Words from
Friends & Colleagues

Eduard Lavalle devoted his life to fostering an inclusive, democratic society in BC and beyond.
With his curious mind, strategic vision, and generous spirit, Ed was a tenacious advocate for equality and justice. He was born to educate and be educated. Everything Ed learned, he taught. Colleagues, students, and people on both sides of the bargaining table respected his leadership, original insights, and unwavering focus.

 

Drawing from his own studies in finance, law, and political science, Ed designed courses that shaped the lives and careers of many younger professionals. The Labour Studies program he developed at Capilano University, for example, was the longest-running program of its kind in Canada.

 

Forty-thousand students benefited.

 

Ed established the Network of European Studies, which provided students from 14 Canadian universities an opportunity to join the EU Study Tour and Internship Program for an intensive schedule of seminars and meetings with diplomats, public servants, politicians, industrialists, and the Canadian Mission of the EU.
Ed's unique in-class UN simulations demanded global levels of debate amongst his students, thereby encouraging critical thinking on political and humanitarian levels.

 

Ed Lavalle applied what he taught by tirelessly campaigning outside the classroom for fair wages, decent benefits, and social justice. He was instrumental in founding the provincial union of
post-secondary faculty, and he was involved in local or provincial bargaining every year until his retirement.
Ed Lavalle positively influenced students and colleagues, locally, nationally, and globally; we are fortunate to have shared space with him on this planet.

[NOTE: I’m not sure who wrote the Order of Canada nomination. There are five testimonial letters referred to in the same PDF, but they are not part of it. If you notie any testimonials missing, they may be associated as attachments with this one.]


 

 

Friends & colleagues remember Eduard Lavalle

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Hello Pierre,

I seem to contact you at sad times.

Our lunch with Ed could never be arranged. You and Leo spoke with spoke with Susan so knew how rapidly Ed deteriorated.

He was hospitalized 5 1/2 months ago and died Friday August 7, 2020, in the early morning.

 

He spent time the previous day with his wife Susan O'Donnell and daughter Michelle. Susan says he was aware and responsive to them both, holding their hands, smiling and essentially saying goodbye, with love. He slept and never really regained consciousness. Ed was 79.

I don't need to wax on how important Ed was to us all, to Cap. to the labour movement, to all the people he supported, defended and befriended through the years.

I feel bereft. We were friends for 47 years, from Ed's overall days to the "Aren't you too old to wear jeans" days. We must have talked over and through every event in our lives. And I'm glad he is free of the horrible disease that claimed him.

much love, Pierre

- Melanie Fahlman-Reid

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Dear colleagues,
 
This morning Melanie Fahlman-Reid sent me the sad news that Ed, one of our best friends and colleagues, one of BC's wisest and most courageous political activists for labour and human rights, who mentored me and so many others, a man who made such a huge contribution to the making and betterment of Capilano College/University, died on Friday August 7, aged 79.
 
Leo McGrady and I had been hoping for one more lunch with him, but his Progressive Aphasia took him faster than we anticipated. As Melanie said, we are bereft. And especially so now that the pandemic will not allow for the memorial Ed so much deserves.

I know you will join me in mourning a peerless colleague, our brother in arms, who meant so much to all of us.
Ave atque vale old comrade, old friend.

We love you and will miss you.
 
xo Pierre Coupey
 
Catullus 101


Many the peoples many the oceans I crossed --

I arrive at these poor, brother, burials 

so I could give you the last gift owed to death 

and talk (why?) with mute ash. 

Now that Fortune tore you from me, you 

oh poor (wrongly) brother (wrongly) taken from me, 

now still anyway this -- what a distant mood of parents 

handed down as the sad gift for burials -- 

accept! Soaked with tears of a brother 
and into forever, brother,
farewell and farewell.




-- Catullus (translated by Anne Carson)

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Friends,

Ed was one of the great people at Cap and around the Province. He shaped our local and the provincial union. He assisted the NDP at a critical time. And he was a good friend with whom I enjoyed many discussions and coffee sessions. I will miss his good humour, sharp mind, friendliness and powerful political instincts. The world is a better place for the acts he did. May we all be blessed with such friends.

