Congratulations to USJE member Lorraine Rousseau who was elected Regional Executive Vice-President (REVP) for PSAC North at the PSAC Regional Convention over the weekend.
Lorraine, from USJE Local Y0118, Yukon RCMP, looks forward to serving all PSAC members in the North, saying it is a great opportunity for the North. “We are not a very large group in the North – We are small, but we are mighty. I am the first USJE member to become REVP for the North, and I will represent all the voices in PSAC. All voices can be heard.”
Lorraine, who describes herself as a card-carrying rabble-rouser, has been active in the labour movement and her community since she arrived in Frobisher Bay, now Iqaluit, in 1989. She has been Vice-President for USJE Local Y0118 and PSAC Local Y0102, Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs (CIRNAC), and active at PSAC regional and national levels.
Leading up to her election, Lorraine was the PSAC Yukon Area Council’s Community Director for Carcross on the traditional territory of Carcross/Tagish First Nation and a member of the PSAC Regional Women’s Committee.
And wanting to do even more for her community, she took a secondment from her job in the RCMP to be an Emergency Preparedness and Response Officer, and Designated Screening Officer for the North with Public Health Agency of Canada.
She has a deep belief in the power of community, and has mobilized workers and walked on picket lines and in demonstrations, with USJE members, and in solidarity with other workers and communities across the Yukon, Northwest Territories and Nunavut.
In her role as REVP, Lorraine is committed to improving health and wellbeing at work, ensuring greater job security, and protecting the public service for workers and the community. She aims for solidarity and equity across communities and will work in partnership with Indigenous, racialized and marginalized people with the aim to abolish discrimination and establish equal opportunities in the workplace.