teachers

Saturday May 21, 2022

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday May 21, 2022

Doug Ford nets another union endorsement, positions Ontario PCs as labour friendly

October 20, 2021

Doug Ford touted his union ties and tried to position his Progressive Conservatives as the labour-friendly option for voters on Tuesday, as his political rivals accused him of simply paying lip service to workers.

The Tories gained the endorsement of another construction workers’ union on the campaign trail, while the more traditionally union-friendly NDP secured the backing of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU), which represents 180,000 workers.

But Mr. Ford downplayed his tiffs with public sector workers, whose ire he’s drawn over a bill that capped wage increases at 1 per cent for three years, as he highlighted the endorsement from the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades (IUPAT).

“These are the people that are going to build Ontario, build Toronto, build the whole province. They’re out there slugging it out, day in and day out, no matter what type of weather it is. And we couldn’t run the province without ‘em,” Mr. Ford said at a morning press conference. “… I’ll always have their backs, always.”

February 28, 1996

He was speaking at IUPAT’s headquarters in Toronto’s north end, where he used a stencil and sprayer to paint his campaign slogan, “Get It Done” on a Progressive Conservative blue wall.

Mr. Ford, who’s seeking re-election in next month’s vote, kyboshed attempts to compare his Tories to a previous PC government in Ontario.

In the seven years Mike Harris led the province, he earned a reputation for being anti-union.

Mr. Ford said that’s not his position, nor was it the position of his late father, who served as a Progressive Conservative MPP under Mr. Harris for several years.

“I’m not gonna judge any other any other party. I’ll tell you, our families, be it my dad or my brother Rob or [nephew] Michael, we’ve supported the hard working women and men in this province, the union members,” Mr. Ford said. “We always have. I love ‘em.”

But Mr. Ford hasn’t always had a friendly relationship with unions.

NDP Leader Andrea Horwath noted Mr. Ford has been at loggerheads with unions representing public employees over legislation passed in 2019 that caps pay raises in the public sector at 1 per cent or less.

August 29, 2019

He declined Tuesday to commit to repealing the bill – something several unions have been requesting since the legislation passed – saying instead that he’d “treat them fairly” when the three-year raise freeze is over.

Mr. Ford has also feuded with teachers’ unions, first during lengthy contract negotiations and later over his policies for reopening schools during the pandemic.

Ms. Horwath, whose New Democrats have historically been the party most closely aligned with unions, said workers should pay attention to the changes in Mr. Ford’s tune.

“I don’t change my mind about my support for unions and working people,” Ms. Horwath said at a campaign stop on Tuesday. “We’ve seen Mr. Ford attack unions, we’ve seen him attack working people, many, many times. The Conservatives always do that. (The Globe & Mail) 

 

Saturday September 5, 2020

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday September 5, 2020

‘Why don’t they pitch in?’: Ontario premier unleashes war of words with education union leader

August 27, 2020

Ontario Premier Doug Ford is ratcheting up his war of words with the head of one of Ontario’s largest teacher unions, telling reporters that he would rather listen to doctors and epidemiologists than someone “with a degree in English literature who thinks he is a doctor.”

Ford has been engaged in a prolonged dispute with the leaders of Ontario’s four teacher unions over his government’s back-to-school plans.

The unions have said that the plans fail to institute specific standards “around physical distancing, cohorting, ventilation, and transportation” and have vowed to file formal appeals with the labour relations board over what they say is a violation of the Occupational Health and Safety Act.

February 4, 2020

Ford, meanwhile, has accused the unions of being unreasonable and has said that his “patience is running thin” with their rhetoric.

Speaking with reporters during his daily COVID-19 briefing on Wednesday, Ford took his criticism one step further, singling out Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation President Harvey Bischof.

“I will listen to the docs and the health and science all day long as opposed to some head of the teachers’ union that has his degree in English literature as Harvey does,” Ford said. “I think the parents would rather us listen to the doctors as opposed to some guy with a degree in English literature who thinks he is a doctor.”

January 18, 2020

Bischof, who has an English literature degree from Trent University as well as a Masters of Arts and Bachelor of Education degree from Queen’s University, has been outspoken about the government’s return to school plans in the past and last week took to Twitter to accuse Ford of “belittling educators.”

He has also stressed that teachers only want the same safeguards as other frontline workers, such as a minimum of two metres of physical distancing in the classroom. (CTV) 

 

Thursday March 12, 2020

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday March 12, 2020

As virus outbreak spreads, schools face a dilemma

When the new coronavirus surfaced at Saint Raphael Academy after a school group returned from a trip to Italy, officials decided to close the Rhode Island Catholic high school for two weeks.

February 4, 2020

Instead of cancelling classes, the school in Pawtucket instituted “virtual days” where students are expected to work from home, check for assignments through an online portal and occasionally chat with teachers.

A few miles away, a public charter school also closed after a teacher who attended the same Italy trip awaited test results. But at Achievement First, the two days off were treated like snow days — no special assignments and no expectation that kids keep up their schoolwork.

As more schools across the United States close their doors because of the coronavirus, they are confronted with a dilemma in weighing whether to shut down and move classes online, which could leave behind the many students who don’t have computers, home internet access or parents with flexible work schedules. As the closures accelerate, children at some schools, like Saint Raphael, will be able to continue some form of learning, while children at schools with fewer technological or other resources, may simply miss out.

