Lively District Secondary School students got a sample of Steelworkers International president Leo Gerard's characteristically colourful speaking style Thursday when he was inducted into the school's new hall of fame.
The school is posting the photos of notable alumni on one of its walls, and Gerard's was the first to go up.
Speaking before an assembly of the school's student body, Gerard said he was touched by the honour, adding it means a lot more to him than many of the other awards he's received in his life.
“I've gotten a lot of — can I say bullshit? I guess I already said it — BS awards,” Gerard said.
“In fact, in the old days, if I'd have said that, I'd have got strapped, but now I'm OK. They're awards that people give you that they want you to feel good.
“This award means so much to me in knowing this is where I started. This is where I learned the values that have carried me through.”
Gerard, who grew up on Ninth Avenue in Lively, said he attended the community's high school in the '60s.
“A lot of the values I had in my life, I learned right here at the school or in the community of Lively,” he said.
“Those were issues around pollution from the smelter, or hearing alarms going off at the mines. You could hear in those days the ones at the three shaft or nine shaft if there was some difficulty.
“You'd be in school and hear the whistle, and say 'Oh s**t, was it my dad at work?'”
Last fall, when Rainbow District School Board trustees were considering closing the Lively high, Gerard attended one of the public meetings, and spoke up in defence of the school.
He said he thinks the board did the right thing by keeping the school open, not least because Lively still teaches shop.
“One of the shortcomings in education in Canada and the U.S. is the reduction in the amount of influence schools have had with people working with their hands,” Gerard said.
“Not everyone has to be a lawyer. You can make a pretty good living working with your hands. The fact that Lively high still has that capacity is very, very important.”
During his presentation, Gerard showed the students photos of himself meeting with the two most recent presidents of the United States — Barack Obama and Donald Trump.
In one of the photos — the one of Gerard with Obama — “you'll see a huge smile on my face,” he said.
“The president and vice-president Biden always had time not just to talk to me, but talk to the people I was privileged to represent about their dreams and desires,” Gerard said.
In the photo of Gerard with Trump “you probably won't see a smile on my face,” he said.
“I was extremely uncomfortable,” he said. “This is a person who won an election. and in many ways misled the American public, and he still believes that signing what's called an executive order is in fact governing.”
In inducting Gerard into the school's hall of fame, Lively principal Leslie Mantle said she wanted her students to see that someone from the community who was once just like them could go on to achieve great things in their career.
“I think that would be really powerful for the students to see,” she said.
“Here we are in a small Northern Ontario town, and we can accomplish great things. It doesn't matter where you are from. You can accomplish great things if you put your mind to it.”
