Kate Braid is a Vancouver poet, carpenter, trade unionist and educator. Born in Calgary, Alberta and raised in Montreal, Que, Braid received a Bachelor of Arts degree in English and history from Mount Allison University in 1967.

In 1979 she earned her Master of Arts degree in the Communications Department at Simon Fraser University with a thesis entitled Invisible Women: Women in Non-Traditional Occupations in B.C. Meanwhile, she had begun working in the construction industry herself, and in 1983 received her Interprovincial Trades Qualification and Apprenticeship Certificate (Red Seal) for carpentry construction from the Pacific Vocational Institute (later renamed the British Columbia Institute of Technology or BCIT). She was the first woman member of the Vancouver local of the International Carpenters' Union (Local 452, later 1995). In 1997 she earned her Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing at the University of British Columbia.

She continued to work in trades until 1989, forming her own company, Sisters Construction (1983-1987). Kate Braid was a founding member of the Vancouver Women in Trades Association, an advocacy and support organization that existed from 1979 to 1987.

Braid has written extensively on women and trades, including two booklets profiling Canadian tradeswomen for the Women's Bureau of Labour Canada. In addition, she prepared radio documentaries for the CBC's Ideas radio program. She has taught numerous courses and workshops since 1980, and in 1989 became the first full-time woman instructor in construction carpentry at BCIT. From 1991 to 1995, as Director of Labour Programs at SFU, she served as a liaison between academia and labour. Braid has also taught creative writing at Malaspina College (now Vancouver Island University), SFU and UBC.

Her poems and other writings have appeared in many journals and anthologies, and have been broadcast on radio and television. Her first collection of her poetry, Covering Rough Ground, won the Pat Lowther Memorial Prize in 1991. Her next collection, To this Cedar Fountain, was shortlisted for the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize in 1995. Her other publications include: Red Bait: Struggles of a Mine Local (1998), Inward to the Bones: Georgia O'Keeffe's Journey with Emily Carr (1998), Emily Carr: Rebel Artist (2000), In Fine Form: The Canadian Book of Form Poetry (2005), A Well-Mannered Storm: the Glenn Gould poems (2008), Turning Left to the Ladies (2009), and her prose memoir "Journeywoman: Swinging a Hammer in a Man's World" (2012).

She and her partner live in Vancouver, BC.

Thomas J. (Tom) Mallinson (191--1999) was a professor of Communication Studies at Simon Fraser University. Trained as a clinical psychologist, Mallinson came to the newly-founded SFU in 1965 to head the Centre for Commuications and the Arts within the Faculty of Education. The Centre later evolved into the School for Communication.

Heather Raven was an active member of the Association of University and College Employees, Local #2 until her promotion to the management position of Labour Relations analyst in the Personnel Department at Simon Fraser University. She acted as the Provincial Representative for AUCE #2, (the Simon Fraser University local) from 1974 to 1976, as Secretary to the Contract Committee from 1976 to 1977, and as one of four union representatives who represented AUCE before the Labour Relations Board in the matter of SFU's appeal of a British Columbia Labour Relations Board decision under Section 34 of the BC Labour Code and two union applications under Sections 34 and 96-1 of the Labour Code.

Elinor Ames was a charter member of the Department of Psychology at Simon Fraser University from 1965 until her retirement in 1997.

Elinor Ames was born October 1, 1931. She completed a Bachelor of Science degree at Tufts University in 1953 and a Ph.D. at Cornell University in 1960. Her research and teaching interests included developmental psychology, social psychology, personality and perception.

Robert Dunham (1939-1990) was a professor of English at Simon Fraser University. His specialty was the literature of the Romantic Period. A graduate of Stanford University, Dunham joined SFU in 1966. He was a gifted teacher who won the University's excellence in teaching award in 1986 as well as the 3M Fellowship in 1988, a national award which recognized excellence in teaching and educational leadership.

Hugh Johnston is professor emeritus of history at Simon Fraser University, where he taught for 37 years. His book Radical Campus: Making Simon Fraser University was published to coincide with the university's 40th anniversary (2005). He joined SFU as a faculty member in 1968 and witnessed firsthand SFU's tumultuous beginnings. At various times in his career, Johnston led the History Department as chair.

Johnston grew up in south-western Ontario. He received a B.A. from the University of Toronto and attended the Ontario College of Education. Johnston went on to receive an M.A. from the University of Western Ontario and his PhD. from King's College at the University of London.

His teaching and research interests have centered on British and South Asian migration and settlement, eighteenth century exploration of the Pacific Northwest, the history of British Columbia, and higher education in Canada. Johnston is well known as an expert in Sikhism, Sikhs in Canada, and India-China relations. From 1992 to 2001 he also served on the board of the Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute, a bi-national organization promoting scholarly exchange, and in 1995–1996 he was resident director of the institute's office in Delhi. In 2001 he was the institute's president.

During his career, Johnston wrote numerous scholarly articles and books. In 1995, with Tara Singh Bains he co-wrote The Four Quarters of the Night: The Life Journey of an Emmigrant Sikh. Other books include The Voyage of the Komagata Maru: The Sikh Challenge to Canada's Colour Bar; British Immigration Policy, 1815-1830: "Shovelling out Paupers"; and the History of Perth County to 1967 (co-authored with W. Stafford Johnston).

Klaus Ekkehard Rieckhoff is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Physics at Simon Fraser University (SFU). He helped shape the department and the university through his active involvement in the governance of SFU, through his contributions to science and his devotion to teaching, as well as his involvement in the larger community.

