.
Still, the former semi-finalist in several “got talent” competitions, including Canada’s and Britain’s, certainly added some sounds that could be useful in our collective repertoire.
Not the creaky door, perhaps, although it was unquestionably amusing. Nor, alas, the helicopter, the volcano, or the pterodactyl – although, surely, we would all like to know how she knew exactly what a pterodactyl sounds like! (The jury’s still out on the value of the machinegun.)
Nevertheless, Côté’s Don Corleone and Darth Vader voices both have a definite role in to play in future negotiations, especially for those moments the Employer pulls a stunt like suddenly demanding an unexpected vote on a “final offer.”»
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