Teacher's strike.

I read a piece in my local paper today from legislative reporter Tom Fletcher speaking about the horrendous injustice the greedy teachers are doing to the fabric of our society. His first inflammatory statement is about teachers and their “Korea-style political indoctrination” of students.  In summation he accuses teachers of brain washing their students into believing their teachers are being abused. Fletcher then goes on to implore people to get educated, and to begin this education with a Google search on “Study: Class size doesn’t matter”. Despite this clearly reliable and unbiased key word search (insert sarcastic snort here) I agree. It’s time people became educated and this requires funding.

I received my high school diploma eleven years ago from a graduating class size that was over 500 bodies large. Most of my time as a student in Vanier was not spent inside the school but instead in the “portables”. Reliable heating during the winter was a crap shoot and proper seating was a joke. Our textbooks were old and overused without enough to go around. Now keep in mind this was ELEVEN years ago. With all the school closures and cuts in funding I can only imagine the deplorable conditions of education now-a-days, which is a huge contributing factor in my choice to homeschool my children. Homeschooling aside I think the biggest issue in this teacher vs. government fight has nothing to do with education or wages, benefits or government expenditure. I think the biggest issue that people are ignoring is the government’s erosion of workers’ rights.

Whether you agree with the teachers or not I have a huge problem with the government legislating anyone back to work. First it was Air Canada, then it was the Postal service, now it’s the teachers – oh and Air Canada again. Where does the government get off thinking that they have any right to take away the voice of workers? Do we not live in a free and democratic society? Can Canadians be silenced so easily?

The government claims they have to legislate people back to work because these services are essential! Essential? My husband is RCMP and without him law and order is disrupted and there is a risk of injury or death for the everyday average Joe. That is essential. But here’s the thing. We have a government who’s more than willing to strip your rights and force you to work in whatever condition they see fit; and everyone seems to be ignoring this! I can’t for the life of me figure out WHY that is. We elected them to run our government not to micromanage our lives and careers.  So if you can’t support the teachers then stand up instead for your basic human rights. Back-to-work legislation is really just a form of slavery. If they can legislate you back to work under threat of fine or jail today, then they can legislate you to work harder or under dangerous conditions tomorrow. It’s a slippery slope and I for one refuse to sit around and say nothing. Canadian apathy has reached an all-time high and it’s disgusting.