Born in Weimar, Germany, Rieckhoff experienced life under both the Nazi and Communist regimes before escaping from the Soviet-occupied zone in 1947. Shortly after, he left for the western zones where he worked in various factories in Munich until he was accepted at the University of Karlsruhe where he studied mathematics and physics (1947-1949). He was accepted for one of 40 places in physics and mathematics from a pool of 400 applicants after an entrance examination administered to 160 of the applicants. In 1949, he left the university while continuing to work as a clerk in the actuarial department of a life insurance company (1948-1951). In December 1949, he married Marianne Neder with whom he has three children, Bernhard Andreas, Claudia Angela, and Cornelia Andrea.

Rieckhoff immigrated to Canada in 1952. Upon his arrival to Vancouver, B.C., he held various jobs as a dock worker (1952), sawmill worker (1953), and television technician (1953-1957) before earning his B.Sc., M.Sc., and Ph.D at the University of British Columbia.

In 1965, Rieckhoff joined SFU as a charter faculty member and immersed himself in its life. He is regarded as a vital force in the Department of Physics, a department he helped to create and nurture. From 1966-1967, he was Acting Dean of Science, and from 1972-1976, he was Associate Dean of Graduate Studies. He has authored and co-authored more than 60 papers in the areas of spectroscopy and chemical physics, earning international recognition for his work. From 1976-1977, he worked at the IBM Research Lab in San Jose, California as Visiting Scientist. In 1987, he was a Visiting Professor at the universities of Puerto Rico (Mayaguez, U.S.A.), Queensland (Brisbane, Australia), and Bayreuth (Germany).

Rieckhoff's passion for critical inquiry is reflected in his multiple appointments, participation, and election to a number of faculty, departmental, and university committees. As a founding member of Senate, he supported the inclusion of undergraduate representation. He served on the Senate for 17 years and on the Board of Governors for 11 years, earning him the distinction of being one of the longest-serving members on both bodies. In recognition of his contributions to the governance and administration of SFU, the university named the Senate Chamber in his honour in 1982. Although the space has been renovated, a plaque remains in place. In 1998, SFU awarded him a Doctor of Laws, honoris causa.

Peter Martinus Buitenhuis (1925-2004), English professor emeritus at Simon Fraser University (SFU), was a prolific scholarly writer and literary critic. His academic career—which included teaching positions at Yale University, University of Toronto, McGill University, and University of California at Berkeley—saw the production of numerous books, articles, and reviews, including works on Henry James, E.J. Pratt, and Hugh MacLennan. Buitenhuis also conducted research and wrote on various topics pertaining to propaganda and World Wars I and II.

Of Dutch ancestry, Buitenhuis was born in Ilford Essex, England on December 8, 1925. He married three times and had seven children. With his first wife, Patricia (nee White), he had three children, Paul, Penelope, and Pym; with his second wife, Elspeth Fisher (nee Cameron), he had two children, Beatrix and Hugo; and with his third wife, Ann Cowan (nee Stephenson), he had two children, Juliana and Adrian.

In December 1943, Buitenhuis left his job as a bank clerk and enlisted in the Royal Navy. From 1943-1946, he was commissioned to several different ships, including the H.M.S. Beehive, where he served as a Navigating Officer in Coastal Forces, conducting anti-submarine and minesweeping duties in the English Channel and North Sea (1944-1945). After his time on the Beehive, Buitenhuis spent a short period in the Admiralty. In 1946, he was appointed as a navigational officer on H.M.S. Starling, where he served until his release from the Navy later that year. Buitenhuis received the 1939-45 Star, the France and Germany Star, and the Victory Medal.

Buitenhuis left the Navy to attend Jesus College at Oxford University on a veteran’s grant (1946). There he earned a BA and an MA in English language and literature. In Buitenhuis’s last year of studies, a professor from the University of Oklahoma (U of O) recruited him to teach English, thus enticing Buitenhuis to immigrate to the United States.

Buitenhuis taught at the U of O until 1951, at which time he left his position in response to an investigation by an Oklahoma legislature committee. The committee was putting pressure on the university’s employees to sign a loyalty oath to the constitution of the United States and to the constitution of Oklahoma State. Buitenhuis, neither interested in staying in Oklahoma nor signing the oath, went on to Yale University to pursue a PhD in American Studies, where he wrote his thesis on Henry James. After completing his degree, Buitenhuis stayed on at Yale’s American Studies Department to teach (1955-1959).

In 1959, Buitenhuis left Yale and immigrated to Canada, after receiving an invitation from Northrop Frye—then the chairman of the English Department at Victoria College in the University of Toronto—to teach at the College. He became a Canadian citizen c.1960, while still retaining his British citizenship.

While at Victoria College, in 1963, Buitenhuis joined with fellow Americanists from other Canadian universities to form the first American Studies association in Canada, the Canadian Association of American Studies.

Buitenhuis worked at the College as an associate professor until 1966, when he took a year to teach at the University of California (Berkley) as a visiting professor. In 1967, Buitenhuis returned to Canada to take a position at McGill University in Montreal. After several years at McGill, in 1975, Buitenhuis accepted the position of Chairman of the Department of English at Simon Fraser University (1975-1981) and moved to Vancouver.

Buitenhuis remained at SFU until his retirement in 1992. In that time, he not only taught in the Department of English, but was also the Associate Director in SFU’s Centre for Canadian Studies (1987-1988). He continued to teach literature well after his retirement through SFU’s Continuing Studies Department, and was still teaching until shortly before his death. Buitenhuis passed away on November 28, 2004.

