Book Launch: Code White
Accessibility: Auto-generated closed captions will be provided live, and the recording will be made available after on Between the Lines’ YouTube, along with the transcript. The event is free, and donations are welcomed.
Join us for the launch of Margaret M. Keith and James T. Brophy’s groundbreaking new book, Code White: Sounding the Alarm on Violence against Healthcare Workers (Between the Lines, 2021).
We are celebrating the launch with a conversation between the authors and the author of the book’s foreword, Michael Hurley (Ontario Council of Hospital Unions / Canadian Union of Public Employees), moderated by Jane McArthur.
REGISTER: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/book-launch-code-white-tickets-167751718907
In Code White, Keith and Brophy lay bare the stories of over one hundred nurses and personal support workers, aides and porters, clerical workers and cleaners. The nightmarish experiences they relate are not one-off incidents, but symptoms of deep systemic flaws that have transformed health care into one of the most dangerous occupational sectors in Canada.
The same questions echo in the wake of each and every brutal encounter: Is violence and trauma really just “part of the job”? Why is this going underreported and unchecked? What needs to be done, and how?
There will be brief remarks from the speakers, followed by a discussion, then questions from the audience.
As of September 1st, you can find Code White at local bookstores and libraries, or buy it directly through Between the Lines’ webstore.
About the speakers:
Margaret M. Keith is an occupational and environmental health advocate and researcher, focusing particularly on women and work. She earned a PhD from the University of Stirling. Margaret served as Executive Director of the Windsor Occupational Health Information Service before joining the Occupational Health Clinics for Ontario Workers in Sarnia. She and her partner, James (Jim) Brophy, assisted the First Nation’s community of Aamjiwnaang near Sarnia in exploring health problems related to environmental pollution from the adjacent petrochemical industry. Margaret was co-author of an internationally recognized research article documenting a skewed sex birth ratio uncovered after examining Aamjiwnaang birth records.
James T. Brophy is a career activist, researcher, and advocate focussing on occupational and environmental health. He received his doctorate from the University of Stirling on occupational risks for breast cancer. He is a former executive director of the Occupational Health Clinics for Ontario Workers (OCHOW) in Windsor and then Sarnia, where he and his partner, Margaret Keith, helped to document one of the largest cohorts of asbestos diseased workers in Canadian history. In recent years, he collaborated on research exploring violence against health care workers and on the lived experience of inadequately protected health care staff working during the pandemic.
Michael Hurley has been a hospital worker and a CUPE member since 1977. He was fired and convicted of contempt of court during the illegal 1981 Ontario hospital strike. He has been the President of the Ontario Council of Hospital Unions (OCHU) since 1990. He is also the first Vice-President of CUPE (Canadian Union of Public Employees) Ontario as well as Regional Vice-President on CUPE’s National Executive Board for Ontario. He is the proud father of two daughters.
Jane E. McArthur, PhD, is an award-winning storyteller, researcher, advocate and activist. She is the Toxics Campaign Director with Canadian Association of Physicians for the environment, and a founding member of community-based environmental justice group WOW (Windsor-Essex On Watch). Jane’s dissertation research exposed how a group of women workers with high rates of breast cancer struggle against power inequities in their actions for prevention.