On Monday, October 6, Metro-Toronto affiliates of the five teachers
associations in Ontario staged a massive rally at Maple Leaf Gardens to
protest Bill 160, the Education Quality Improvement Act. By the time the
rally started at 7pm, the arena, which seats 18,000 people, was packed to
overflow. Teachers in the Peel region (west of Toronto) held a rally at the
same time at the International Centre in Mississauga. They marched to
Queen's Park following the rallies. On October 8, teachers in the
Hamilton-Wentworth and Halton regions are staging another rally at Copps
Coliseum in Hamilton.
These rallies are being held under the slogan "We Won t Back Down!."
Teachers representatives are to meet today at Queen's Park with Ontario
Education Minister John Snobelen to discuss the Bill. The teachers are
continuing to threaten strike action should the government refuse to either
withdraw the bill in its entirety or remove the objectionable provisions.
Bill 160 will greatly concentrate control over education in the hands
of the provincial cabinet, while stripping the school boards of almost all
power to control what goes on in the schools. Since teachers negotiate with
the school boards, not the provincial cabinet, the teachers will
effectively lose the ability to exercise any control over their working
conditions. Bill 160 will extend the time of the school year, give cabinet
the power to set class sizes, and give the cabinet the power to set
education taxation levels. It would also introduce the use of non-certified
instructors in the schools and reduce teacher preparation time.
Ontario's 126,000 teachers and education workers are organized into
five association: the Ontario Secondary School Teachers Federation
(OSSTF), the Federation of Women Teachers Associations of Ontario
(FWTAO), the Ontario Public School Teachers Federation (OPSTF), the
Association of Franco-Ontarion Teachers (AEFO), and the Ontario English
Catholic Teachers Association (OECTA).
TML DAILY, 10/97
Shawgi Tell
Graduate School of Education
University at Buffalo
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
