Over 140 proud nurses and strong union activists from across Canada met in Toronto this week for the Canadian Labour Congress Convention.
The theme of the 28th Constitutional Convention of the Canadian Labour Congress was ‘Together for a Fair Future.” View the whole agenda including speaker bios here.
On Monday May 8, 2017, the first official day of business, CFNU President, Linda Silas was proud to represent nearly 200,000 nurses from across Canada speaking at the mic in favour of the Economic and Social Policy Paper put forward by the Resolutions Committee. She addressed the delegation on the need for a national pharmacare plan now.
“Pharmacare is not a nursing issue. Pharmacare is not a health care worker issue. Pharmacare is an issue for all of us, and the current system is not working my friends,” said CFNU President Linda Silas. “It is costing us over $30 billion per year on prescription drugs. Since 2006 we have wasted over $62 billion and we continue to waste over $14,000 a minute without a national prescription drug program. We need to tell the federal government that we don’t want another election promise. We need a national pharmacare program now to serve all people living in Canada.”
On Thursday May 11, 2017, thousands of delegates representing unions from across Canada took to the streets in Toronto’s financial sector at lunchtime to rally for a fair future for all.
Elections were held that afternoon and over 3,000 delegates cast their votes to elect officers: President Hassan Yussuff, Secretary-Treasurer Marie Clarke Walker, and Executive Vice-Presidents Donald Lafleur and Larry Rousseau.