Buitenhuis remained an active scholar, book reviewer, and writer throughout his life. Included in his many literature reviews and scholarly articles are several books, including E.J. Pratt and His Works; Five American Moderns: Mary McCarthy, Stephen Crane, J.D. Salinger, Eugene O’Neill, and H.L. Mencken; The Grasping Imagination: The American Writings of Henry James; The Great War of Words: British, American, and Canadian Propaganda and Fiction, 1914-1933; and The House of Seven Gables: Severing Family and Colonial Ties. Buitenhuis also completed a manuscript just weeks before his death titled, Empires of the Mind: British Authors' Roles in World War II.

Buitenhuis’s literary and academic career brought him into contact with many well-known authors, including Margaret Atwood, Northrop Frye, Timothy Findley, Thomas Wolfe, and Scott Symons.

Gerry Scott received a Master's degree from SFU in 1991 for his thesis entitled Beyond Equality: British Columbia New Democrats and Native Peoples, 1961-1979. In the preface to his thesis, Scott writes, "My interest in the evolution of the political relationships between British Columbia New Democrats and the aboriginal peoples of the province was first aroused in 1974. At that time I was working as a researcher for the government caucus and I undertook preparation of background papers on aboriginal land claims for the consideration of caucus members. In the 1970s and 1980s I continued to be involved in many of the issues under examination in this thesis through my work as Executive Assistant to Skeena MP Jim Fulton and as Provincial Secretary of the NDP during the years of Bob Skelly's leadership."

The Fraser Valley University Society was established on February 5, 1991. Founding members of the Society included members of several Canadian Federation of University Women's clubs, particularly Karen Yong and Sharon Shilliday of the Delta University Women's Club; members of the Fraser Valley Real Estate Board; as well as individuals and representatives of organizations from communities throughout the Fraser Valley. Many of these individuals had been involved in a predecessor group, the Fraser South University Society, which had been established by Yong and Shilliday in November 1990.

The Society's mandate was to "ensure the development of appropriate legislation creating a new university in the Fraser Valley." The main purposes of the Society were: to further the development of university education in the Fraser Valley by encouraging the Provincial Government to legislate the establishment of an independent, degree-granting institution; to foster public education initiatives promoting the social, economic and cultural value of a university; to actively pursue excellence in university education for all communities in the Fraser Valley; and to improve access to university education.

The Society was headed by an elected Board of Directors. The Board of Directors appointed the following officer positions: President, Vice-President, Treasurer, and Secretary. Committees, headed by a Chair, were created to carry out the objectives of the Society. The original five committees of the society were the Public Relations Committee, Community Relations Committee, Fundraising Committee, Membership Committee, and the Government Committee. The first President of the Society was Karen Yong. She was succeeded in 1993 by Robert (Bob) Lowe, who remained President until the Society's dissolution. At its height, membership in the Society was over 1,100 members.

The Society enlisted the assistance of local government and community organizations in its efforts. From its inception, the Society received financial and other support, including office space in Surrey, from the Fraser Valley Real Estate Board. Other funds were obtained through government grant applications, membership fees, donations, and fundraising events. The Society also concentrated on promotional and community relations activities. Members collected over 7,000 petition signatures, set up information kiosks in malls and at public events, made presentations to local groups, solicited media coverage of Society events and activities, and distributed promotional material. The Society created and collaborated on several reports concerning the need for post-secondary education in the Fraser Valley, and established relationships with members of local and provincial governments.

In 1994 the Society began to place increased pressure on the Provincial Government and, after many meetings and much correspondence, Premier Mike Harcourt announced in February 1995 his government's support for the creation of a Technical University in the Fraser Valley (the Technical University of British Columbia). In May 1995 Society Board member Sharon Shilliday was appointed to the Interim Planning Council for the University; the Council became part of the Technical University Society of British Columbia when it was registered on August 10, 1995.

As a result of the Government's commitment to the creation of a new university, the Society evolved into a public foundation responsible for raising funds for the Technical University of British Columbia and its students. The Society's constitution was amended in August 1996 to reflect this change in mandate. In February 1998, a unanimous decision was made to dissolve the Society and transfer its fundraising responsibilities, as well as accumulated funds, assets, and records to the Technical University of British Columbia. Fundraising responsibilities were assumed by the University's new Vice-President External Affairs and Research. At an extraordinary meeting of the Society on April 28, 1998, the Society was dissolved.

Frances Wasserlein is a feminist, historian and social activist. Her research and social activism has focused on issues surrounding women's liberation. She completed a Master of Arts degree in history at Simon Fraser University in 1990. Her thesis, "An Arrow Aimed at the Heart": the Vancouver Women's Caucus and the Abortion Campaign, 1969-1971, investigated the history of the Vancouver Women's Caucus (VWC) and their organizing work for the Abortion Caravan from Vancouver to Ottawa in 1970.

Wasserlein was raised in Vancouver. She graduated from the University Program at Little Flower Academy in 1964. Wasserlein acknowledges becoming a feminist in 1976. At the time she was working as a secretary at the University of British Columbia (UBC). Her involvement with the union, and a summer job working at Vancouver Rape Relief contributed to an interest in social justice and social change. In April 1977 she left her job at UBC and began full time undergraduate studies at that university. She completed a BA (honors) in history in 1980.

During the summer of 1979 Wasserlein worked as a researcher for the Women's Office at UBC on a project related to the early contributions of women to the establishment of UBC and the role women played in student activism at the university. In 1979 and 1980 she worked with a small group of women to begin Battered Women's Support Services, providing self-help groups for women who were seeking an end to the violence that had driven them and their children from their homes.

