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'''Judy Darcy''' {{post-nominals|country=CAN|MLABC}} (born 1950) is a Canadian health care advocate, trade unionist, and politician.<ref>{{cite news|last=Canadian|first=Press|title=Judy Darcy Seeks NDP Nomination|url=http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2011/08/05/bc-ndp-judy-darcy.html|accessdate=12 September 2012|newspaper=CBC News|date=5 August 2011}}</ref> She was president of the [[Canadian Union of Public Employees]] from 1991 until 2003<ref name=nupge>[http://www.nupge.ca/news_2003/n27fe03b.htm Judy Darcy quitting after 12 years as president of CUPE], National Union of Public and General Employees, February 27, 2003</ref> and business manager of the [[Hospital Employees' Union]] from 2005 to 2011.
'''Judy Darcy''' {{post-nominals|country=CAN|MLABC}} (born 1950) is a Canadian health care advocate, trade unionist, and politician.<ref>{{cite news|last=Canadian|first=Press|title=Judy Darcy Seeks NDP Nomination|url=http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2011/08/05/bc-ndp-judy-darcy.html|accessdate=12 September 2012|newspaper=CBC News|date=5 August 2011}}</ref> She was president of the [[Canadian Union of Public Employees]] from 1991 until 2003<ref name=nupge>[http://www.nupge.ca/news_2003/n27fe03b.htm Judy Darcy quitting after 12 years as president of CUPE] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071218172806/http://www.nupge.ca/news_2003/n27fe03b.htm |date=2007-12-18 }}, National Union of Public and General Employees, February 27, 2003</ref> and business manager of the [[Hospital Employees' Union]] from 2005 to 2011.


Darcy was elected to the [[Legislative Assembly of British Columbia]] in the [[British Columbia general election, 2013|2013 election]], as a [[BC NDP]] candidate for the provincial constituency of [[New Westminster (provincial electoral district)|New Westminster]].<ref>{{cite news|last=Lau|first=Alfie|title=Judy Darcy wins provincial NDP nomination for New Westminster|url=http://www.royalcityrecord.com/Judy+Darcy+wins+provincial+nomination+Westminster/5335221/story.html|accessdate=12 September 2012|newspaper=Royal City Record|date=August 31, 2011}}</ref>
Darcy was elected to the [[Legislative Assembly of British Columbia]] in the [[British Columbia general election, 2013|2013 election]], as a [[BC NDP]] candidate for the provincial constituency of [[New Westminster (provincial electoral district)|New Westminster]].<ref>{{cite news|last=Lau|first=Alfie|title=Judy Darcy wins provincial NDP nomination for New Westminster|url=http://www.royalcityrecord.com/Judy+Darcy+wins+provincial+nomination+Westminster/5335221/story.html|accessdate=12 September 2012|newspaper=Royal City Record|date=August 31, 2011}}</ref>

Revision as of 23:41, 28 April 2017

Judy Darcy
MLA
Darcy protesting outside a Conservative Party fundraiser in Toronto in 2003
Member of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia
Incumbent
Assumed office
May 14, 2013
Preceded byDawn Black
ConstituencyNew Westminster
Secretary-Business Manager of the Hospital Employees' Union
In office
2005–2011
Succeeded byBonnie Pearson
4th National President of the Canadian Union of Public Employees
In office
1991–2003
Preceded byJeff Rose
Succeeded byPaul Moist
National Secretary-Treasurer of the Canadian Union of Public Employees
In office
1989–1991
Personal details
Born
Ida Maria Judith Borunsky

1950 (age 73–74)
Denmark
Political partyNew Democratic Party (1985–present)
Other political
affiliations		Workers' Communist Party of Canada (before 1985)
Alma materYork University

Judy Darcy MLA (born 1950) is a Canadian health care advocate, trade unionist, and politician.[1] She was president of the Canadian Union of Public Employees from 1991 until 2003[2] and business manager of the Hospital Employees' Union from 2005 to 2011.

