An All-Ontario Day of Protest

An All-Ontario Day of Protest

Anyone who has been following the news about the negotiations with the teachers of Ontario and the Provincial Government know that issues are coming to a head.  For those that don't know the history of relations between the federations and Ontario , you need to know that the last time things got this tense, this bad, was when Mike Harris became premier and he set out to make minced meat of the teachers of the province. He believed, like many of his party and ilk believed at the time, that the problems in education in our province began and ended with the teachers federations.  He was convinced we were nothing more than money grabbing, lazy employees who had nothing but power on their minds.  His first act was to throw down the gauntlet and bring into law new curriculum documents without so much as a moment to in-service the teachers or money to implement.  The curriculum documents were in the works anyways but no one anticipated the government thumbing its nose at us like that. This was followed by tough nosed bargaining in which we were denied almost everything being asked for.  So, we all walked out......went on strike.....all the federations, elementary, secondary, public and private, English and French.  We walked the picket lines and I remember those days clearly.  That was almost 25 years ago.  Now it is Doug Ford and his minions who again, are convinced that they can draw the line in the sand with teachers.  They are releasing all kinds of memos attempting to paint the picture as all about money.  That won't work.  The public knows precisely what is at stake and actually, events south of the board reinforce the idea that the quality of public education is what is at stake.  It will be interesting to follow the negotiations.  A part of me wants to walk the picket lines with them.  I suppose I should......