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Courageous Voices For a Just Transition is a free two-day bilingual online gathering bringing together union leaders, community organizers, and policy advocates to discuss labour’s role in transforming the economy and growing good sustainable jobs.
Through dynamic panels, and courageous conversations, we’ll create space to confront hard truths—about inequality, power, and the urgency of systemic change. From lived experience to structural transformation, we’ll spotlight how justice is being fought for on the ground, and how we can collectively push for policies that center people and planet.
This is a space to listen deeply, speak boldly, and build solidarity across movements!
Please register for each day separately by clicking the links below before the Thursday October 30, 2025 deadline.
Friday October 31, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. ET at https://unifor.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_w7Y-d9eLSwu7xeYIT9qyPQ
Saturday November 1, 12 noon to 2:30 p.m. ET at https://unifor.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_SiKVA3N9R5aVtYRfnEEGpA
Should you have any questions regarding registration or the event, please email @email
We look forward to seeing you online!
Agenda
Day 1: Friday, October 31, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. ET
Opening Circle: Purpose, People and the Path Ahead
Building for the Future: Rethinking Industrial Policy for a Just Economy
Voices from the Frontlines: What Workers and Communities Demand for a Just Transition
Where Land, Water and People Meet: Adaptation on the Frontlines
Day 2: Saturday, November 1, 2025, 12 noon to 2:30 p.m. ET
From the Ground Up: Why Does Just Transition Matter for Bangladesh
Standing Together: Roots of Just Transition
Follow the Money: Advancing a Sustainability Toolkit
Building Collective Strength: Collective Bargaining Strategies, Skills and Outreach
Guest Speakers
Yan Boulanger
Yan Boulanger holds a PhD in Biology from the Université du Québec à Rimouski. He has been a forest ecology researcher at the Laurentian Forestry Centre, which is part of the Canadian Forest Service, since 2013. His research projects focus primarily on the impact of climate change on natural disturbances such as forest fires and insect epidemics, as well as on forest landscapes. In addition, he contributes to the study of the impacts of climate change and forest harvesting on wildlife habitats. Dr. Boulanger is an associate professor at the Universite du Québec à Rimouski, Université Laval and the Université du Québec en Abitibi-Témiscamingue.
Repon Chowdry
A.R. Chowdhury Repon is a dedicated advocate for labour rights, occupational safety and health (OSH), climate action, Just Transition, and social justice, with over 25 years of experience promoting decent work at both national and international levels. He currently serves as Secretary General of the Bangladesh Free Trade Union Congress (BFTUC) and as Secretary of the Asian Network for the Rights of Occupational and Environmental Accident Victims (ANROEV). Mr. Repon has contributed to several major international initiatives as a technical expert representing workers, including global trade union engagement and advocacy for integrating Just Transition into the Paris Agreement (2015), the ILO Technical Guidelines on Biological Hazards (2022), the Revised ILO Code of Practice on Safety and Health in Construction (2022), and the Global Framework on Chemicals and Waste (GFC, adopted 2023). He has also served as the workers’ lead in the ongoing UN Plastic Treaty negotiations (INC-4, Ottawa; INC-5, Busan; and INC-5.1, Geneva), representing the workers’ trade union constituency.
Angelo Dicaro
Angelo DiCaro is the Director of Research for Unifor, Canada’s largest private sector union. Angelo leads Unifor’s strategic economic and policy research, and oversees the union’s auto sector policy and international trade policy work, among other key files. Angelo represented Unifor as part of the federal government’s Labour Consultation Group during recent NAFTA renegotiations. He participates in various national and international trade research fora, including through the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, the IndustriALL global union Working Group on Trade and Industrial Policy, and was involved in the historic round of Unifor-Detroit 3 collective bargaining in 2020. Angelo is a graduate of York University’s Labour Studies Program and holds a Master’s Degree in Industrial Relations from the University of Toronto. Prior to coming on staff in 2006, Angelo was a supermarket clerk and union steward at Dominion Stores (now Metro) and is still a proud member of Unifor Local 414. He lives in Milton, Ontario.
Sarah Henderson
Dr. Sarah Henderson is the scientific director of Environmental Health Services at the BC Centre for Disease Control (BCCDC) and the National Collaborating Centre for Environmental Health (NCCEH). She is also a professor (partner) in the UBC School of Population & Public Health. Dr. Henderson oversees a broad program of applied research, surveillance, knowledge translation, and training to support evidence-based environmental public health policy and practice in BC and across Canada. She has studied climate change, its health effects, and effective interventions for over 20 years.
