Pat Capponi: Canadian Activist and Author

Pat Capponi was a lesbian Canadian writer of half a dozen fiction, and nonfiction titles. For decades, Pat had dedicated her time and energy improving the mental health services in Ontario. Until her death in 2020, Pat had worked with a great deal of committees and organizations to create as much positive change as she could during her lifetime. As well as her mental health advocacy, Pat Capponi had been quite vocal about the country’s poverty and addiction issues, and she sought to provide assistance, and support to those who needed them.

Patricia Ann Capponi was born on July 1st, 1949, in Montreal, Quebec. She’d had four siblings. Pat hadn’t had a strong home life, as she’d had to deal with her father’s extreme abuse in the family home. Her father would take great pleasure in physically assaulting Pat, her siblings, and their mother. Pat’s father had pulled one of his daughters out of the ninth grade, insisting that she was ‘too stupid’ to continue her education. He was an extremely cruel man, and the rest of the family suffered due to his abuse.

One night, Pat’s father had held his wife’s head down in the toilet, and nearly succeeded in drowning her. The incident had been horrifying, and traumatic enough that it led to Pat’s mother temporarily leaving the household with her children to try and protect them from also getting injured. They had…