Public memorial services for labour leader and social-justice advocate John Shields will take place in Victoria and Vancouver next week.
The B.C. Government and Service Employees’ Union is hosting the celebration-of-life events, along with Shields’s family and friends. Shields was a four-term leader of the organization and champion of workers’ rights in B.C.
He was also a former priest and social worker, and is credited with helping save dozens of environmentally sensitive properties on the Island and throughout B.C. with the financial restructuring of the Land Conservancy of B.C.
Shields died on March 24 at Royal Jubilee Hospital through the medically assisted dying program. He was 78.
The celebration of life in Victoria starts at 2 p.m. on Sunday at the Hotel Grand Pacific ballroom at 463 Belleville St.
The Vancouver-area event takes place in Burnaby at 5:30 p.m. at the Burnaby Riverway Golf Course club house at 9001 Bill Fox Way.
