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doug ford
55,000 Ontario Education Workers Strike Despite 'Draconian' New Anti-Labor Law
"Doug Ford and his government are once again telling workers across the province that their rights don't matter," said one Canadian labor leader.
Nov 04, 2022
Defying new legislation fast-tracked by right-wing Ontario Premier Doug Ford outlawing strikes, more than 55,000 education workers in the Canadian province hit the picket lines Friday, vowing to stay in the streets for "as long as it takes" to secure a contract they feel is fair.
"We need our voices to be heard and for the government to realize this is not acceptable."
The Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) launched what it called "a wake-up call and a call to arms for organized labor across Canada" after Ontario's Progressive Conservative government on Thursday enacted Bill 28--the Keeping Students in Class Act--which imposes contracts on CUPE members and prohibits them from striking on pain of a $3,000(USD) daily fine per employee and up to a $371,000(USD) penalty for the union.
The new law also utilizes the notwithstanding clause to shield against constitutional challenges. The controversial legal mechanism has only been invoked twice in Ontario's history--both times under Ford.
Liberal Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called Bill 28 an "attack on one of the most basic rights available, that of collective bargaining."
\u201cThe Government has just passed Bill 28, and in so doing, trampled on the rights of education workers. I\u2019m terrified to think which workers will be next. \n\nThe Premier and Deputy Premier didn\u2019t even have the courage to appear in the chamber themselves and vote.\n\n#onted #onpoli\u201d— Dr. Adil Shamji \ud83c\udde8\ud83c\udde6 (@Dr. Adil Shamji \ud83c\udde8\ud83c\udde6) 1667512321
CUPE national president Mark Hancock said in a statement that "this isn't just about education workers, this is about the rights of all working people across the country."
"The message from our leaders here in Ontario is clear," Hancock added. "Our members are united, and they intend to fight--and they have Canada's largest union in their corner and we are going to fight alongside them."
CUPE national secretary-treasurer Candace Rennick said that "now is a moment for us to ask ourselves what kind of union we want to be, in the face of the worst piece of legislation we've ever seen leveled at the labor movement."
"Our members have spoken," she added. "They are prepared to fight. They aren't part of the largest union in the country for nothing. We are going to have their backs, and we'll stand with them for as long as it takes."
\u201cThis is a truly dark day in Ontario\u2019s history. A govt that\u2019s willing to override Charter rights, human rights, collective bargaining rights & labour law to impose contracts on low paid, mainly female, edu workers & criminalize strikes. Outrageous & unacceptable. #ontedsolidarity\u201d— Professor Carol Campbell (@Professor Carol Campbell) 1667513994
According to the Ontario Federation of Labour (OFL):
The Charter of Rights and Freedoms enshrines Canadians' right to a free and fair collective bargaining process, and the Supreme Court of Canada has found that the right to exercise economic sanctions (i.e., the right to strike) forms an integral part of that process. In addition to violating workers' constitutional right to strike, the Keeping Students in Class Act enforces a concessionary contract on Ontario's 55,000 education workers--the lowest paid workers in the education system--many of whom are women workers and workers of color.
The bill unilaterally imposes woefully low wage increases--well below inflation--on low-income employees who have previously been subjected to three years of 1% increases... inadequate protections against job cuts; no paid prep time for education workers who work directly with students; a cut to the sick leave/short-term disability plan; and many other imposed terms which penalize employees. All told the imposed compensation changes amount to a mere $200 in the pockets of workers earning on average $39,000 and facing 7% inflation.
Karen Brown, president of the Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario, said that by enacting a law that forces a contract on CUPE members, the Ford administration has chosen the "most draconian manner of legislating away two fundamental rights protected by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms: the right to bargain collectively, and the right to strike."
"The Ford government has signaled it is uninterested in reaching collective agreements that are negotiated freely and fairly," she added. "And its oppressive use of the notwithstanding clause is another flagrant abuse of power--one that continues to attack democracy by trampling on Ontarians' constitutional rights."
Thousands of demonstrators turned out in Toronto's Queen's Park on Friday to denounce the Ford administration and show solidarity with the striking workers.
\u201cA massive demonstration at Queen\u2019s Park today as CUPE workers hold a \u201cpolitical protest\u201d which the Ford government calls an \u201cillegal\u201d strike. \n\n#onpoli #onted\u201d— Colin D'Mello | Global News (@Colin D'Mello | Global News) 1667572863
"We need our voices to be heard and for the government to realize this is not acceptable," Maria Gallant, a school secretary, told CBC News. "We are just asking to be paid what we deserve, nothing more."
