Presenters

  • Lana Payne is the first woman elected National President of Unifor. A former journalist and prominent labour leader, she has spent more than three decades standing up for working people, fighting for good jobs and pushing back against corporate and political forces that put workers and their communities at risk.

    Payne has been a leading voice in Canada’s fight to protect jobs and investment from the U.S. trade war and tariffs. As a member of the federal Advisory Committee on Canada-U.S. Economic Relations and the Canadian Forest Sector Transformation Task Force, she has pressed governments to defend Canadian workers and industries rather than accept job losses as the price of doing business. She has consistently challenged tariffs that threaten to bleed jobs, investment and production out of Canada, and has called for a stronger industrial strategy that puts Canadian workers first.

    Elected National President in 2022 and re-elected in 2025, Payne previously served as Unifor’s Atlantic Regional Director and National Secretary-Treasurer, as well as President of the Newfoundland and Labrador Federation of Labour.

    As National President, Payne has led Unifor through major bargaining campaigns and some of the most significant workplace fights in recent Canadian history. She has championed higher wages, stronger pensions, job security and better working conditions, while challenging corporations and governments over affordability and the growing pressure on working people.

    Payne led Unifor’s campaign for federal anti-scab legislation, helping secure its passage into law in 2024. She continues to push for anti-scab protections across every province and territory and for policies that put workers at the centre of Canada’s economic future.

    Her leadership and advocacy have earned national recognition. Payne was named to The Hill Times’ Top 100 Most Influential People in Government and Politics in 2026, the 2025 Automotive News 100 Leading Women and is a multiple Automotive News All-Star. She was also named to Maclean’s 2024 Power List, received Chatelaine’s 2023 Doris Anderson Award and has twice been recognized among Toronto Life’s 50 Most Influential Torontonians.

    Throughout her career, Payne has remained grounded in a simple principle: working people deserve a fair share of the wealth they create, a strong voice on the job and a real say in Canada’s future. She continues to challenge CEOs, governments and anyone else standing in the way of good jobs and a stronger future for workers and their families.

    To request an interview with Lana Payne, contact Kathleen O'Keefe. Media outlets can download Payne's high-res photo here.

  • Daniel_Clouthier_Final-1.jpg

    Daniel Cloutier was elected as Unifor Québec Director in April 2022. Cloutier first got involved with the union in 1989, during a labour dispute at Purolator that lasted four months. Upon returning to work, he was elected as a steward for Local 146 of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada (CEP), one of the founding unions of Unifor.

    He served in various capacities, including as local president before being hired as a CEP service representative in 1997. Covering a broad range of sectors provided him the opportunity to work in several regions of Québec as well as in the rest of Canada.

    Cloutier has led numerous negotiations, including several at the national level, resolved strikes and arbitrations, and worked in the Health and Safety department. He also served as president of the Canadian National Representatives Union.

    Following the creation of Unifor in 2013, Daniel joined the Health and Safety Department, where he worked to make the Service de défense des accidentées et des accidentés du travail (SDAT) an effective tool for defending local unions and their members.

    To request an interview with Daniel Cloutier, contact Véronique Figliuzzi. Media outlets can download Cloutier's high-res photo here.

  • Michelle is a veteran, a survivor of Canada’s “LGBT Purge”, retired federal public servant and an activist in the movement to seek equality for the 2SLGBTQI+ community.

    Michelle served as an officer in the Canadian Armed Forces from 1986 – 1989. Despite a distinguished service record, she was honorably discharged after being deemed “Not Advantageously Employable Due to Homosexuality”. Her landmark legal challenge in 1992 ended Canada’s formalized discriminatory policy against LGBT members of the military.

    This experienced launched a decades-long commitment to justice-seeking, volunteerism and activism for Michelle.

    Michelle also had a 30-year career in public service. She retired from the Canadian Department of Justice in 2019 where she held the position of Director of International Relations.

    Since 2019, Michelle continues to serve as the Executive Director of the LGBT Purge Fund.

