About Me
About Me And Advocacy Services
I have been involved in advocacy in various forms for my entire working life. I began working for the City of Toronto as a Social Services Caseworker in 1990, serving and advocating for vulnerable people in various Toronto Communities. I very quickly became involved in the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Local 79, as the union local representing the City of Toronto ‘Inside Workers,’ Bridgepoint Health, and Toronto Community Housing Corporation (TCHC). My union involvement rapidly deepened and quickly became engaged in another form of advocacy, representing workers as a front-line workplace union shop steward and union-side Occupational Health and Safety Committee (JOHSC) member.
For the majority of my time working at the City of Toronto, I have been engaged in advocacy efforts from front-line workplace representation of workers in dispute resolution and grievance handling, to more activist roles in union member education, political action to elected senior-level union executive roles, including President for six years (2012 to 2017). I have also become involved in the broader labour movement, playing both front-line and leadership roles in campaigns to improve workplace standards and protect public services.
While representing workers of course has been my main focus, I consistently advocated for labour-community coalition and collaboration in support of improved working conditions for others, precarious employment, living wages, addressing increasing poverty and inequality, housing and homelessness crises, and other social justice cause, urging equity and inclusion, and more recently making efforts as an ally confronting racism, urging issues of systemic racism be addressed.
In 2018, I reverted to my role as a Social Services Caseworker at the City of Toronto and proceeded to complete more education and training to enhance my advocacy knowledge and skills, including completing a Labour and Employment Law Certificate (Osgoode Hall Law School, York University, 2018) and a Masters of Law (LLM) specializing in Labour Relations and Employment Law (Professional Stream Osgoode Hall Law School, York University, 2020).
I gave a lot of thought to how I can continue advocacy contributions, especially with concerns about working conditions, questions about labour and employment rights and laws being heightened during the pandemic. So, I decided I would offer a suite of advocacy consulting services based on the skills and knowledge, I have gained in nearly 30 years of advocacy experience in various union activism and leadership roles, combined with extensive training and education.
Aligning Actions with Advocacy Values
When thinking about what contribution I may be able to make to improve conditions and resolve disputes after my years of advocacy experience, education training, I have also been thinking about the talk in recent years about aligning actions with values, as part of mindfulness, self, and organizational continuous improvement. I intend to make advocacy for aligning actions of employers, governments, unions, other organizations, and individuals to align their actions and policies with progressive values a priority in whatever process and goals unfold during consultations.
There is much work to be done for various organizations, whether that be employers as businesses, non-profits organizations, unions, governments, and individuals both in developing better values and ensuring actions, policies, communications are better aligned with those values. For instance, employers may often communicate about having progressive values on equity, health and safety, equity and inclusion, and maybe even workplace democracy, but their policies or actions often do not match words spoken or in mission statements or policies. Or, corporations may develop Corporate Social Responsibility codes for environmental and social sustainability, including working conditions, but their action track record often does not live up to these standards. I would like to support individuals and organizations interested in aligning workplace actions and policies with values that support workers.
Qualifiers
To repeat, I do not have a law degree, I am not a lawyer, and I am not licensed to practice law. This means that I cannot provide legal advice or representation, and the information and services I provide should not be relied upon as legal advice. I encourage you to contact a lawyer for legal advice in deciding whether and how best to pursue your interests, and would assist you in finding a lawyer.
I currently provide these services on a part-time basis as I am employed full-time. I am primarily available in the evenings and on weekends for consultations. The goal is to develop these advocacy consulting services into a full-time endeavour.
As I am currently employed full-time at the City of Toronto, I will provide services advocacy services in a manner consistent with Toronto Public Service By-Law, particularly with respect to Conflict of Interest and Confidentiality. Essentially, this means I could not provide services to anyone in a manner which would conflict with the performing of my job duties and responsibilities as an employee and would need to declare any situation where this was a potential outcome.
Works in Progress
As part of continually enhancing skills in order to provide better advocacy to more people, I will be working on skills development, so I can offer more in these areas:
- Blog posts, publishing activist scholarly papers
- Instructing, developing educational courses or modules on the basics of workplace rights, delivered in person and in e-learning
If interesting in following along with these works in progress as they develop, visit www.timmaguire.ca