Protesters also rallied outside the office of Education Minister Stephen Lecce in Vaughan.
"You cannot rip away the rights of workers and expect... that we are just going to take it sitting down," Laura Walton, president of CUPE's Ontario School Board Council of Unions, told Global News.
Others expressed support for the strike on social media.
\u201cThe Ontario Dump Truck Association (ODTA) stands with CUPE and all workers in support of their strike action and against the deplorable use of the Notwithstanding Clause to erode and disrespect fundamental Charter rights! We urge @fordnation to negotiate. Not legislate. #onpoli\u201d— ODTA (@ODTA) 1667507886
Birgit Uwaila Umaigba, an intensive care unit and emergency room nurse who is also clinical course director at Centennial College in Toronto, dropped by a picket line to "protect our democracy."
"Doug Ford and his retrogressive conservative government crossed the line by enacting Bill 28 and banning 55,000 CUPE members from exercising their fundamental right to strike," she tweeted.
OFL announced a "Solidarity Saturday" day of action in the province, calling Bill 28 "a full-frontal attack on basic labor freedoms in Ontario."
\u201c\ud83d\udce2 SOLIDARITY SATURDAY \ud83d\udce2\n\nShow your support for education workers with a #SolidaritySaturday action in your community.\n\nWHEN: Saturday, November 5 @ 12PM - 1PM\nWHERE: Across Ontario\n\nLearn more & sign up here \u2935\ufe0f\nhttps://t.co/0cOarRdd1n #IStandWithCUPE #39kIsNotEnough #OntEd\u201d— OFL (@OFL) 1667585134
"Today is a dark day for Ontario workers. By introducing this legislation before education workers have even exercised their charter-protected right to strike, the Ford government is attempting to short-circuit the bargaining process and strip workers of a fundamental freedom," OFL president Patty Coates said in a statement.
"Doug Ford and his government are once again telling workers across the province that their rights don't matter," she added.
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Ontario Premier Ford Plays High-Stakes Game of Vaccine Poker
The ending of COVID-19 restrictions turns out to be pretty much what the “freedom” crowd demanded.
Apr 17, 2022
And the winner is ... no, not Will Smith. Someone even less deserving - Tamara Lich and the folks from the trucker convoy.
As Ontarians find themselves in the grip of a menacing sixth wave of the pandemic, the Ford government's ending of COVID restrictions turns out to be pretty much what the "freedom" crowd demanded.
Indeed, the throng of anti-vaxxers, white supremacists and other assorted hate-mongers who held Ottawa hostage for three weeks are a key part of Doug Ford's base, and he's managed to quietly deliver them a victory while seemingly just lifting constraints because the COVID situation has improved.
Except that it hasn't. And it's absurd that the premier is trying to pass things off as fine when they're not. Estimated infection levels are now almost equal to the Omicron peak in early January and hospitalizations across the province are up 40 percent this week.
Ford insists that the province can "ramp up" to 3,000 ICU beds if needed. But all those beds won't help without nurses to staff them, and the province has the lowest number of nurses per capita of any province in Canada.
Ontario recently announced $5,000 retention bonuses for nurses but that won't compensate for the fact that wage increases for nurses, along with most of the provincial public sector, have been capped by the Ford government at 1 percent -- when inflation is running at close to 6 per cent.
Of course, the convoy mob didn't get everything it wanted - the Senate and governor general never acted on their demand to remove Justin Trudeau and form a new government with the protesters themselves. But it did win its central demand to end vaccine mandates and passports. Ontario, as well as most other provinces, have obliged.
As a result, the same folks who frolicked in hot tubs and bouncy castles in front of the Parliament buildings for three never-ending weeks, bringing fear and misery to Ottawa residents, can now shop maskless (and unvaccinated) in grocery stores right next to the rest of us. Freeeee-dom!
Or to paraphrase a Janis Joplin song: Freedom's just another word for being able to pick up a highly transmissible variant while also picking up broccoli.
Placating the broader anti-vax crowd involves a delicate balancing act for Canada's premiers -- with particularly high stakes for Doug Ford in Ontario, where sentiment is strong on both sides of the public health issue and where an election looms on June 2.
Ford has been playing a wily game of vaccine poker. After the free-roaming white-supremacist crowd took control of Ottawa, honking all night, attacking sniveling opponents of freedom who wore masks, and exhibiting a lack of toilet-training in front of the monument to Canada's war dead, Ford termed the behavior "unacceptable" and "an occupation."
This was clearly the minimum required for the premier to avoid alienating the vast majority of Ontarians who, if they happened to own bouncy castles, used them in the privacy of their own homes.