Kind regards,
Frank Harris

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Legacy Builder
 
I first became aware of Ed Lavalle when I attended my first Capilano College Faculty Association meeting in 1983. He invited me to join a bargaining committee in 1985. Ed taught me how to be a steward and bargainer. Ed was my mentor. Ed was an exceptional person with great foresight. He understood power and how it was created, projected, and used to better the life of faculty provincially and at Capilano University (then a college). Ed recognized where people had skill that he thought would best advance the interest of faculty.
 
Ed made it possible for me to create a legacy of significantly improving the retirement lives of current and future faculty in British Columbia’s College and teaching University system.  I will forever be deeply indebted to Ed for his confidence in getting me involved in College Pension Plan issues.
 
I know from many of my colleagues, friends, and first hand experience, Ed was a tremendous teacher. Ed was a great mentor and activist.
 
Ed, thank you for making the world a better place to live and thank you for helping me to do the same.
 
John Wilson

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I am so sorry to hear this news.  Thanks Pierre for informing us.  Ed worked tirelessly for us in creating a healthy working environment and at the same time, he was a wonderful colleague.  He will be truly missed.  I will send Susan a note.

Noga Gayle

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It’s hard to write about Ed – because I just can’t imagine him not being with us. I was at Cap for thirty years, and active in our faculty union throughout the 70s and 80s. I was President of the Association when we certified early in the 70s, and Ed was our Secretary. I learned then about his intelligence, focus, and strong working class values. Since those early days, Ed has remained a constant, our main constant, across the decades. He was always leading the struggle - whether as President, Chief Steward, Lead Negotiator, or working on the provincial level. For all those years, I knew - we all knew - that he would work and organize and strategize on our behalf. We knew he would do so with determination, brains, knowledge, and hard work.
 
He was also a Red, so there was never a question about his social values - he knew exactly whose side he was on. We were workers - even though academic workers don’t always like to remember or recognize that fact. Like any worker, our interests were not the same as our employer’s interests, and our working conditions were often threatened by the demands of our employer. Ed worked for decades to protect us from the corrosive effects of these demands. He didn’t do this work alone, of course. We had stalwarts to work with him and follow in his footsteps, like Pierre, Pat Hodgson, John Wilson and so many others. But Ed was a consistent force when we needed him. Whenever things got tough – and they always did – we took comfort from his presence, his focus, and his determined leadership.
 
At times, his own mission took him away from Capilano to work on the provincial scene. But even as he fought for working people’s rights and lives on a wider stage, we knew he was our own Ed Lavalle – friend and comrade. He still is, and for our cohort, he always will be…
 
Jim Bizzocchi
Sept 13, 2020

 

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Ed was a tireless warrior for Capilano faculty members. We have all benefited from his hard work and leadership. He will be remembered…

 

- Jim Bizzocchi

 

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This sad news Pierre. Ed was a warrior. He was sorely missed when he was away from Cap in 2013, the year the big cuts came down.

I well remember listening to Leo McGrady, Pierre Coupey and Ed discuss political developments that foretold the administrative grief that would be visited on Cap, the conversation must have been at least 15 or 18 years ago: Ed referred to dangerous changes in admin and the tilt towards 'Business'.

It's salt in the wound having no memorial for Ed.

Take care and all the best,

Marcus Bowcott
 

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I share with you my deepest regrets over Ed’s death and the grossly unfair illness that struck such a brilliant mind.

Mark Battersby
 

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While trying to find the CFF’s first employee, Eric Green, the Director of Research & Field Organizer, I found Ed’s CV in a PC package in the office here. He’d been Gary Lauk's MA for a couple years in Barrett’s government, then went to help set up a university employers' organization (I found an article about that in the Ubyssey) and was hired in ‘75. Lauk is mentioned quite a few times in Mickleburgh's book on the Barrett government, so I found his phone number & cold-called him. He remembered Green and said he’d done some work for the CBC in Vancouver. I found Green, but he hasn’t responded to a couple emails. Anyway, Lauk asked me if I knew Ed. I said of course! Lauk went to high school & UBC with Ed, and had been his campaign manager when Ed ran for the NDP in Point Grey in ‘66 - a three-member riding that the SoCreds swept! When Lauk ran in ‘72, Mike Harcourt was his campaign manager!

