Canadian Health Coalition mourns loss of Frances Arbour

Frances Arbour, a former Canadian Health Coalition staff person, has died in Ottawa. She was 82 years old. Arbour is being described as a “formidable and spirited advocate.”

Michael McBane, former National Coordinator of the Canadian Health Coalition, worked with Arbour for several years. He shares, “It was an honour working with Frances, whom I knew from her outstanding international work on human rights in Latin America in the 1970s and 80s. She brought to the Health Coalition the same commitment to social justice and defence of human dignity.”

“Frances played an unsung role in supporting Shirley Douglas as a spokesperson for the Coalition. Her tact and diplomacy were essential in keeping coalition members united. Frances was fun to work with and had a great sense of humour. She will be missed,” added McBane.

Arbour accompanied Canadian Health Coalition spokesperson Shirley Douglas when she received the Order of Canada in 2003. Left-to-right: Brad Duplisea, Shirley Douglas, Frances Arbour, Kathleen Connors, Kiefer Sutherland and Michael McBane.

Pauline Worsfold, RN, former Chair of the Canadian Health Coalition, remembers Arbour as “an activist who set the foundation for the Canadian Health Coalition. She had a quiet but firm demeanour when talking politics, strategy and next steps for the CHC. She loved her work and we loved her right back.”

For Mary Boyd, Chair of the PEI Health Coalition, “Frances Arbour had a positive impact on everything she touched through her quiet competence and her sense of justice. She brought those gifts and a remarkable list of achievements to the Canadian Health Coalition.”

“Frances truly believed in speaking the truth to those in power and she didn’t hesitate to act on that. She was strengthened in her person by the theology of liberation, the social justice teachings of the Second Vatican Council, and the consientization methods of the great Brazilian educator, Paulo Freire. When she resigned due to illness, we all felt the loss as we do now with her final departure,” added Boyd.

Arbour worked with Development and Peace and volunteered with the Latin American Working Group (LAWG). She supported refugees at Toronto’s Welcome House, the Inter-Church Committee on Chile and the Inter-Church Committee on Human Rights in Latin America (ICCHRLA). She spent decades engaged in solidarity with the peoples of Latin America, organizing fact-finding delegations to Central America and speaking tours of visitors to Canada.

In 1988, Arbour became a counsellor for Guatemala with the Project Counselling Service for Refugees. Her family lived in Costa Rica for security reasons, while she travelled for work in Guatemala and Mexico. Collaborating with OXFAM and the Archdiocesan Human Rights Committee, she focused on solidarity with peasant and displaced Mayan women. As her obituary notes, “Frances noted the women’s progress from practical needs to empowerment, ‘speaking in their own voices, strengthening their own women’s organizations and becoming agents of their own development.”

After returning to Canada, Arbour worked for several years with the Canadian Health Coalition when it was based at the Canadian Labour Congress. Later, she was engaged in a church-supported follow-up to the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples, including on the issue of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls.

Arbour was part of a pandemic program connecting student-athletes at Carleton University and older adults at her long-term care home. Her 2020 CBC interview helped raised the profile of such intergenerational programs that address isolation of long-term care residents. 

Arbour is predeceased by her husband Robert (Bob) Carty and is survived by her son Michael Carty (Daniel).

Arbour’s funeral will be on May 9 at 1:00 pm at Church of the Ascension, 253 Echo Drive in Ottawa. Donations in Arbour’s memory can be made to Our Lady’s Missionaries, Inter Pares, Amnesty International Canada or Oxfam Canada.

The Canadian Health Coalition sends our deepest condolences to Arbour’s family and friends.