After receiving her BA from UBC, Wasserlein worked for the YMCA as a co-manager of Munro House for eighteen months. Following that, she worked as a researcher and writer with the Women's Research Centre, working on studies related to the institutionalization of women's services. She supplemented her income by doing bookkeeping for various arts and non-profit organizations. Wasserlein worked on founding Women Against Violence Against Women (WAVAW) in 1982. She was also involved in the work of Women Against the Budget in 1983, a political group opposed to the legislation tabled by the Social Credit government following their victory in the 1983 provincial election.

Her interest in the source of conflict between and among individual women activists, and between and among women's organizations, motivated her to seek out the source of these conflicts by examining the history of women's movements in Canada. In 1982, she applied for a Canada Council grant for a women's history project she wished to undertake. The grant application was turned down. In 1985 she enrolled in a Master of Arts degree program in history at Simon Fraser University. After completing her MA, Wasserlein taught women's studies at Langara College in Vancouver, BC until 1997. She has also worked as a sessional instructor at SFU. As of 2002, she was employed as the executive producer of the Vancouver Folk Music Festival.

Peter Poole received a Master's degree from SFU for his thesis entitled "Organized Labour Versus the State in British Columbia." The thesis examined the British Columbia labour movement's reaction to the Social Credit government restraint program of 1983. During this period, labour organized Operation Solidarity; as well, various community groups cooperated under the umbrella of the Solidarity Coalition.

Dennis Roberts was hired in August 1966 as SFU's first full-time Information Officer. In 1972, the Information Office became the University News Service, and Roberts served as its first director. He remained in this position until 1982, when he retired from the University. In addition to his regular duties, Dennis Roberts was in charge of the SFU Pipe and Drum Band for eight years. He was also well-known at SFU as a cartoonist and produced a series of cartoons for Christmas and other events that gently poked fun at various members of the SFU community.

The British Columbia Honey Producers' Association (BCHPA) was founded in 1920 and continues as an active organization. Its functions are to promote beekeeping as a profitable activity, promote and assist in the marketing of produce and purchase of supplies, support apicultural research and education, and disseminate information about beekeeping and best practices to both Association members and the general public. BCHPA membership includes both commercial honey producers and hobbyists.

The BCHPA was formed as a result of a split within the Beekeepers Association of British Columbia, founded four years earlier in 1916. The disagreements related to the outbreak of a bee disease in 1916 and the requirement of registration for all beekeepers under the provincial government's revised Foul Brood Act. When the BCHPA broke away in 1920 it established two Divisions – Fraser Valley and Kootenay; in 1925 the Vancouver Island Beekeepers' Association joined as a third Division. The two provincial associations merged in 1931, with the older organization entering the BCHPA as the Greater Vancouver Division. Membership in the BCHPA peaked in 1978 with 1,290 members and 32 Divisions.

The BCHPA is organized into geographically based Divisions. A Central Executive acts as a coordinating body for Association-wide business, and is assisted by various standing and ad hoc committees. Divisions are headed by their own Executives and are responsible for holding divisional meetings, publishing newsletters, collecting membership fees, operating educational programs, acting as a purchasing cooperative for supplies and medications, advising the Central Executive and preparing resolutions for the BCHPA annual general meeting. The Central Executive is headed by an elected President and consists of officers elected at the annual meeting and appointed regional representatives. It functions primarily as a liaison body between the various Divisions and between the Association as a whole and the provincial Ministry, the BC Federation of Agriculture and the Canadian Honey Council. It is also responsible for producing the Association's newsletter.

Gillian Stainsby received her Master's Degree at SFU for her thesis, "It's the Smell of Money": Women Shoreworkers of British Columbia. For further biographical information, see Appendix A3, "Acknowledgements," photocopied from Stainsby's thesis (available in hard-copy finding aid only).

In 1972, there was increasing awareness within the Vancouver women's movement that a number of feminist periodicals and books published by small women's presses were unavailable in Vancouver. The Vancouver Women's Bookstore, which evolved from A Women's Place, opened on July 16, 1973 to address this need. The bookstore would make available women's movement literature such as underground papers, literary magazines, pamphlets, and books that portrayed women as intelligent, strong, equal, and creative human beings. The bookstore was also seen as important to help facilitate communication between Canadian women and the larger women's movement in North America, and between Vancouver women and women in outlying areas. In addition, the bookstore also functioned as a centre where women could meet to read, discuss issues, and plan rallies, marches and demonstrations.

The Vancouver Women's Bookstore Collective operated the store as a non-profit enterprise, with members of the collective staffing the bookstore as unpaid volunteers. Members of the collective also reviewed each title before it was made available to the public to ensure that it fit in with the goals of the women's movement and feminist ideology. Finances not channeled back to the store were used to support various women's movement ventures through donations. One method of support consisted of shipping books to women's groups outside Vancouver. In exchange for selling the books at meetings and conferences, the women's groups would retain a small commission to help fund their activities. Members of the Collective also accumulated material to document the 'herstory' of the women's movement in Vancouver, and North America.

On October 14, 1980, an arsonist's fire destroyed the Women's Bookstore that had been located at 804 Richards Street since it opened in 1973. The bookstore reopened at 322 West Hastings Street in January 1981. In 1983, the Women's Bookstore relocated again to 315 Cambie Street. Changes in the operating structure occurred in 1992, when the collective, non-profit organization shifted to a worker-owned cooperative. In June 1996, the Women's Bookstore closed its doors for the last time. Finding it harder to survive, the cooperative decided to shut the store while it could still meet its financial obligations. After suppliers were paid, stock was donated to the SFU Women's Centre, and the Gay and Lesbian Library. In addition, leftover funds (about $1,000) were donated to the Downtown Eastside Women's Centre.