At the same time, Ford was winking his support to the convoy crowd. A committee set up to engage all three levels of government in ending the siege hadn't been able to start, the feds reported, because the Ford government hadn't sent a representative.
And claims by Ontario's solicitor general that the province had dispatched 1,500 OPP officers to help out in Ottawa turned out to be wildly exaggerated. It was maybe 200 max, according to Ottawa police.
When the Trudeau government invoked the Emergencies Act - probably unnecessary if all levels of government had properly enforced the laws at their disposal - the focus of public debate shifted. Ford was able to fade back into the background on the issue, while quickly giving the anti-vax crowd exactly what they wanted.
It looks like Ford may get away with his high-stakes poker - unless the rest of the population realizes that they've been thrown under some giant trucks by a premier intent on delivering a juicy bone to some of the most boorish and unhinged members of his base.
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Keeping the Curtains Drawn on Canada's Secretive Factory Farm Industry
Unlike Europe, Australia, and New Zealand, Canada's laws governing animal welfare have barely evolved over the last century.
Dec 26, 2020
Many people--meat-eaters included--object to the factory farm practice of confining pigs for virtually their entire lives to metal cages so small they can't even turn around.
"Factory farms exist in a realm largely beyond public scrutiny or control, with almost nothing to protect the animals from miserable conditions imposed by an industry extracting maximum profit from the animals it harvests."
That's why the Canadian pork industry, sensitive about its public image, decided to eliminate the practice--a move hailed by Canada's Humane Society as "a watershed moment for farm animals in Canada."
This led to a rare round of positive coverage for the beleaguered industry, with the media reporting that the move would please Canadian consumers and bring Canadian animal welfare practices in line with more advanced European standards.
All that happened back in 2014. Yet, six years later, millions of pigs in Canada continue to spend their lives locked in these narrow cages--because the ban doesn't actually come into effect until 2024.
In fact, that leisurely 10-year phase-in period seems about to get longer. The pork industry has decided it needs more time and has indicated its desire to grant itself a further five-year extension.
This is possible because the industry is allowed to make its own rules governing its animals. But it means sows in Canada will continue their lifelong captivity until 2029--a full 15 years after it was announced the practice was to be ended, due to concerns about animal welfare.
Factory farms exist in a realm largely beyond public scrutiny or control, with almost nothing to protect the animals from miserable conditions imposed by an industry extracting maximum profit from the animals it harvests.
And Doug Ford's government just made it easier for the industry to shield its operations from public view, passing legislation last month aimed at cracking down on trespassing activists and journalists who often work undercover on industrial farms in order to take photos and videos.
Such videos, which abound on social media, have helped generate public alarm about the plight of farm animals. One undercover video, aired last month on CTV's national investigative program W5, included graphic footage of adult pigs being hit with heavy objects and baby pigs squealing and squirming in pain as workers cut off their tails and castrate them.
Unlike Europe, Australia, and New Zealand, Canada's laws governing animal welfare have barely evolved over the last century, even though the open pastures of traditional family farms have largely been replaced by the confining cages of today's industrial farms.
Instead of updating our animal welfare laws, Ottawa has allowed the industry to draw up its own "codes of practice," which are effectively guidelines with no clear penalties for lack of compliance.
The writing of the codes is overseen by the National Farm Animal Care Council--a private body, funded by government, but dominated by the meat industry and other "stakeholders" in the food supply chain.
The council allows only minimal input from animal welfare groups. Indeed, any group that opposes eating animals is automatically excluded from sitting on its committees.
Once the committees have drawn up their codes, they invite public feedback. But, as University of Alberta law professor Peter Sankoff observes, there's no evidence the public feedback has any impact, beyond providing the whole process with "a veneer of public legitimacy."
Of course, one set of "stakeholders" left entirely out of the process are the animals themselves. And while they can't talk, they do feel.
As renowned anthropologist Jane Goodall notes: "Farm animals feel pleasure and sadness, excitement, and resentment, depression, fear and pain."
The intensity of animal emotions has been captured on videos of rescued farm animals experiencing their first taste of freedom. They run, romp and play--even enormous adult pigs--and certainly appear to be experiencing something akin to joy.
Of course, any dog owner can confirm that animals feel emotions. And any dog owner would gasp at the thought of their dog trapped in a confining cage, 24 hours a day, unable to even turn around.
But the factory farm industry is counting on us not making the connection. And the best way to ensure that, as Doug Ford knows, is to prevent us from seeing photos of locked-up pigs looking every bit as sad and scared as our own dogs would be in those cages.
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