LAWG HAY CAMINO
HISTORY PROJECT
Memories of Sheila Katz
Tim Draimin, Frances Arbour & Sheila Katz
Sheila Katz & John W. Foster
TRIBUTES
Laura Macdonald, June 2016
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I first met Sheila and Chris in 1988 when I was in Costa Rica beginning the field work for my PhD dissertation, which was on the role of international NGO support for civil society in Central America. This was before the age of the internet, so it was really difficult to make connections for doing research. Luckily, I had good friends in NGOs in Toronto (particularly LAWG) who recommended that I get in touch with Sheila and Chris, who were the CUSO representatives in Costa Rica then. I was able to contact them and they provided great support and friendly faces far away from home, and they helped me establish contacts with local NGOs. They also kindly loaned me the CUSO vehicle, which I managed to crash into a pole right outside the CUSO office. I was not used to driving standard or to having poles located in the street rather than on the sidewalk! Again luckily, they forgave me and continued to support me with my work.
We then met up again after I moved to Ottawa to work for Carleton. I participated in Americas Policy Group meetings for several years and had the opportunity to see Sheila in this context. Sheila was a brave, committed, and knowledgeable participant in struggles for peace and social justice in the Americas. I learned so much from her over the years, particularly about labour rights issues (which are often overlooked in international solidarity efforts) but also about the general human rights issues in the region. We also shared a lot of laughs as well as frustration with the direction of Canadian government policy.
After Sheila left the Canadian Labour Congress, I encouraged her to think about doing a Master’s degree in Political Economy, a program that I was directing at that time. I had read Sheila’s wonderful work on issues related to free trade and human rights, particularly in Colombia, and she had participated in a conference I helped organize at Carleton on Latin American Studies. She had a lot of doubts about her abilities (it was at this time I discovered her undergraduate degree was in Science), but I encouraged her to start enrolling in courses as a special student. As I expected, she did wonderfully well and then was admitted into the M.A. program in Political Economy (which her son Ryan had completed earlier). She made a wonderful contribution to the program, and the other students in her classes learned a great deal from her practical experiences as well as her wisdom and sharp analytical skills. Sadly, around this time she had her initial diagnosis of cancer and was unable to complete the program.
Sheila I miss you dearly. I often hear your voice in my head, telling me to work harder to reveal the dark side of Canadian corporate and government involvement in Latin America, and to work for progressive change.
Remembering Sheila
John Foster (June 8, 2016 Ottawa)
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The Latin American Working Group began fifty years ago this coming August. Sheila approached LAWG in the early 1970s, engaged as a volunteer and staff in 1974 and continued her commitment through 2015, being a key member of the “Si Hay Camino” LAWG History group.
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Sheila didn’t model for this Barbara Klunder 20th anniversary poster, but I think we can imagine her as the goddess in flight over the Hemisphere.
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In 1973-74 LAWG underwent a rapid transition fired by the coup d’etat in Chile. People volunteered, people speaking Spanish were at a premium. Helene was part of the scene, as was Sheila when she returned from Cuba, where she had been teaching. LAWG moved into an office above Joe’s grocery on Crawford, although the precise address was quite secret.
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Sheila joined a powerhouse staff team: Louise Casselman, the late Bob Carty, Tim Draimin…
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Being on staff was pretty rich.You worked a few weeks at $50 a week for three days work until you could qualify for unemployment, then someone else would work and you’d be on government support. Public $$ for a group that refused on principle to apply for government grants!
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What was she doing? Helping LAWG publish: Sheila learned about layout and the light table and and taught many others. She was already the “Queen of the selectric”that IBM typewriter with the flying ball, with white-out in hand for occasional errors. I know this because she typed my 800-page Ph.D. thesis, in these days.
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LAWG contributed to many publications: Sheila’s Cuban experience equipped her to promote and tour in support of Margaret Randall’s Cuban Women Now, and she recruited Naomi Wall to typeset Bonnie Mass’s Population Target. The LAWG Letter emerged along with other solidarity pamphlets and newsletters.
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Chile work included culture: Angel Parra, just released from Pinochet’s prison, sang in Toronto and Sheila and others put together an original album of his songs in 1974: Tierra Prometida, Promised Land. She later facilitated and organized tours for other visiting Latin American musical groups.
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To her own surprise her Spanish got her into film, invited to join Claude Jutra and a crew in Cuba, and more fatefully to San Miguel in Guatemala and a guy named Chris Rosene.
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And there was work with volunteers among them: sister Helene, Peter Dorfman, Pat Bird, Jim Sinclair, Lyn Centre, Margrit Gallinger, Virginia Smith, Betsy Anderson , Naomi Wall
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Reflections: what was it like working with Sheila in those days? Several colleagues shared memories:
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* She was outgoing, a very social person,
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* She was outspoken, letting you know what she was thinking;
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* She pushed people beyond their normal comfort zone to “do something”; she gave advice even when it wasn’t asked for – but she moved people to do things they might not have done – and many times they were, in retrospect, glad of it or grateful.
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* She was loyal; if you had Sheila on your side, she had your back, and she cared about you, cared enough to push, or argue or convince, and she would use her all to open doors or to move the person forward. She was like a “booster” – when she saw something that needed to happen, or things that needed to be changed, or somebody who could be better or life could be improved if they did something –she was pro-active and verbally articulate about it;
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* people comment about being “challenged” while working in the LAWG team environment is revealing. I think that Sheila very much personified that quality – the “challenging” of people, but the other side of her was very caring.
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One final comment:
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Returning to the goddess in flight when Sheila connected with LAWG she had already been to Europe, taught in Colombia, in Cuba and in Toronto. She would soon travel more in Canada, and take that fateful trip to Guatemala and Chris, and then Africa. Her next decades continued the goddess in flight….Central America, the Hemispheric Social Alliance and labour, yet she was always rooted in LAWG, Farm Meetings and successor networks in Canada, embodying her belief in international solidarity and justice.