Tribute to Doreen Craton

Who was Doreen Craton? Most likely you have never heard of her, but a million baby boomers who are not ready to retire at age 65 should take a moment to note her passing.

Back on Jan 18, 1983 Doreen was a school teacher in Manitoba who received a birthday card for her 65th birthday along with a forced retirement notice. Mrs Craton was not ready to retire, she has more that she wanted to do and more importantly had the energy to do it.

The argument back in 1983 was she had to move out of the way to let in new, young blood with new ideas or else the school system would go stale. A finincial arguement was that these young people had familie to support and deserve the opportunity to have the jobs - it was there turn. In contradiction to this thinking, the Human Rights Act of Manitoba passed a few years earlier protected Manitobans against discrimination based on age. The battle was on.

The Court of Queen's Bench agreed with Doreen and the Winnipeg School board appealed, but eventually backed down avoiding Mrs Craton becoming a household name as a trailblazer for the rights of senior workers everywhere.

Doreen kept on teaching for another five years until at the age of 70 she was injured when she was knocked down by a track athelete training in the school hall. Mrs Craton fractured her pelvis and never returned to the classroom.

Doreen Maud Craton passed away June 19th. She was 91.