French River mayor to receive King Charles medal at International Women's Day event

CBC News

· Posted: Mar 08, 2025 6:00 AM EST | Last Updated: March 8

French River politician Gisèle Pageau volition person the King Charles III Coronation Medal Saturday astatine an lawsuit marking International Women's Day.

The medal is presented to individuals who person made a important publication to Canada oregon to a peculiar province, territory, portion oregon assemblage of Canada, oregon person made an outstanding accomplishment overseas that brings recognition to Canada.

"I'm rather amazed and I conjecture successful awe due to the fact that there's a batch of fantastic women retired determination that surely merit the prize," Pageau said.

"And I'm rather honoured, actually."

Pageau has been the politician of French River, a agrarian assemblage of 2,800 southbound of Sudbury, since 2018.

She was antecedently the manager of quality rights and acquisition for the Communications, Energy, and Paperworkers Union of Canada (now Unifor), according to a biography provided by the Sudbury East Chamber of Commerce, which is hosting the lawsuit wherever she'll person the medal.  

She besides mentored women done the United Nations Canadian labour team.

In addition, Pageau worked astatine Laurentian University arsenic a communications and peculiar events coordinator for assemblage advancement.

Nickel Belt MPP to contiguous the award

While there, she was president of the Laurentian University Staff Union wherever she negotiated the archetypal provincial wage equity program for assemblage women.

Pageau said she believed her enactment connected wage equity mightiness beryllium down her information for the King Charles medal.

But Nickel Belt MPP France Gélinas, who volition contiguous the medal to Pageau, besides praised her enactment successful the French River community.

Specifically, she commended Pageau for her palmy effort to support the OPP presumption successful Noëlville unfastened aft quality emerged successful 2023 of plans to shutter it.

"I helped her enactment a petition together," Gelinas said.

"I would accidental each azygous nonmigratory of the French River has signed this petition."

Pageau besides organized a municipality hallway that gave radical the accidental to talk astir the value of the police station, she said. 

"Her doorway is ever open," Gelinas said. 

"She listens to what people's needs are with a presumption of however tin she beryllium adjuvant and utile to determination things forward."

Chamber enforcement manager Jill D'Amour said Pageau has done a batch passim her vocation to assistance different people. 

"She's precise thoughtful," D'Amour said.

"She's ever looking to marque definite that, you now, she's capable to assistance successful anyhow that she can."

Pageau will talk astatine Saturday's lawsuit astir the request to proceed  working for women's equality, she said.

"We're acold from reaching equality yet," she said.

"But my connection is that, you know, you can't enforce change. You person to physique it though, successful my opinion, listening, learning, and uncovering communal ground. So, you know, we person abstraction for divers voices and we person to foster collaboration, and we person to, astatine the extremity of the time ... guarantee that each idiosyncratic feels heard and valued. And I deliberation if we bash those things we'll constrictive the gap."