Daily Archives: October 18, 2005

Vince Ready to Faciliate Dialogue /Crown Prosecutors Step Away

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The BC Teachers Federation is confirming that mediator Vince Ready is facilitating dialogue and is meeting with union leaders in a bid to resolve the teachers strike.

It’s now more important than ever to keep up the pressure and to maintaining levels of support activities for our teachers. If real gains are to be made for public education; if the rights of working people to bargain freely and fairly are to be upheld; then teachers and their supporters need to keep up the pressure.

See CBC coverage of this development.

Crown Prosecutors Declare a Conflict of Interest and Refuse to Prosecute Teachers
By JEFF HODSON
Metro Vancouver, October 18, 2005

If criminal charges are brought against teachers, Crown counsel will be unable to prosecute, says the head of the professional organization that represents B.C.’s 400 prosecutors. The Criminal Justice Branch of the Ministry of the Attorney General yesterday appointed Vancouver lawyer Leonard Doust as an independent special prosecutor. Part of Doust’s mandate will be to determine whether to initiate criminal contempt proceedings against illegally striking teachers. But, said Michael Van Klaveren, president of the B.C. Crown Counsel Association, “It is our position, right now, that prosecutors are in a conflict of interest position when it comes to prosecuting any teachers.”

Clipped from Comox Valley Teachers

Vancouver-Pt. Grey Parents Join With Teachers On The Picket Line

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Parents and students in Premier Campbell’s riding joined teachers on the picket line Tuesday

Parents, students and neighbours from Queen Mary Elementary School, in Premier Gordon Campbell’s Point Grey riding joined teachers on the picket line on Tuesday, October.

The families made signs and walked the picket line to show community support for the teachers.

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Queen Mary School is located at 2000 Trimble Street, in Vancouver. View map here.

Oct. 19/05Thank you to everyone who participated in the show of support for Queen Mary teachers yesterday. We had a great response and lots of media coverage. In addition to the CKNW. CBC TV, City TV coverage yesterday, and a nice photo in The Province this morning, these are some links to the media coverage from yesterday’s QM rally. I also think the Courier has something coming out today. It is my hope that strong shows of support for teachers will encourage the government to work with them to reach a speedy and fair resolution to the current crisis. I am also pleased to report that some parents at Kit Secondary and holding their a rally tomorrow. – Patti

The Globe and Mail

Metro Vancouver

Vancouver 24 hrs

Green Ribbon Campaign

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green_ribbon1.jpg
Kamloops teachers call for Green Ribbon Campaign (click for details).

From Kamloops teachers: “A group of our teachers has taken upon themselves to start a green ribbon campaign. They are giving out pieces of green flagging tape to anyone that wants it and people are displaying these on their vehicles. This is to symbolize support for the teachers and opposition to Bill 12”

The use of the green ribbon has a long history. Before it was used by teachers during the 2005 strike, the Levellers, a progressive faction in the English revolution, used a green ribbon as their badge. The green ribbon is used here in recognition of the recent and distant past.

Public supports teachers!

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Polls show teachers union winning the PR battle in its contract war with the BC Liberals.[From]: Business in Vancouver October 18-24, 2005; issue 834

Public Opinion

Steve Mossop

Polls show teachers union winning the PR battle in its contract war with the BC Liberals

Round 10 in the labour battle royal pitting the BC Teachers Federation against the provincial government and the BCTF appears to be getting the upper hand in the public relations arena.

An Ipsos Reid poll of 800 B.C. residents completed on October 10 shows the majority of B.C. residents, especially parents, side with the teachers. Currently, the majority of B.C. adults (56 per cent) supports the teachers and the BCTF in this dispute (nearly double the 33 per cent that support the B.C. Public School Employer’s Association) and 54 per cent disagree with the provincial government’s decision to legislate an end to the contract dispute. Support levels are even higher among parents with at least one child in the K-12 school system, indicating that those with most at stake in the education system are the strongest supporters of the teachers.

Another research company, the Mustel Group, released a poll (albeit with a much smaller sample size of 300) showing a slightly smaller number (53 per cent) support the teachers, but that 52 per cent opposed the B.C. teachers’ plan to strike (45 per cent supported the idea). A further 81 per cent agreed that class size has an impact on education quality.