The British Columbia and Yukon Association of Women's Centres (BCYAWC) was founded in 1985 as an umbrella organization of over 30 women's centres. It ceased operations in 1998.

Women's centres developed in the 1970s as a project of the women's movement. They served as women-only space to practice an egalitarian model of organization. They were devoted to improving the status of women through education and political action and to helping women through the provision of safe space, support, and services. Over the years, the number of women using women's centres increased as the centres struggled to find ongoing funding.

By 1984, women's centres were looking for a more structured way to work towards common goals, including secure funding and improved cooperation and communication among centres. In 1985 they established the BCYAWC and incorporated under the BC Society Act on November 12, 1987. By 1990, the BCYAWC consisted of 31 women's resource centres – 30 in BC, one in the Yukon. The Association was managed by a volunteer coordinating collective that included a secretary, treasurer, 11 regional representatives, and six members-at-large. Meetings were scheduled for four times a year.

Around 1993 the group began to lose its cohesiveness because of funding and other issues. In 1995, the province cut the Association's funding. The following year, the Association was struck from the Registry of Societies for failure to file required documentation such as audited financial statements. While the Association made an attempt to file the papers necessary to regain status, the remaining members in 1998 agreed to dissolve the organization and distribute its assets.

Hari Prakash Sharma (1934-2010) was a sociologist and Marxist scholar who came from the United States, politicized by the anti-war movement and inspired by the politically charged atmosphere at Simon Fraser University in 1968. He joined the Department of Political Science, Sociology, and Anthropology in that year and taught until his retirement in 1999 when he was honoured by the university as Professor Emeritus.

He was born on November 9, 1934 (although some records indicate January 10, 1934 as his date of birth) at Dadri in Uttar Pradesh, India, the second of eight children born to Kundun Lal Sharma and Moharli Devi Sharma. His father was a railway stationmaster, and the family moved frequently.

Sharma earned his BA from Agra University in 1954. After a five-year stint as Lower Division Clerk and Typist for the Government of India in the Central Excise and Customs Department, he earned an MA in Social Work from Delhi University in 1960. He then accepted a post as Lecturer at the Delhi School of Social Work, where he remained for three years. In 1963, Sharma moved to the US to further his education. He received an MS in Social Work from Case Western Reserve University in 1964 and a PhD in Rural Sociology from Cornell University in 1968. He taught briefly at the University of California, Los Angeles before accepting a position at SFU.

As a faculty member of SFU, Sharma became a champion of the academic rights of colleagues who faced the threat of dismissal for their support of student-led movements to democratize the university. Notably, he supported fellow colleague and friend Kathleen Gough, a British anthropologist with Marxist leanings who was suspended for her political activities. Gough and Sharma co-edited "Imperialism and Revolution in South Asia," which was published in the Monthly Review, an independent socialist journal, in 1974.

His research areas of special interest included political economy and agrarian social structures, particularly in India; social movements, political mobilization, ethnic and cultural identities; race and class; and nation-building among the aboriginal people of British Columbia. He wrote extensively on those topics and provided guest lectures at over 50 universities and scholarly institutions in Asia, Europe, and North America.

In the spring of 1967, the Naxalbari peasant uprising inspired him to travel to India and several other Asian countries. Upon his return, he became committed to political activism from an anti-imperialist perspective. During 1971-72, Sharma was a founding member of and contributor to the Georgia Straight Collective, which produced a publication for radical and alternative views. In 1973, he went to Amnesty International in London and the Commission of Jurists in Geneva and made a written representation to the UN Human Rights Commission in an effort to publicize the condition of more than 30,000 political prisoners in Indian jails. In 1974, Sharma and his comrade Gautam Appa of the London School of Economics organized a petition of international scholars to protest the treatment of political prisoners in India, which he handed to the Indian Consulate in Vancouver, BC on August 15 of the same year.

On a return trip from India in early 1975, Hari Sharma began to travel across North American campuses giving talks and mobilizing people toward the formation of a patriotic organization of Indians living in North America. This effort contributed to the founding of the Indian People's Association in North America (IPANA) on June 25, 1975, the same day on which Indira Gandhi declared a State of Emergency in India. The opposition to what was identified as a "fascist dictatorship" became the urgent task of IPANA along with the defense of the thousands of political prisoners.

IPANA established chapters in several North American cities, with its most active chapters in Montréal, Vancouver, New York, Toronto, and Boston. It had links with patriotic organizations in San Francisco, Chicago, Winnipeg, and Edmonton. In their effort to oppose imperialism and to promote democratic rights and social justice in India, IPANA produced three publications: the quarterly New India Bulletin, which came out of Montréal from 1975; India Now, a monthly that was produced in New York from 1976; and Wangar, a Punjabi paper that was produced from Vancouver every two months from 1977. In addition to its publications, IPANA held numerous public meetings, demonstrations, lectures, films, and cultural programs to highlight the systemic oppression of dalits, peasants, and workers that mocked any concept of democracy and freedom put forth by the existing Government of India. One of IPANA’s first public interventions in North America was to sponsor a speaking tour by Mary Tyler, a British writer who had been held in an Indian prison for several years without any formal charge for alleged revolutionary activities in Bihar.

Under Sharma's leadership, IPANA also supported the struggles of minorities and workers in BC. He was a primary force in the founding of the British Columbia Organization to Fight Racism (BCOFR). Through the 1980s, IPANA and BCOFR engaged thousands of people from several communities. Both Sharma and IPANA also helped form the Canadian Farmworkers Union in 1980.

