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Saturday July 25, 2020

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday July 25, 2020

Announcement coming next week for plan to reopen Ontario schools

January 31, 2020

Education Minister Stephen Lecce says that the government is “finalizing the health protocols” for the resumption of school in September and that an announcement could be coming as soon as next week on what it will look like.

Back in June the Ford government asked school boards to prepare three separate plans for the resumption of classes – online learning only, a hybrid model with children attending classes in-person on alternating days or weeks and the fulltime resumption of in-person instruction.

The boards still have until Aug. 4 to submit those plans but Lecce revealed on Thursday that an announcement could be coming before then on the various regulations and rules that schools will have to follow.

April 30, 2020

A spokesperson for the education minister later clarified to CP24 that the announcement will pertain to “consistent standards” that will be put in place at schools across Ontario on things like seating arrangements and the wearing of masks.

The decision as to which model a particular board follows will still be left with local public health officials, the spokesperson said.

“We are finalizing the health protocols and working very closely with the Chief Medical Officer of Health and some of the best pediatric minds in the nation that are informing the plan,” Lecce said during a press conference in Brampton. “We believe we will be able to unveil it next week. That will include additional supports and resources to enable our boards to succeed.”

May 26, 2020

Lecce initially said that individual school boards would be able to choose which plan they want to follow based on the risk posed by COVID-19 to their communities.

Premier Doug Ford has since said that he wants students to return to school fulltime in September provided it is safe to do so.

Yesterday, Ford said the public should be open to unorthodox ideas to keep kids safe, such as holding class outdoors.

Life in a Pandemic

“The premier and the government continue to be focused on a safe, conventional, day-to-day return to school,” Lecce said Thursday. “Maybe a new conventional where kids still can go to school five days a week.” (CTV) 

 

Friday January 25, 2019

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday January 25, 2019

Ontario education minister says no decisions made yet on removing class size caps

Ontario teacher and education worker groups raised concerns Thursday that the government’s consideration of removing kindergarten and primary class size caps sets the stage for vast cuts.

The Progressive Conservative government met with education partners Wednesday to launch consultations on class sizes and teacher hiring practices.

A government consultation document poses questions such as whether hard caps on class sizes should continue, and if they were removed, what would be an appropriate way to set effective class sizes.

Ontario teacher and education worker groups raised concerns Thursday that the government’s consideration of removing kindergarten and primary class size caps sets the stage for vast cuts.

The Progressive Conservative government met with education partners Wednesday to launch consultations on class sizes and teacher hiring practices.

A government consultation document poses questions such as whether hard caps on class sizes should continue, and if they were removed, what would be an appropriate way to set effective class sizes. (Source: Global News)

 

Tuesday November 7, 2017

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday November 7, 2017

Paradise Papers Are Another Hit to Justin Trudeau’s ‘Middle Class’ Agenda

There is a storm blowing in from Paradise. Documents leaked to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists reaffirmed what most of us already at least suspected: that the wealthiest among us have an elaborate shadow network of financial infrastructure in offshore tax havens to skimp taxes in their home countries. In short, rich people are playing by different rules.

September 22, 2017

The Paradise Papers are noteworthy for two reasons. The first is the magnitude. The leaked documents come from offshore tax firm Appleby, corporate service providers Estera and Asiaciti Trust, and business registries of 19 tax jurisdictions. They concern about $10 trillion (USD) overall, which is quite a lot of money considering that total gross world production for 2014 was about $78 trillion. We are talking about the global high rollers table here.

The second is that they meet CanCon requirements. Over 3,000 Canadians were named in the leaks, and some of them have connections to the commanding heights of the House of Commons. Even our beloved head of state Elizabeth II was named in the papers. Her Majesty’s estate has millions of pounds tied up in a rent-to-buy retailer accused of preying on the poor, which is a shock because the hyperexploitation of unlanded labourers is not something you associate with a feudal monarch.

April 6, 2016

The real meat of the report is how many of our former prime ministers are enmeshed in the financial heart of darkness. Leaked memos reveal Paul Martin’s former company Canada Steamship Lines is one of Appleby’s biggest clients, and Jean Chretien is listed as the owner of 100,000 stock options in an East African oil company ever having a bank account outside of Canada, and says he doesn’t know about the stock options.) And lest anyone suggest this was a Liberal family affair, it turns out that Brian Mulroney sat on the board of the company that facilitated the largest arms deal in British history to Saudi Arabia.

Juicier still than the has-beens on the list is the revelation that Liberal fundraising bigwig Stephen Bronfman has not only amassed nearly $60 million in a shadowy offshore tax haven, and that the law firm representing Bronfman had been instrumental in lobbying the Canadian government against cracking down on overseas tax evasion. Coming on the heels of two months of a taxation trainwreck—and a grueling few weeks exposing just how comfortable Justin Trudeau is with plutocracy—this is not a good look for the prime minister. Again, we reiterate: the optics certainly make it look like the extremely rich people around the federal cabinet table don’t actually have the best interests of the “middle class” at heart. (Source: Vice) 

 

Thursday June 25, 2015

Thursday June 25, 2015By Graeme MacKay, Editorial Cartoonist, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday June 25, 2015

Ontario teachers gearing up for fall job action

Ontario’s teacher unions say work-to-rule, followed by one-day or rotating strikes, will happen this fall if no collective agreements are worked out between now and the start of school.

Leaders of the four teacher unions — representing public elementary and secondary teachers, Catholic and French — met Thursday night in downtown Toronto to map out possible co-ordinated job action, as all are expected to be in strike position by September.

James Ryan, president of the Ontario English Catholic Teachers’ Association, said that while final details have to be worked out with his union executive, a work-to-rule is likely to start off any job action and escalate from there.

He also warned there’s not a lot of time to reach deals because bargaining will be slow come summer.

“Bargaining all summer is highly unlikely,” he said, citing already booked vacations for staff on all sides at the bargaining table. “Could we be negotiating part of the summer? Yes. The entire summer? No.”

That’s because “there’s a dead time in the summer that probably stretches from about mid-July to mid-August — that’s when the education world goes dead for about a month.

“But we are committed to negotiate for the rest of June, and if we were close to an agreement, we certainly would be willing to roll up our sleeves in early July.”

But without intervention from Education Minister Liz Sandals — who has said negotiations could stretch into the summer — Ryan said he has little hope of either the government or school boards removing current proposals off the table.

Under new legislation, the unions, school boards and government negotiate costly items such as class size and salary, leaving union locals and individual school boards to hammer out items such as teacher performance reviews or job transfers.

No deals have been signed anywhere in the province. The Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation recently took three boards out on strike, only to have the strikes ruled illegal because they were over central items — namely class size.

Ryan said the union heads have been meeting regularly during the past year, to discuss any progress with the new bargaining process and any possible job actions.

He said issues like class sizes, use of prep time and hiring regulations are common to all. (Source: Hamilton Spectator)