    In December 2023, Michelle was appointed by the Minister of National Defence as an Honorary Colonel in the Canadian Armed Forces with the Chief, Professional Conduct and Culture organization.

    Michelle is a member of the board of directors of the Michaëlle Jean Foundation. Michelle was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal in 2012 and the King Charles III Commemoration Medal in 2024. The McGill University Law School holds a lecture series in her name. Michelle is the 33rd Vimy Award Laureate (2025).

    Michelle is a graduate of Carleton University and holds a Doctorate in Humane Letters (honoris causa) from Mount Saint Vincent University (2024). She resides in Burlington, Ontario.

     

  • Len_Poirier_Portrait-1.jpg

    Elected National Secretary-Treasurer at Unifor’s Constitutional Convention in 2022, Len Poirier formerly served as Assistant to the National President, Director of Road Transportation and long-time national service representative.

    Poirier first became a professional truck driver at Laidlaw Transport (Laidlaw Waste Systems) in 1986. Elected unit chairperson in 1988.

    Poirier has served as Unifor’s Road/Urban Transport delegate to the International Transport Workers Federation (ITF) and has sat on the road section steering committee for many years. He is currently the Chairperson for Canada.

    From 1986 to 1994, he was a member of CBRT & GW, co-founding the Road Transport Council is recognized as one of Unifor’s industry councils.

    Poirier had been one of the longest serving Board of Directors under the Transport Health and Safety Association of Ontario (THSAO), and with the Infrastructure Health and Safety Association of Ontario (IHSA).

    In these roles, he has worked tirelessly to support the needs of the road transportation members of our union and the broader public as well.

    Since 2008, Len has been involved or co-led national bargaining for Loomis Express and DHL with local unions from every province.

    To request an interview with Len Poirier, contact Kathleen O'Keefe. Media outlets can download Poirier's high-res photo here.

  • Samia_headshot.jpg

    Samia Hashi is Unifor’s Ontario Regional Director, elected at the 2023 Canada Council.

    Since her election, she’s taken a boots-on-the-ground approach to supporting members on picket lines, at rallies and demonstrations, and in their communities.

    Hashi began her tenure with a major health care campaign to raise awareness and take action on Ontario’s crumbling health care system, calling on all levels of government to provide adequate funding for necessary staffing levels and high-quality care. In a series of health care town halls, Samia heard firsthand from communities across the province on the critical issues impacting them and their families.

    Her work now focuses on further supporting committees of our union and mobilizing members around the upcoming election season.

    She brings a deep understanding of union organizing to her work—having rose through the ranks at Unifor as a member, an organizer of her workplace, Bell TV, and thousands of other new members, and as a staff member in Unifor’s organizing and human rights departments.

    As a member of Local 6006, Samia served as steward and represented workers across the province as a member of the Unifor Ontario Regional Council’s Young Workers’ Committee.

    Hashi’s family immigrated to Canada in 1991, arriving as Eritrean refugees. Upon arrival, her family found community support and solidarity in addition to the rights and freedoms that her parents had sought for Hashi and her siblings.

  • Gavin McGarrigle was first elected as Unifor’s Western Regional Director in 2019, and was re-elected to this role as part of Unifor’s leadership team in 2022.  

    While working full-time as a student attending university in Victoria, Gavin helped organize his own workplace into the union more than 25 years ago and he hasn’t stopped since, working as a union organizer, local president, national representative and area director.  

    Over the past few decades, Gavin successfully led union members in many industries through collective bargaining, labour board and arbitration hearings, and organizing campaigns. 

    In 2014, Gavin’s leadership helping container trucker drivers through a Vancouver port work stoppage resulted in the historic withdrawal of back to work legislation and a negotiated resolution involving two levels of government. 

    Gavin’s continued activity to help clean up the BC drayage industry led to the creation of a safe rates system and new container trucking oversight offices which have heavily fined rogue trucking companies and returned millions in lost wages to truckers.  