In the 1980s, Sharma focused much of his research and writing on the condition of minorities in India, which came to a crisis with the attack on the Golden Temple and the massacre of Sikhs in Delhi in 1984 following the assassination of Indira Gandhi. He defended the human rights of Sikhs and of Muslims who became the primary targets of the Hindutva movements advocating Hindu nationalism. In 1987, Sharma organized a parallel conference on the centralization of state power and the threat to minorities in India to coincide with the Commonwealth Conference in Vancouver.

In 1989, Sharma united groups of the South Asian community to form the Komagata Maru Historical Society. The event commemorated the 75th anniversary of the Komagata Maru incident in which Indian immigrants traveling to Canada on a chartered ship were turned away from the shores of Vancouver by racist policies of the government. The society united the community, and as a result of its activities, the government installed a commemorative plaque in Vancouver in 1989. In 2004, during a screening of the film Continuous Journey (a documentary on the episode by the Toronto filmmaker Ali Kazimi), Mayor of Vancouver Larry Campbell sent a scroll to Sharma on behalf of the Komagata Historical Society declaring the week to be dedicated to the memory of Komagata Maru.

Following the attack on the Babri Masjid mosque in December 1992, Hari Sharma became the prime mover in the formation of a North American organization dedicated to the defence of minority rights in India, also known as Non-Resident Indians for Secularism and Democracy (NRISAD). This organization united people of Indian origin collectively through educational and cultural activities. One of its significant events in Vancouver included the celebration of the 50th anniversary of India's independence from colonial rule. The event united people across the South Asian community to focus on issues that included the urgency for peace between Pakistan and India. In September 1999, Sharma travelled to Montréal to join the founding of the International South Asia Forum (INSAF), a coalition of individuals and organizations dedicated to the promotion of peace and social justice in South Asia. He became its first President and organized the Second Conference in Vancouver in August 2001.

Over time, NRISAD recognized a need to widen the focus of the organization to include the whole of South Asia because its membership in Vancouver comprised people from the entire subcontinent of India and the diaspora in East Africa and other countries. Under Sharma's leadership, NRISAD evolved into the South Asian Network for Secularism and Democracy (SANSAD) in 2000. It pursued the same quest as its predecessors for peace and democracy based secularism, human rights, and social justice. Some activities included condemning the massacre of Muslims in Gujarat in 2002 (for which Sharma was denied a visa to visit India), championing the human rights of Kashmiris, condemning violence against journalists and academics in Bangladesh, supporting the movement for democracy and social justice in Nepal, and defending the human rights of Tamils under the attack of the Sri Lankan state.

Throughout the years, Hari Sharma developed close ties and contacts with various political groups and communities. He worked with the First Nations in the Interior of BC, and as co-chair (along with Dr. Ronald Ignace, the elected Chief of the Skeetchestn Band from 1982 to 2003 and between 2007 and 2009), he helped to promote and to defend the merit of the SFU Kamloops First Nations program (then the SCES/SFU Program). In addition to his regular workload at SFU, Sharma taught courses such as Violence and War, Marxist Theory, and Third World issues on different occasions in Kamloops. Although the 16-year partnership between SFU and the Secwepemc Cultural Education Society of the Shuswap Nation (SCES) was dissolved by mutual agreement in 2004, over 400 students graduated from the program.

In addition to his academic work and political activism, Hari Sharma was an accomplished literary writer and self-taught photographer. He wrote and published short stories in Hindi. Many of his works also were also translated into Bengali, Punjabi, and English. Vapsi, one of his stories, was made into a Doordarshan (Indian public service broadcaster) film. Sharma attributed his interest in photography to a Japanese camera that had been "gifted" to him as a bribe by an importer while pushing files as a government worker. The camera became something that Sharma frequently took with him on trips to India to capture snippets of everyday life. Over the years, his photographs were published in academic journals and art magazines. His works were also publicly displayed in galleries in North America, Europe, and India.

After more than 50 years of political activity, Hari Sharma developed contacts and friendships with many who supported revolutionary movements. He married twice.

After a prolonged battle with cancer, Hari Sharma died in his Burnaby home surrounded by his closest comrades on March 16, 2010.

Susan Walsh received a Master's degree from SFU in 1984 for her thesis entitled "Equality, Emancipation and a More Just World: Leading Women in the British Columbia Cooperative Commonwealth Federation." In the abstract to her thesis, Walsh writes, "In the wake of suffrage victories, many early twentieth century Canadian women worked hard to make that equality meaningful and to extend it to all areas of women's lives. For those who predicted great changes, however, too few took their hard-earned rights further than the polling station. Most expressed their concerns and goals within the more familiar world of women's organizations. Helena Gutteridge, Laura Jamieson, Dorothy Steeves and Grace MacInnis were among the notable exceptions. While maintaining important ties with women's groups, they sought and won public office, pioneering important paths for generations of Canadian women to follow. These political trail blazers stand out for another important reason. They chose to establish their careers and test their political rights in a socialist party -- the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation -- pledged to sexual emancipation and equal opportunities for women. They were, in short, dual rebels -- as feminists and socialists -- in a sex and class-ordered world."

The British Columbia Pipers Association (BCPA )was formed on July 30, 1932. The first meeting elected a Rod McLeod as president, William MacInDewan as secretary, and John Paul as treasurer. Subsequent meetings articulated the objects of the association, which were for "the general advancement of pipe music and to give encouragement to young players." The association held annual gatherings and regular competitions for children and adults, both amateurs and professionals. One of the first meetings banned 'lady pipers in any of the competitions other than those provided for them,' a practice which continued until 1958. The original categories for competition were Novice, Ladies, Under 16, 16 and over and Open (or professional). In 1958 these categories changed to Novice, Juvenile, Junior and Senior Amateur.