George Davison
 

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I came across a few pieces in The Golden Star in 1966-67 when Ed taught at the high school: a poem read on Remembrance Day, 1966 (“Losses" By Randall Jarell); and several plays he directed with the Golden Players. The last one (on May 31, 1967) says he was heading off to Africa.

 

A couple years ago, Pat Hodgson sent me a piece about  his detention by the US authorities in New York when he was on his way back to Duke to do his PhD. orals. The Duke Chronicle said he was a political prisoner, and published a "Free Ed Lavalle" article on Sept 24, 1970! Looking a bit more at the Chronicle records, I found several articles about him and the Student Liberation Front and Praxis. What a radical he was!

George Davison
 

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I met Ed Lavalle in 1976, as I was recruited into the work of the Capilano College Faculty Association. It quickly became evident that Ed was the union’s most knowledgeable, consistent, and seemingly inexhaustible champion, and I benefited from nine years of his tutelage, patience and encouragement as he shepherded me through a variety of steward, negotiation, and executive roles.
 
While many of Ed’s influences have become so woven into the fabric of how I view the workplace, employer/employee relations and leadership that I can no longer give him proper credit, I will always connect three specifics with him.
 
“Never back a rat into a corner.” With the bluntness typical of his language among allies, Ed voiced this insight as we caucused during a break in collective agreement negotiations. Members of the team were incensed by the posture of the management team, and were ready to unleash categorical invective. Ed managed to calm our colleagues, showed the “rat” an escape, and we ended up pretty much where we had been aiming. Ed’s maxim has served me well for over forty years of challenging interactions in higher education.
 
“We’re academics, not the Teamsters.” In a tit-for-tat response to a union charge of unfair labour practice, the College had levelled its own charge against me, then president of the union, for intimidation. (In a letter promoting solidarity against a proposed organizational change, I had encouraged faculty not to trigger the “wrath” of their colleagues by breaking ranks.) As I prepped for my appearance, Ed suggested I share his insight at the Labour Board hearing. While I cannot attest that it was instrumental in the decision, the remark drew a laugh, the charges were resolved, and I have ever since drawn relief from humour when in difficult straits.
 
While Ed did not see revolutionary potential in the struggle of gays and lesbians as did some of my leftist gay liberation colleagues of the day, he was very supportive of efforts, and provided critical strategic advice, in negotiation of the first sexual orientation non-discrimination clause in a BC college collective agreement. Ed recognized the labour movement as a vanguard for social change and many of the advances he championed in less favorable times have become our new norms.
 
Very sorry to see Ed go, but his legacy will continue to influence, both personally and socially.
 
Robert D. Cook
Chief Information Officer (retired)
University of Toronto

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Yesterday we received Ed’s ashes and death certificate from the funeral home and, as you can imagine, my Mom is having a very hard time processing all of this. The last four months have been a very difficult time and his rapid deterioration totally caught us off guard. Due to Covid we were not able to visit him until the very end, so we were unaware of how fast he was declining.

 

My Mom mentioned that in lieu of flowers Ed would have wanted the money donated to a couple of nonprofits, but the scholarship idea is great. … We did discuss with the funeral home if there were any options of some type of gathering/Celebration of Life etc. that we could host however due to Covid there is was really nothing we can could do.

 

Michelle Hoeppner
 

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What can I say, had been putting this off as I knew it would bring back the grief.

 Faute de meux –– and there are so many other things I’d wanted to say about Ed, his wicked sense of humour, his self-deprecation, his refusal to take trivial things seriously –– his humanity his warmth his authenticity, how to pack it all in?

 

xo 
Pierre

 

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I just heard about Ed.
I wanted to give you my condolences.
I know how close you were to each other.
It is a sad time, world has lost a great person.
I am glad he can finally rest that amazing mind of his.

Joanne Quirk
 

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What many women knew about Ed Lavalle [was that] he was a sweet and kind man. He respected women and he was particularly admiring of strong women. And, he married such a woman.

