A champion of welfare reform Professor took up her final cause after the death of Kimberly Rodgers Globe and Mail - July 12. 2002 - Obituary section - Page R11 By ALLISON LAWLOR A life-long social activist and professor at Laurentian University, who helped launch an Ontario campaign to raise awareness about the death of a woman who was under house arrest for welfare fraud, is dead. Jennifer Keck died of cancer at age 48. Like many in the city of Sudbury, located about 400 kilometres north of Toronto, Ms. Keck was not only shocked but also outraged when she learned of Kimberly Rogers's death in August, 2001. Ms. Rogers was found dead in her Sudbury apartment, where she was being held under house arrest for welfare fraud, during a heat wave. Ms. Rogers was eight months pregnant and battling chronic depression when she died on Aug. 9. An inquest into her death is set for October. Ms. Keck decided that more needed to be done to ensure that a death like Ms. Rogers's never happened again. Using what her friends and colleagues refer to as her tireless energy and passion, she pulled together a coalition and before long the Committee to Remember Kimberly Rogers was born. "She was incensed that this woman could have died in this way," said Pat Tobin, her friend and colleague at Laurentian University. At the time the committee was launched, Ms. Keck spoke out against the policies of the Progressive Conservative government. "For many people, welfare fraud is actually a crime of survival," Ms. Keck said at that time. "People do not have enough money . . . This is nothing short of a war on the poor." In May, the committee launched a public-awareness campaign called Justice with Dignity that demanded welfare reform. Ms. Keck remained involved until her death. Ms. Keck always seemed to be organizing something, said her friend and colleague Laurie McGauley. Whether it was as a founding member of the Sudbury Women's Centre in the early 1980s, on the board of the National Action Committee on the Status of Women, as an executive member of the Circle of Strength: Sudbury Breast Cancer Support Group, or as a friend and mother, she always had a new idea or project on the go. When Ms. Keck was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1997, her reaction was to learn as much as she could about the disease, said her partner Don Kuyek. After spending about $200 on related books, she underwent chemotherapy, radiation and a mastectomy. Her cancer was in remission until January, 2001, when she learned it had spread to her lungs. While she had to take leave from Sudbury's Laurentian University, Ms. Keck kept her spirit for life and continued with her research and social activism. Described as having a wild sense of humour, she was known to rip off her prosthesis if she thought it would stir things up, Ms. McGauley said. "She was highly committed to social justice," said Anne-Marie Mawhiney, a colleague and dean of the Faculty of Professional Schools at Laurentian University. "She really felt that with determination, the world would be a better place. I really think that she left the world a better place because of her work." Born in Sudbury in 1954, Jennifer Keck left home after completing high school to study political science at Carleton University in Ottawa. She graduated from Carleton with a bachelor's degree in 1975 and six years later completed her master's degree in social work. She earned her PhD in social work from the University of Toronto in 1995. It was at Carleton where her political consciousness was born. "She was one of the leading feminists in town at the time," said Ms. McGauley, thinking back to when the two met in Sudbury 20 years ago. "She didn't change much over the years. You always knew when Jennifer Keck was in the room." After working at a legal-aid clinic in Toronto in the late 1970s, she went to live on two native reserves in Northwestern Ontario. Working as a researcher with the Anti-Mercury Ojibway Group, Ms. Keck studied the socio-economic impact of the local fishery's closing after mercury from a pulp mill had contaminated a regional river system. Witnessing the poverty and devastation caused by the mercury contamination on the reserves deeply affected Ms. Keck, shaping not only her social views but also her work as a researcher, Mr. Kuyek said. She took a participatory approach to her academic research, working closely with communities. More recently, she took this approach to her work looking at women's experiences with a breast-cancer support group and with a project examining the experience of women involved in production at Inco in Sudbury. In 1982, Ms. Keck joined Laurentian as a lecturer and in 1989 she became an associate professor. As testament to her reputation, the university established a lecture series on social justice in her name. "Often in social-justice circles people can become angry, cynical and depressed," Ms. McGauley said. "But Jennifer would never allow despair to take hold: There was always more to be done." She is survived by partner Don Kuyek, son David, 12, step-son Devlin, 28, father Lyle Keck, sister Leslie Keck and niece Jordan Keck. Jennifer Keck, activist and teacher; born Jan. 12, 1954, in Sudbury, Ont.; died June 12 in Sudbury.