The association's motto is Tog Orm Mo Phiob (to shoulder my pipes)

Past Presidents of the BCPA

1932 to 1934 Roderick MacLeod
1934 to 1935 James Dyer
1935 to 1937 William Bowes
1937 to 1940 Walter Douglas
1940 to 1942 Allan MacNab
1942 to 1943 John Paul
1943 to 1945 WA Urquhart
1945 to 1947 RF MacRae
1947 to 1949 Charles MacKenzing
1949 to 1951 Donald MacDonald
1951 to 1955 Edmund Esson
1955 to 1955 G Sinclair (deceased while in office)
1955 to 1956 Roderick MacRae
1956 to 1957 Ron Forman
1957 to 1958 Edmund Esson
1958 to 1959 Ron Forman
1959 to 1962 Iain Walker
1963 to 1964 Ian McDougall
1965 to 1966 Rod MacVicar
1967 to 1968 Albert Duncan
1969 to 1970 Bill Lamont

Andre Isakov was a student at SFU who conducted two oral history interviews as part of an undergraduate project for the SFU Centre for Labour Studies.

Fred Hope was born in Lancaster, England in 1917. He was a police officer with the London Police Service and also served in the Second World War. Hope came to Canada in 1952 working as an investigator for the Canadian Pacific in Montreal. In 1965 he joined the establishment at Simon Fraser University as the Director of Traffic and Security. He died in Sechelt in 1991.

Richard Lester was born in Toronto, Ontario in 1928. He came to Vancouver in 1947, eventually attending law school at the University of British Columbia. After being called to the British Columbia Bar in 1953 he practiced in Maple Ridge (then Haney). He served on the schoool board and was president of the BC School Trustees Association from 1961 to 1963.

In 1963 he was appointed to the first Board of Governors for the newly formed Simon Fraser University, a position he held until he became Chairman of the Board in the fall of 1968. He resigned this position in 1971, returning to his law practice.

Lester lived in Maple Ridge and then West Vancouver. He married Lois Audrey Jensen in 1952 and has 4 children.

Evelyn T. and Leigh Hunt Palmer were active members of the Simon Fraser academic community from 1966 until their retirement in 2001. Leigh served as an associate professor of physics while Evelyn was a laboratory instructor in chemistry.

Both Palmers were active in university affairs and in scientific and cultural groups. They sponsored a number of seminars and lectures at SFU including the Albert Einstein Memorial Lecture Series, which they initiated on the one hundredth anniversary of the birth of Albert Einstein.

For further details of the Palmers' careers and achievements, see the autobiographical sketch in the Appendix (available only in the Archives reading room).

The Teaching Support Staff Union is the representative bargaining agent for Teaching Assistants, Tutor Markers, Language Instructors and Sessional Instructors at Simon Fraser University. The union negotiates terms and conditions of work, rates of pay, benefits and grievance procedures in a Collective Agreement with the University.

In 1971 graduate students organized the Graduate Student Union, an association that worked to improve teaching and research conditions. The GSU was inactive after 1974 but the discussion it had initiated regarding unionization continued until 1976 when twelve graduate students held a union organizational meeting in September of that year. They proposed affiliation with the Association of University and College Employees (AUCE) rather than the Canadian Union of Public Employees or the University of Toronto based Graduate Assistants' Association. The Teaching Support Staff Union, as it would be named, favored AUCE because of its relative smallness, democratic structure, local autonomy, strong representation of women's employment rights, and the established presence at SFU, since 1974, of AUCE Local 2 for office, clerical and technical staff. Accordingly, the TSSU received its charter as AUCE Local 6 on September 10, 1976.

The TSSU took additional steps to establish themselves as a legal entity under the British Columbia Labour Code. By April 1978 the TSSU had signed over 50% of the bargaining unit into the union. It then applied to the Labour Relations Board for a certification vote to make the TSSU the representative body for the bargaining unit. Before the vote could be held, however, the LRB conducted a hearing to define the membership of the bargaining unit, which had been disputed by the University. Following an LRB ruling in TSSU's favor, the certification vote was finally held in November 1978. The vote was positive despite an effort by some Language Assistants to have the LRB exclude them from the bargaining unit and the vote. The LRB certified the union on December 13, 1978.

In January 1979 the union began bargaining with the University for a first collective agreement. The TSSU and the University administration negotiated each article individually and resolved impasses through mediation. During negotiations, the TSSU successfully complained to the LRB that the University had violated Section 51 of the Labour Code by withholding an annual pay increase. The first Collective Agreement was signed by both sides on July 1, 1980, and has been renegotiated from time to time.

TSSU supported its sister local, AUCE 2, during the latter's strike in 1979. In 1983 and 1984, TSSU joined other campus unions in Operation Solidarity, a province-wide organization opposed to Premier Bennett's Social Credit restraint legislation.

TSSU remained as the last independent local of AUCE until the latter's dissolution in the early 1990s. Still functioning as an independent union, TSSU operates under a constitution and bylaws as a membership-driven organization. Union policy, bargaining positions, and the election of union officers and salaried officers are decided by the membership through meetings, mail-in ballots, and referenda. Departmental stewards serve as immediate contacts for TSSU members. In addition, a number of standing committees conduct on-going business and help direct the executive and general membership. Ad hoc committees have functioned from time to time.