Brian Kohler
Brian Kohler, Director (retired) – Health, Safety and Sustainability, IndustriALL Global Union, Geneva, Switzerland.
Brian Kohler is an expert on the intersection of environmental, social, and economic priorities and the “Godfather” of the Just Transition movement. Brian began his trade union career as a Steward at the Shell Chemical Plant in Sarnia, Ontario in 1980, then represented by District 9 of the former OCAW. He held elected and staff positions within the ECWU, CEP, ICEM, and IndustriALL Global Union until his retirement in 2020. His dedication to occupational health and safety grew to include concerns for broader environmental issues and their impact on workers and jobs.
Whether on a picket line, at the bargaining table with multinational corporations, or before a United Nations conference, Brian is well known as a passionate defender of workers’ rights. Brian envisions a future in which the environment is protected and sustainable industries create decent, safe and healthy work. The challenge is to build a bridge to that future – a "Just Transition" for workers, their families, and their communities.
Rick Labonte
Rick LaBonte from Windsor, Ontario, is a proud member of Unifor Local 444 and employed by Stellantis since 1995. He is a full-time Community Environment Representative and has been elected chairperson of the Local 444 Environment Committee for 26 years. He is also the Vice President of the Unifor Windsor Regional Environment Council. This year, Rick received King Charles III’s Coronation Medal for years of his environmental and social activism. He had lobbied and successfully improved many environmental laws locally, provincially and federally. From the Windsor District Labour Council’s Gary Parent Activist Award to Essex County Regional Conservation Authority’s Environmental Champion award, and others, his activism has influenced the direct of our union by leading by an example. As a chairperson, he has submitted resolutions to Canadian Council (CAW Council), ran many successful petition campaigns, assisted in writing collective bargain language for Environment Representatives in the workplace. He was also a union discussion leader in Port Elgin and Windsor Assembly Plant for 20 years.
Patrick Rondeau
Patrick Rondeau is union director of the Quebec Federation of Labour’s (FTQ) Environment and Just Transition Department. He has been with the FTQ since 2012.
In 2018, Patrick coordinated the Just Energy Transition Summit held at the Palais des congrès in Montreal. He was a member of the working group on electrification for the development of the Quebec government’s Green Economy Plan and was a member of the Government of Canada’s Sustainable Development Advisory Council. He is also a member of the Pôle d’expertise en transition verte (green transition centre for excellence). He has also served as a member of the Pôle d’économie circulaire (circular economy pole) since 2019. In addition to having coordinated various FTQ delegations to the UN Conferences of the Parties (COP) since 2015, Patrick also represents the union constitution in various forums and expert groups of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change on issues of a just transition. He has also participated in various expert groups and given lectures on just transition in Quebec since 2016.
Patrick has been an activist and worked in the labour movement since 2000.
Gabriel Scott
Gabriel has been a specialist in furniture finishing for Bombardier’s most luxurious business jets since 2010 and became chair of the Environment Committee of Local 62 shortly thereafter. He also served as chair of the Bombardier unit’s Joint Environment Committee from 2011 to 2019. In addition to having had the opportunity to participate in preparing bargaining demands for negotiations with Bombardier in 2016 and 2019, Gabriel was elected chair of the Just Transition Committee for Unifor’s Quebec Council in 2021, having served as a member of this committee since Unifor’s creation in 2013.
Environmental background: Since 2001, Gabriel has been involved in environmental projects at both the municipal and provincial levels. His work includes installing birdhouses in marsh areas, organizing park cleanups, and participating in riverbank development for the city of Chambly. He has a passion for ecofeminism and social justice. Gabriel is the father of an amazing 4-year-old boy, and nature serves as his haven of peace. A lifelong Trekkie, he dreams of a more inclusive future that is respectful of cultures and biodiversity. Gabriel is working hard to ensure that this future will one day be accessible to his child.
Julie Segal
Julie Segal leads a climate finance policy program at Environmental Defence Canada, where she advances climate-related financial policy and regulation. She is a Visiting Fellow at the London School of Economics' Grantham Research Institute on sustainable finance and just transitions, and she previously managed a portfolio of sustainable investments at the McConnell Foundation. Her work has been recognized with national and global awards for integrating environmental justice into sustainable finance, including winning First Prize Paper in the Ethics & Trust in Finance Global Prize. She is an advisor for the government of Quebec's Sustainable Finance Roadmap. Julie completed a Bachelor of Commerce at McGill University.
