Canadian nurses mourn loss of Kathleen Connors, nursing advocate and former president of CFNU

Canadian nurses are mourning the passing of nursing advocate Kathleen Connors, former president of the Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions, on Thursday in St. John’s, Newfoundland. She was 75.

“Kathleen blazed the path for nurses to have a loud voice on the national stage,” CFNU President Linda Silas said in a statement Thursday morning. “Under her leadership over 20 years, the CFNU grew to 125,000 members strong. Today, with more than 250,000 members, the CFNU stands as the largest movement of unionized nurses in North America.”

The daughter of a Manitoba farmer, Connors’ tireless advocacy began after she graduated from nursing school in that province. She was a member of the first nursing class in Manitoba to pay tuition rather than paying in service to a hospital while living in a convent-like residence.

She first went to work in Thompson, Manitoba, where the first nursing union in the province was certified. “Believe it or not, we were the first generation of nurses that was encouraged to ask questions, to speak up,” she told The Globe and Mail on her retirement from CFNU in 2003.

In 1979, she helped draft the constitution of the National Federation of Nurses Unions and was a delegate at the 1981 convention that led to the founding of CFNU. “Over her nursing and advocacy career, Kathleen brought unionized nurses into the house of labour, where she leant her expertise to the Executive Council of the Canadian Labour Congress,” Silas said.

Before UNA members voted to join CFNU in 1998, she had toured the province in the company of longtime UNA activist Pauline Worsfold to persuade Alberta nurses of the benefits of joining the national federation.

“The way she challenged MPs is historic,” said Worsfold, who was also a former chair of the Canadian Health Coalition and CFNU secretary-treasurer, recalling how Connors often observed, “politicians don't change their minds because they see the light, they change their minds because they feel the heat!”

“Kathleen inspired us to have bold voices as nurses, to stand up for our patients, our communities and public health care,” Silas said. “Her legacy lives on in the strong voices of nurses and advocates across the country.

“On behalf of Canada’s nurses, we offer our condolences to Kathleen’s family and loved ones, and we promise to honour her legacy in our work each and every day.”

After her retirement, Connors moved from Ottawa to Pouch Cove, Newfoundland. However, Silas noted, she continued to be a bold advocate beyond her retirement as chair of the Canadian Health Coalition.