The SFU Women's Centre was established in 1974 and continues as of this writing (2009) as an active organization. Funded by the Simon Fraser Student Society (SFSS) as a constituency group, the Women's Centre provides programming, space and volunteer opportunities to self-identified women on campus, and resource information and peer support to women and men.

The Women's Centre began in 1974 when a group of women students revived the SFU Women's Caucus (originally established in 1968) and obtained SFSS club status. It opened the Women's Centre that year in a small room in the Rotunda. In 1980 the Centre moved to the Academic Quadrangle, then in 1996 back to the Rotunda (TC3013), doubling its physical space to approximately 1400 square feet.

The Centre's organizational structure has evolved over time. The Women's Centre Steering Committee developed out of the Women's Caucus, but by 1977 it had merged with the Women's Centre Collective. The Collective consists of women students who volunteer a set number of hours per week to staff the Centre and remains the decision-making body of the Centre. In 1979-80, the Women's Centre Board was created to formulate policy, promote the Centre, liaise with the university community, locate funding sources, and work closely with the Collective, which continued to be responsible for day-to-day operations and activities. The Board included representatives from SFSS, the Women's Centre Collective, the Women's Studies Department, the Women's Studies Student Union, and female administrative and clerical university staff. By the mid-1980s the Board was meeting irregularly; it was discontinued in 1990, its functions transferred to a newly created part-time paid position of Coordinator, funded by and reporting to the SFSS.

The Women's Centre provides a number of services, including a women-only lounge open 24 hours a day, a resource office, peer support, library, kitchen facilities, study carrels, couches and a quiet play area for children in the lounge. Men can access the Centre's library materials, peer support, and referral information.

Since its establishment, the Centre has undertaken numerous activities and projects. In cooperation with other campus groups, the Centre promoted the creation of a Women's Studies Department, the institution of a university harassment policy and office, the improvement of campus childcare facilities, and the organization of International Women's Day events, December 6 vigils, and women's self-defense classes.

The SFU Childcare Society presently operates eleven programs that are collectively known as the Children's Centre. The Children's Centre is an independent, legally incorporated non-profit society with registered charitable organization status. The Children's Centre provides full and part time care to approximately 240 children, ranging in age from 3 months to 12 years. Each program has its own physical space and is often referred to as a centre. A Board of Directors is composed of parent representatives, university representatives, childcare staff representatives and community representatives. The Executive Director is an ex-officio, non-voting member of the Board, hired through the University (with direction from the Society Board) to be the Coordinator for the Society and to act as a liaison between the Society and the University.

Daycare began at SFU in 1968 when a group of parents established the Simon Fraser Co-operative Family in a student lounge. By 1973, the Family Co-op had grown into the SFU Day Care Society with three units in different locations. By 1976, there were five licensed daycare centres all incorporated under the Burnaby Mountain Day Care Society.

In 1976 the University provided 1.2 million dollars to fund construction of a childcare complex, the first of its kind in Canada. The University also supported the appointment of a full-time director, Emily Campbell. For funding purposes, the Burnaby Mountain Day Care Society separated into five non-profit societies, which could each apply for grants. The five societies and their nine centres formed a loose federation, The Burnaby Association of University Child Care Societies, to set overall policy, coordinate activities, and exchange information. Centres remained autonomous in financing, staffing, and style of care.

In 1981 it became evident that current levels of University funding were in jeopardy. A Task Force was struck by the University to investigate the current organization of childcare on campus. Following recommendations of that Task Force, the five individual daycare societies were reorganized in 1982 into a single non-profit society, The SFU Childcare Society, which continues today.

The SFU Childcare Society is funded primarily through parent user fees and Board fund raising efforts. These monies are used for staff salaries and benefits, program related expenses, equipment purchase and upkeep, playgrounds, administrative costs and utilities.

A Licensing Agreement with the University provides for repairs and maintenance service for all the major building structures, comprehensive insurance, and the salary and benefits for the Executive Director and secretarial positions.

The Simon Fraser Teachers' Union held its organizational meeting and first general meeting on July 27, 1967. Its membership consisted of faculty members who felt that the Simon Fraser University Faculty Association (SFUFA) was not representing their interests. The SFTU remained active until 1968, when it integrated into the SFUFA after that body called for the resignation of SFU's president, Patrick Duncan McTaggart-Cowan.

The SFTU was formed, in part, as a reaction to perceived inadequacies with the SFUFA due to its close association with university administration. The SFTU was distinct from the SFUFA because it excluded from its membership the President, administrators, heads, librarians and teaching assistants. The SFTU was designed to deal solely with the problems of faculty members, and to advocate on their behalf

The Teachers' Union's stated aims were as follows:

to promote, establish, and maintain the highest academic standards among the members of the full-time teaching faculty at Simon Fraser University; to concern itself with the welfare of its membership specifically in the areas of academic freedom, tenure, promotions, dismissal and renewal procedures, and in general to adopt the methods of collective bargaining in furthering the vital interests of its membership; to ensure that the university adheres to democratic principles and procedures in the relations that are established between students, teaching assistants, faculty, administration, and all other members of the academic community; to provide ways and means of furthering the interests of faculty not available through other teacher associations (e.g. Faculty Association, CAUT), due to the limited effectiveness imposed upon such associations by their structure, and, by the exclusion of heads of departments and other administrative personnel, to minimize conflicts of interest that militate against the best interests of the faculty.

The Simon Fraser Teachers' Union executive, consisting of a president, vice-president, secretary, treasurer, corresponding secretary, and four directors managed the business of the union. The STU was the first union of university professors in Canada, although it did not receive certification under the existing labour code.