Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions 14th Biennium June 8-12 Vancouver BC.
President of the BC Federation of Labour Jim Sinclair gets nurses to their feet in a standing ovation by talking about the kind of health care system we do not want, like the one in Oregon where a lottery will be used to decide which of 36,000 people whose health insurance will be cut. Nurses cheered Jim Sinclair on.
The floor of the main business meeting hall in the new Convention Centre. Dragon line dancers welcomed delegates in a spectacular fashion to the business meeting of the Biennium. Dalhousie University instructor Josephine Etowa spoke on confronting racism, insisting: "it's better to talk about it." Tuesday evening all kinds of events were organized by BC nurses for delegates, including sea kayaking, a Punjabi market and even an Irish Pub
Crawl. Eagle scuptures appear in public spaces all around downtown Vancouver. Nursing instructors Barbara Buckley and Paddy Rodney from the University of British Columbia have been looking at the moral dilemmas often faced by nurses
and at how nurses can stop themselves from being worn down by them.
Participants in the workshop on the debate over Public and Private Health Care looked at the values underlying the issues. These BC nurses posed for pictures during the photo shoot at the Biennium. Steve Robbins moved everyone to tears with his personal family story, but he also motivated everyone to look at their own biases without being too harsh or judgemental. He
wowed the crowd! BC Premier Gordon Campbell welcomed nurses to BC and reminded them about the very valued role they provide for everyone in society. Diversity was the over-arching theme and BC nurses greeted the nearlly 800 delegates from across the country in nearly 20 different languages.
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