Darcy was elected to the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia in the 2013 election, as a BC NDP candidate for the provincial constituency of New Westminster.[3]

Early life

Darcy was born Ida Maria Judith Borunsky in Denmark and came to Canada with her parents when she was 18 months old. Her father was a research chemist who was a shipping clerk for years until he could re-establish his credentials in Canada and resume work in his profession.[4]

Her father, Jules (Youli) Simonovich Borunsky, was a Russian Jew whose family had moved to France following the Russian Revolution. Borunsky's first wife was a French Catholic woman. During the war he enlisted in the French Army and was taken prisoner during the Battle of Dunkirk. During his detention as a Prisoner of War, he survived and avoided deportation to a concentration camp by hiding his Jewishness and pretending to be a devout Catholic, including Catholic references and symbols in his letters to his wife as part of the ruse. With Paris occupied by the Nazis, Borunsky convinced his father that it would be safer for him to join the rest of the family in Kovno, Lithuania. However, four days after he arrived, the town was invaded by the Nazis. Einsatzgruppen murdered most of the Jewish population, presumably including Borunsky's father, sister, her husband and their daughter. According to Darcy, her father “carried tremendous guilt, [t]he guilt of having survived when others died and the guilt of having sent his father to his death.” Borunsky's first wife died of illness around the end of the war. Borunsky, after being liberated, worked as deputy director of a United Nations Refugee Agency displaced persons camp where he met Else Margrethe Rich, a veteran of the Danish resistance movement who found work on the staff of the camp after the war. Traumatized by the war and the loss of his family, and afraid of further anti-Semitic oppression, Borunsky continued to hide his Jewishness from everyone except for his wife until later life.[5]

Borunsky and Rich married and moved to Denmark where Darcy was born in 1950. Darcy and her sister and brother were all baptized in the Russian Orthodox Church but were not raised in any faith. The family emigrated to Canada in 1951, and settled in Sarnia where Borunsky found work in the petrochemical industry. When she was 8, her parents changed the family's name to Darcy as her father wanted a French sounding name. After his retirement, her father started attending Holy Blossom Synagouge and the Bernard Betel Centre for Creative Living in order to rekindle his Jewish roots and gradually revealed his story to his children.[5]

Darcy was raised in Sarnia, and moved to Toronto to study political science at York University but quit after 1½ years,[4] but not before infiltrating and disrupting the Miss Canadian University Pageant yelling "It's true it's a meat market and they do exploit women!" as the winner was announced.[6] After travelling and doing odd jobs, she became a University of Toronto library clerk in 1972 and became active in CUPE.[4][7]

Union activism

In her youth, Darcy was active with the Workers' Communist Party of Canada,[8] a Maoist group, and was a candidate for the party in the 1981 Ontario provincial election in the Toronto riding of St. Andrew—St. Patrick.[9] By 1985, she had left the party and joined the New Democratic Party saying of her earlier radicalism ""I'm older, I don't think we're going to remake the world, but we've got to change what we can."[10]

In 1983, she became a regional vice-president of the union's Ontario division and was also working at the Metropolitan Toronto Reference Library.[4]

By the mid-1980s, she was president of the Metro Toronto Council of CUPE.[11]

In 1986, she ran for the position of Ontario president of CUPE challenging 10-year incumbent Lucie Nicholson.[7] She was unsuccessful,[12] losing by a margin of 318-240, her defeat blamed on a red-baiting campaign by the union's leadership. Darcy, however, did manage to retain a spot on the union's executive board topping the slate of "member at large" positions.[13]

By 1988, she was first vice-president of CUPE's Ontario division[14] as well as a vice-president of the Ontario Federation of Labour.[15] In 1989, she successfully ran for the position of national secretary-treasurer of CUPE,[16] the union's number two position. saying that said she stands for strong leadership to help CUPE cope with "some of the incredibly difficult challenges we'll see in the next few years, especially in light of free trade."[15]

In the 1988 federal election, Darcy was the NDP's candidate against Liberal Frank Stronach and Progressive Conservative John E. Cole in York—Simcoe[14] placing a "distant third"[17] in the suburban Toronto riding.[18]

In 1991, she was elected CUPE national president taking over the 406,000 member trade union.[19] By the time she retired 13 years later the union had grown to 525,000 members.[2]

After CUPE

She moved to British Columbia subsequently and ran for the provincial British Columbia New Democratic Party nomination in Vancouver-Fairview but was upset by a businessman Gregor Robertson by a margin of 76 votes on the second ballot.[20]

