On Saturday, October 24, parents, teachers, students, and concerned Ontarians gathered at five separate rallies across the province to show support for public funding of Ontario’s schools and against Doug Ford’s policies of austerity. In Toronto, London, Sudbury, Thunder Bay, and Ottawa, thousands of people showed up in solidarity with education workers and the public education system.
Spring Magazine had the privilege of interviewing attendees at the Toronto rally at Queen’s Park to discuss the importance of public education and the workers who make it happen.
Parents’ comments
Steve, a father of two and married to a teacher, outlined the decline of the Ontario public education system:
“I’m here because my wife is a teacher in the TDSB. The amount of chaos and churn with kids having to move classes with Ford taking over the TDSB — it’s been a rough decade, but it’s gotten much worse in the last few years. It’s important to come out today.”
Jen, a mother of a young child in elementary school, also stressed the importance of showing solidarity with teachers and fighting for a better education for Ontario’s children:
“I’m here because I’m fighting for my kid’s right to quality and equitable education. We need funding and we need to prioritize education in Ontario because our kids deserve it and our teachers deserve access to the resources that they need to do their jobs properly. It’s pretty straightforward. There’s been a lot of false promises made by this government, and our kids are suffering.”
Teachers’ comments
Amanda, a veteran teacher of high school for twenty-three years, thinks it is important to keep showing solidarity even while close to retirement:
“I’m not gonna be in this for much longer — maybe six more years — but I think we really have seen services for students being degraded over the last few years. Much less special education funding, fewer EAs and CYWs in the schools, and fewer people who want to take those jobs because they’re paid so badly, to be honest. So, when we don’t have people helping our most vulnerable students in the classroom, it becomes a real problem because I can’t teach a class of thirty-two when kids are suffering from a variety of socio-economic problems or mental or physical illnesses. So more money needs to go into the classroom and towards the kids and that will make everybody’s job easier, our community stronger, the kids happier, and the families stronger. We need to go back to the basics when it comes to funding and think about what actually benefits the kids rather than arguing about the math curriculum all the time.”
Natalie, an elementary art teacher for the Conseil scolaire Viamonde, argued against staying home while austerity is being forced onto the education system:
“[Showing up today] is the only way we can show what we are thinking. You have to be here. If you stay home, if you don’t go to our protests, if you don’t go vote on Monday [October 26, election day in Ontario], nothing is going to change. That’s why I’m here.”
She continued, pointing out her son and saying:
“That’s why he’s coming with me today. I’m so proud of him for coming with me because he didn’t have to. But he came with me for the same reasons.”
Trish, chief negotiator for OSSTF District 14 TBU, calls for bargaining in good faith, something the government has not shown throughout this process:
“We are here to show that we want to come to the bargaining table and we want fair bargaining. We want to show our solidarity to one another, and it’s incredible that we have all five major teachers affiliates working together in lockstep. We just want to bargain. We’ve wanted to bargain since March, and here we are and we still don’t have a central-local split. We just want to come to the table and make it better for students.”
The public education crisis continues
As both parents and teachers pointed out, the public education system has been in decline for many years under the Ford leadership. When the collective agreements for over 250,000 education workers expired in August, the Ford government decided to table many new demands for teachers, attempting to push back on hard-fought wins by education workers. As a result, ETFO, OECTA, AEFO, CUPE-OSBCU, and the OSSTF/FEESO joined forces to call the Ford government out on its bad-faith negotiation and point out the many struggles education workers have had to fight over the past few years.
Education workers are facing a contract that seeks to lower their amount of sick days, enlarge their class sizes, and lower their schools’ budgets.
Rank-and-file education workers are pushing more and more to fight Ford tooth and nail. OECTA, ETFO and CUPE-OSBCU will be holding strike votes in November, and the sentiment at Saturday’s rally was one of demanding change.
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