September 3, 2013

The deep technological and wealth gap that exists nationwide between poor and affluent students has made the coronavirus outbreak even more challenging for school officials, who are wrestling with not only health and safety decisions but also questions about the ethics of school closures.

These deliberations have been playing out in schools all around the country during the outbreak, from urban districts in New York, Seattle and Los Angeles to rural ones in Nebraska and Pennsylvania.

“If we shut down for a week or two weeks, and some of the kids can do it but some can’t, what do you do?” said Edward Albert, executive director of the Pennsylvania Association of Rural and Small Schools. “There are some places that don’t even have phone service.”

Although widespread closures are a new development in the United States, they are already a reality in nations that have been hit harder by the virus. The United Nations’ education agency, UNESCO, says nearly 300 million children in 22 countries on three continents were being affected by school closures last week. In response, it has begun supporting online learning programs. (PBS) 

Meanwhile, Ontario’s elementary teachers are set to resume contract talks with the government on Wednesday, but they’re warning that if bargaining doesn’t produce an agreement, the union will resume job action after March break. (CBC)


 

Thursday March 5, 2020

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday March 5, 2020

I’m An Ontario Teacher But I Chose To Go Where Teachers Are Respected

February 4, 2020

“One of my kids threw a chair today.”

“My kid locked himself in the classroom at lunch and then threatened to run away.”

“A parent told me I should have noticed the signs of her daughter wanting to self-harm.”

It was 2018, and my college classmates and I were swapping horror stories as the final year of our teacher’s program came to a close. Tales like ours were the norm — 70 per cent of educators see or experience similar situations  in their classroom — so I would often think of the teachers I’d admired in my youth and wonder, “Were we this difficult for them?”

May 6, 2015

I always hoped I’d be like those teachers, one day: kind, fun and respected by all. But, I realized that I would not be able to start my mission to be that kind, fun and respected teacher if the drama outside the classroom continued to escalate in Ontario’s education system, year after year.

For all its prestige, I knew I couldn’t root my career in Ontario.

A job there didn’t always seem undesirable. I’d accepted my offer to a concurrent teacher’s college program straight out of high school in 2013, with the intent of graduating and immediately securing a job teaching French in Ontario. It was an easy decision: I loved working with kids, I wanted to use my French at work. I even dreamed that I’d teach at my old elementary school.

May 26, 2015

Yet, over the course of teacher’s college, I saw the reality facing Ontario teachers.

My mentors were burnt out from dealing with a lack of funding, administrative miscommunication, overly demanding parents, and governments that didn’t value the students’ opinion in their education. They arrived at school in the morning dreading the day ahead, tired from the work they took home the night before.

They often said that their work outside of the classroom detracted from their job inside of it. Even as a student teacher, I felt the same — and I didn’t even have to take the lead in all of it. It affected my mood  and the atmosphere in the classroom, and I knew that was no good. I would not be able to teach my students well like this.

Despite the challenges, the public expects teachers to be complacent when the government wants to make cuts that hurt the kids more than they do us.

August 20, 2012

Teacher contract negotiations always blow up into a province-wide scandal. It happened when teachers went on strike in 2003, and again in 2012 and 2015. Each time, I had to hear my family members and the public voice their discontent.

Naysayers drag the profession through the mud and harp on the pay, benefits, retirement packages and vacation time that teachers earn. What isn’t considered as often is how much of their own money teachers all over Canada spend  on their own class supplies and resources, and how many of the activities they do are voluntary.

November 13, 2019

In the latest strikes, Ontario teachers are once again taking action with students in mind. Since Premier Doug Ford assumed his role in 2018, the changes to the education system have been moving the province backwards: increasing class sizes, reducing funding for school programs and moving away from a much-needed inclusive curriculum. A student-teacher ratio reaching as high as 40:1 and e-learning won’t set students up for success.

I’ve seen this drama play out over and over again in Ontario, and I decided I wasn’t going to be part of it. After graduating in 2018, I moved to China instead. (Continued: Huffington Post) 

 

Wednesday February 19, 2020

By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator, Wednesday February 19, 2020

Ontario’s newly-designed license plates just hit a speedbump. Call it Plate-gate.

A little background: The Canadian province’s new design was unveiled by the provincial government — led by center-right Ontario Premier Doug Ford — last year.

April 9, 2019

Almost immediately, people started comparing the plate design unfavorably to a box of Q-tips.

The plates also had a new slogan – “A Place to Grow” – which drew the ire of some critics, who preferred the previous “Yours to Discover” which the plates had sported since 1982.

Then there was the palette: Observers noticed that the new plates had the same blue color scheme as Ford’s Progressive Conservative Party.

Journalists at Toronto’s CTV network wanted to see if they could recreate the problem, so they shined a light on the new and old plates while slowly moving away. In their video, the old plate remains plainly legible, while the letters on the new one quickly disappear into a blaze of white.

In an emailed statement, Ontario’s government says it “consulted with key stakeholders to test the readability, reflectivity and functionality of the new high definition plate design. Ontario’s new high definition licence plates were tested using advanced plate reader technology under multiple visibility conditions, and plates were successfully read under those conditions.”

But it acknowledged that “some Ontarians are reporting concerns with readability to the naked-eye under certain light conditions,” and says it is looking into the issue.

One silver lining? The plates are so new that very few vehicles have them. (NPR) 

Meanwhile, Students, parents, the government and school boards prepare for a province-wide strike by teachers set for this Friday. (CTV)