The second day of the 2025 COPE SEPB Convention featured a spectacular list of featured speakers.

Bea Bruske, president of the Canadian Labour Congress, was the first guest speaker to address delegates. She began by thanking the work of COPE leaders, including President Annette Toth, for always stepping up when being called upon, and acknowledge the great work of CLC staff who are members of COPE.

With Winnipeg being her hometown, she talked about its rich labour history, echoing Annette’s speech a day earlier, and also thanked COPE for their recent support of Camp Marcedes.

She focused much of her speech talking about the importance of workers getting involved in the politics, especially to help rebuild the federal NDP, noting that the NDP has been the party that has brought about the largest expansion of our national health care system since its introduction, responsible for the implementation of pharmacare and dental care, expanding CERB benefits during the pandemic, creating a national school nutrition program, and bringing in anti-scab legislation for federal workers.

She encouraged delegates to join or rebuild local NDP riding associations, back candidates or run themselves, and plugged the CLC’s WorkingTogether.ca resources.

Kevin Rebeck, president of the Manitoba Federation of Labour, was next up. He also spoke of Winnipeg’s rich history, adding to the many different stories already told that strike leaders during the 1919 Winnipeg General Strike were later elected to political office themselves.

He spoke on the strong labour successes that Manitoba has seen, while addressing some of the things they are still pushing for such as dealing with workplace violence issues, as well as getting free menstrual products into workplaces.

Don Davies, who was named interim leader of Canada’s NDP following this past April’s federal election, send in a video message to delegates. In his message, he talked about how COPE’s history of breaking away from the American-based OPEIU was a story of courage, determination, and vision, and serves today as a powerful example to Canada of how Canadians can stand up for ourselves in the face of the challenge we face from the United States.

Don also reiterated that the NDP was created by working people, and that he and the NDP are committed to rediscovering its working-class roots.

Fae Johnstone, a trans woman, entrepreneur, feminist, writer, and award-winning 2SLGBTQIA+ advocate, was the featured keynote speaker of the day. Her presentation featured on building solidarity with queer and trans community, and she talked about how the world is a scarier and less safe place for trans and queer people now.

Her main message to delegates was about not allowing the conservative agenda to divide and conquer us by using queer and trans people as a scapegoat. She cautioned our movement saying that we can’t talk down to people, and that politically left movements have often made this mistake. She said that we cannot win with condescendence, that our movements shrink when we become full of ourselves and embrace purity/perfection politics, and that we cannot shame people into solidarity.

Fae encouraged delegates to visit momentumcanada.net/join to learn more.

The day’s lineup of star-studded speakers concluded with Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew taking to the stage. Wab started off by talking about the challenges many Manitoban families are facing right now due to the wildfires but said how important it was for Manitobans to connect with the rest of the country.

He then talked about how despite the ongoing challenges Manitoba is supporting evacuees, but also focused on building up the economy and protecting jobs and how a key part of doing so involves making sure people can join unions.

Following Wab’s address, an emergency resolution (Resolution 27) was brought to the floor and passed calling on COPE to donate $25,000 to the Canadian Red Cross to support wildfire relief efforts. MoveUP also announced they would donate $5,000 to the Canadian Red Cross for wildfire support, while many other COPE locals also followed suit.

Wab returned to the microphone to thank COPE for their generosity and their patriotism.

See photos from Day 2 of Convention.

The reports of Region 3, Region 4, and the Canadian Equity Council, were also delivered on the second day of Convention. All written reports can be found in the Reports to Convention booklet.

Resolutions that were debated and passed on Friday are listed below. Visit our Convention 2025 webpage for the resolutions.

• Resolution 3 (Equity Education and Learning Fund)
• Resolution 6A (Statement of Principle on Gender in Our Leadership)
• Resolution 14 (Support for Quebec unions in their fight against Bill 89)
• Resolution 16 (COPE-SEPB’s commitment to reducing its ecological footprint)
• Resolution 17A (Funding for the next convention)
• Resolution 18A (Mandatory digitization and online meetings)
• Resolution 10A (Constitutional Change Article 7.1)
• Resolution 29 (Convention accessibility)