In February 2005, Darcy returned to work in the trade union movement acquiring a position as secretary-business manager and chief negotiator[21] with British Columbia's Hospital Employees' Union.[22] She was known as being on the left of the union[10] and an advocate of issues such as employment equity[14] and childcare.[15] She resigned from this position in September 2011 in preparation for her candidacy in the 2013 BC provincial election in New Westminster.[23][24] She celebrated her election as New Westminster's Member of the Legislative Assembly at the Heritage Grill.[25] At this party, Darcy led attendees in chanting "NDP".[26]

References

  1. ^ Canadian, Press (5 August 2011). "Judy Darcy Seeks NDP Nomination". CBC News. Retrieved 12 September 2012.
  2. ^ a b Judy Darcy quitting after 12 years as president of CUPE Archived 2007-12-18 at the Wayback Machine, National Union of Public and General Employees, February 27, 2003
  3. ^ Lau, Alfie (August 31, 2011). "Judy Darcy wins provincial NDP nomination for New Westminster". Royal City Record. Retrieved 12 September 2012.
  4. ^ a b c d Papp, Leslie, "Ex-clerk leads race for top union job", Toronto Star, October 9, 1991
  5. ^ a b http://www.jewishindependent.ca/mlas-father-hid-past/
  6. ^ Pratt, Sheila, "Pioneers of women's movement tell their stories," Edmonton Journal, April 17, 2005
  7. ^ a b Slotnick, Lorne, "CUPE leadership rivals battle over profile and role of union", Globe and Mail, May 21, 1986
  8. ^ List, Wilfred, "CUPE chief survives attack by workers", Globe and Mail, May 23, 1981
  9. ^ Spiers, Rosemary, "St. Andrew-St. Patrick profile How federal Liberals turn Tory blue in voting booths", Globe and Mail, March 13, 1981
  10. ^ a b Deverell, John, "2 women fight it out for top job with CUPE," Toronto Star, May 30, 1986
  11. ^ "End discrimination against office staff, funds hearing told," Globe and Mail, September 13, 1985
  12. ^ Deverell, John, "Metro challenger fails in bid to lead CUPE in Ontario", May 30, 1986
  13. ^ Slotnick, Lorne, "Challenge for presidency falls short Nicholson keeps CUPE post," Globe and Mail, May 31, 1986
  14. ^ a b c Todd, Rosemary, "CAMPAIGN '88 Voters 'don't think money talks' NDP sends CUPE official to fight Stronach," Globe and Mail, October 17, 1988
  15. ^ a b c "CUPE activist plans to seek No. 2 post," Globe and Mail, January 27, 1989
  16. ^ "GST EXPECTED TO BE TOP ISSUE AT ALBERTA CUPE CONVENTION," Canada Newswire, March 26, 1990
  17. ^ Duffy, Andrew, "Tory hands Stronach a stunning defeat," Toronto Star, November 22, 1988
  18. ^ History of federal ridings: York-Simcoe, Library of Parliament
  19. ^ Galt, Virginia, "Former radical new CUPE president Darcy wants to unleash lobbying potential of largest union in Canada", Globe and Mail, October 17, 1991
  20. ^ O'Brian, Amy, "NDP picks businessman over union leader", Vancouver Sun, November 8, 2004
  21. ^ Penner, Derrick, "Labour reserved: Unions skeptical about public-sector funding", Vancouver Sun, December 1, 2005
  22. ^ "Health workers' union turns to seasoned labour leader", Vancouver Sun, February 24, 2005
  23. ^ "Darcy to step down as HEU's chief negotiator to seek public office" (Press release). Hospital Employees' Union. September 8, 2011. Retrieved July 24, 2012.
  24. ^ Smith, Charlie (September 8, 2011). "NDP candidate Judy Darcy steps down as Hospital Employees' Union chief negotiator". Georgia Straight. Vancouver, BC. Retrieved July 24, 2012. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |deadurl= (help)
  25. ^ Grant Granger (May 14, 2013). "Darcy rolls to victory in New Westminster". New Westminster News Leader. Retrieved June 6, 2013.
  26. ^ Theresa McManus (May 15, 2013). "Liberals take B.C. - NDP takes New West". The Record. Retrieved June 6, 2013.
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