    Gavin helped launch a global Safe Rates campaign in South Korea in 2023 with the International Transport Federation (ITF), a global federation of more than 690 trade unions across 152 countries. 

    Gavin McGarrigle has also helped lead many effective Unifor political action campaigns, helping to achieve successive progressive worker-friendly governments in several provinces while opposing anti-worker parties and policies in others. 

    These campaigns and McGarrigle’s strong belief in organizing helped with the push to return single-step card check certification in British Columbia and in Manitoba and he has been active in the campaign to help Amazon workers organize leading to Unifor’s first certification applications filed at Amazon in British Columbia in 2024. 

    Gavin has been on the front lines of many picket lines and he took a strong stand to help during the historic lockout at the Co-Op Refinery in Saskatchewan in 2019–2020. McGarrigle has helped lead Unifor’s efforts to secure anti-scab legislation federally and worked to ensure that Manitoba also recently introduced provincial anti-scab legislation. 

    Gavin has contributed to various government panels on behalf of the union including the Translink Mobility Pricing Commission, the BC Tourism Taskforce, the Climate Solutions and Clean Growth Advisory Council and the BC Forestry Worker Supports and Community Resiliency Council.   

    He has advocated for workers before elected premiers, cabinet members, and officials at all levels and has appeared with government at various announcements provincially and federally on economic justice, sustainability, climate change and workers’ rights. 

    Gavin has also served as a pension trustee, as a director with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives BC Office (CCPA-BC), as labour co-chair of the Better Transit and Transportation Coalition, and as a board member of the official campaign promoting a Yes vote for BC proportional representation. 

    Gavin graduated with distinction from the University of Victoria and holds an undergraduate degree in sociology and professional writing. 

    Born in Derry, Northern Ireland, McGarrigle lives in British Columbia and resides in Metro Vancouver with his wife and two children. 

    To request an interview with Gavin McGarrigle, contact Ian Boyko. Media outlets can download McGarrigle's high-res photo here.

  • Jennifer_Murray_Final-1.jpg

    Elected Atlantic Regional Director at the 2022 Unifor Constitutional Convention in Toronto, Jennifer Murray has led initiatives in the region to support mental health, to house the unhoused, and to improve the lives of Atlantic Canadian workers.

    Jennifer’s boots-on-the-ground approach is rooted in her firm belief that big things happen when people work together. Jennifer brings experience to the union from her early years as a teacher to more recent work at VIA Rail and as the elected Regional Representative for Local 4005, where she represented more than 1,000 workers in rail, road and marine transportation, hospitality and administration.

    In early 2024, Jennifer was on the picket line daily with CN Autoport members. She rallied support from Unifor members across the country and met with government officials in Nova Scotia, culminating with the tabling of much-needed provincial anti-scab legislation.

    Under her leadership, recent Atlantic Regional Councils have offered members access to occupational health and safety experts, hands-on training on the use of life-saving anti-overdose medication, and opportunities to take the union’s popular Mental Health Matters course that teaches members how to recognize, represent and support those who are struggling. 

    As Unifor led a national conversation around the need for fair pay for grocery workers, Jennifer was at the bargaining table with members from Dominion stores in Newfoundland and Labrador who secured the largest wage increase they’ve seen in a generation.

    In her role as the Co-Chair of the Women’s Transport Committee at the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF), Jennifer’s expertise on the issues facing women at work and her knowledge of Unifor’s groundbreaking equity initiatives has bolstered the union’s reputation as a global leader in defending workers’ rights. She uses that same strength at home when confronting New Brunswick Premier Blaine Higgs for his government’s shameful attacks on trans and gender-diverse students and their families, and for stripping public sector workers of their rights. 

    Jennifer is passionate about building the union through action and education. Seeing workers realize and mobilize their power is a motivating force in her life and something she is proud to witness every day as Atlantic Regional Director.   

    To request an interview with Jennifer Murray, contact Shelley Amyotte. Media outlets can download Murray's high-res photo here.