Joyce Gee
 

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I wonder if anyone has given thought to establishing an International Relations and/or Labour Studies scholarship in Ed's name at Cap. I would be happy to donate if it came about. … I am also wondering whether the CFA and the School would be proactive in seeking posthumous Faculty Emeritus status for Ed. I for one feel he should receive the designation and should have received it before.

 

- Pierre Coupey

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Memories of Ed - Leo McGrady, September 10, 2023

 

I first met Ed in my one-room law office in the old Dominion Building on Hastings at Cambie in the mid -70s. He was teaching political science at Capilano and was also very politically active. Ed and some of his colleagues had been served with an injunction to prevent them from picketing hospital facilities in support of the HEU during an essential service strike.  

 

Ed mentioned during that meeting that he also taught labour history. I had never studied labour history and knew very little about it. So, I enrolled in Ed’s course - one night a week for a semester. I enjoyed it tremendously, learned a great deal, and got to know Ed much better.

 

I learned later that Ed and a lawyer working for the BC Federation of Labour, Carolyn Askew, were starting a labour studies program at Capilano during the evenings and weekends. The purpose was to invite union lawyers and activists from unions to teach labour law courses and other basic union skills to trade union members. Carolyn taught the first labour law course, very successfully, but then decided to turn it over to someone else while she moved on to other work. I was interviewed and was selected and taught in the program until it terminated about 25 years later.

 

During that time Ed and I became very close friends. We worked together teaching skills that were of value to trade union members; organizing unions amongst the college and university faculty throughout British Columbia; and fighting unfair labour practices that seemed inevitably to flow from organizing during those times.

 

We would often have lunch or dinner together at Ed’s or my home, to discuss work issues or just spend time together. I remember visiting him at his home on Bowser Ave in North Vancouver. He later learned of the racist history of the BC Conservative AG and then Premier William Bowser, after whom the street was named, and he decided that was the last place he wanted to live. He then moved to Kitsilano. I remember dinners there with Ed, his mother, and Susan. Ed’s mother was the kindest person, who had been through the horrors of war time in Holland, and who had experienced the death of her husband, Ed’s father. He had been shot by the Nazis just before the end of the war, along with other Dutch partisans.

 

One of my favourite memories of Ed was a dinner we had, shortly after he had begun dating Susan O’Donnell. I had never seen him so happy. He told me he had never met anyone quite like her, and that they were in love, and would soon marry. He asked if I would be his best man, and I was only too happy to agree.
After Kitsilano, Ed moved to his happiest home, with Susan – in the west end.

 

Ed and I would also have a monthly lunch, often with Pierre Coupey, at Ed’s favourite restaurant on Robson, Zefferelli’s. On occasion Susan walked up from their home on Beach Avenue with their dog Zoe to walk Ed home. On one such occasion, soon after they arrived at Zefferelli’s, Zoe eased herself between Ed’s feet and went to sleep. Susan’s comment was that Zoe was anticipating the usual long boring conversation between Ed and I and had decided to sleep her way through it.

 

On special occasions, Ed and I would eat at Joe Forte’s on Thurlow. The photograph of Ed on the first page of this website was taken on Ed’s 78th birthday at that restaurant.

 

For many years Ed and Susan would also spend 10 days or so before Christmas in Honolulu. Patty was working as Dean of Health Sciences at the University of Hawaii, and so we would be there during that period as well. Ed’s favourite restaurant was Taormina’s Sicilian Cuisine on Lewers St.

 

One my favourite stories from Ed came from the period when he was continuing to teach at Capilano University, but his illness was slowly taking hold. He would periodically forget key words in his sentences during his lectures. Over lunch one day he told me that this was happening and that often his students would fill in the missing words, and he would continue with the lecture. It reflected the love and affection his students felt for him. He was very proud of this.

 

Ed was a unique and amazing man, and the dearest of friends, who I continue to miss. We had promised each other that we would each live until our mid-90s and continue doing this work. The testimonials from his friends, colleagues, and students on this web site show that, in a sense, he has kept that promise, and is still doing this work.