Historically, the provincial government could always count on the support of the public to take a hard stance toward the teachers. The BCTF’s militancy, its close ties to the NDP and organized labour and parents’ belief that education is an essential service always meant that contract settlements could be imposed with little political outcry – especially in B.C.’s recessionary ’90s.

This time around, however, it’s different.

Why?

Well, for starters, the B.C. government is sitting on a large surplus and the provincial economy is booming. In addition, the last estimate for this fiscal year puts the surplus as high as $1.3 billion, GDP has risen 3.6 per cent this year, the unemployment rate is at its lowest rate in decades and the housing boom has made everyone feel richer.

Another Ipsos Reid poll puts consumer confidence in the provincial economy at record heights (82 per cent describe the overall state of the provincial economy as “good” or “very good”).

Little surprise then that the poll shows 46 per cent of the adults surveyed feel that teachers are underpaid, compared with six per cent who said they’re overpaid. Even on the right to strike issue, the teachers appear to have support where little previously existed.

The government’s hard-line approach of a zero per cent wage increase, refusal to relent on the class-size issue and imposition of back-to-work legislation has therefore been made harder to swallow.

The BCTF has also done a relatively good PR job of comparing modest teacher salaries against escalating MLA salaries, and BCTF president Jinny Sims, with a softer, more friendly approach than her predecessors, has been able to cultivate increased support. The BC Liberals, on the other hand, have been relatively silent in this dispute.

Unfortunately for parents, students and teachers, it’s a no-win debate with both sides entrenched in unmovable positions.

This time, however, the BC Liberals may have gone too far in battling the BCTF, paying the price in the court of public opinion with an erosion of support for their government.

Steve Mossop is the Managing Director Of Ipsos-Reid, Market Research Canada West. He can be reached at steve.mossop@ipsos-reid.com.

Join this letter of support for BC Teachers

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Dear All,

BC public school teachers have voted to back up their democratic rights to fair and free collective bargaining with a full scale strike Friday, October 7, 2005. As a parent in BC with children in our public schools I am very concerned about the situation. The teachers are standing up for our public education system and need our support. Please read the following letter and send me an email (or add a comment to this site) indicating your support. My email is charles.menzies@ubc.ca

In solidarity with our teachers,

Charles

For letter addressed to government officials read extended entry:

Dear Mr. Campbell, Ms. Bond, and Mr. De Jong,

We are parents, students, and community members who share a strong sense of respect and admiration for the hard work and dedication that our teachers in the public school system demonstrate on a daily basis. We are writing to you to express our disappointment in the actions of your government with respect to teachers. We appreciate that you believe you are putting children first in education. But, as parents and others concerned about the welfare of children who have seen the direct effects of your actions in our public schools we would respectfully disagree. Under your administration the situation in schools has gotten worse, not better. Class sizes have increased, support for learning disabilities has declined, and many schools have inadequate resources. Parent Advisory Councils have been compelled to pay for funding gaps while teachers spend more and more of their personal income on needed school resources.

Your government has placed the burden of these problems onto the backs of our teachers. Not surprisingly they have voted overwhelmingly to say No More. We are writing to express our support of the actions being taken by our public school teachers. We also ask that Bill 12 be withdrawn and that the government enter into direct talks to reach a fair, free, and democratic collective agreement with the teachers of BC.

Yours,

Charles Menzies (U. Hill PAC exec and Member at Large, UBC Faculty Association Exec)
Annie Ehman
Charlene Morton
Nancy Langdon
E. Wayne Ross (Professor Department of Curriculum Studies)
Mike Feeley and Linda Quamme
David Green
Teresa Dobson and Thomas Mayson
Sandra Mathison (Professor & Head, Educational and Counselling Psychology & Special Education)
Valerie Pollock
Mari Pighini, MA (The CHILD Project)
Daniel Vokey (Associate Professor Department of Educational Studies)
Danielle M. Law (Developmental Change and Technology Lab)
Rosanne Hood
Kate Trafford, BSc (GIS Technician Human Early Learning Partnership)
Dr. Elizabeth Fendley (Faculty of Medicine UBC, Past Chair, Kitsilano Secondary School Parent Advisory Council)
Laura Neucott
Lynda Prince
Lindsay DuBois (Associate Professor & Undergraduate Coordinator
Sociology and Social Anthropology, Dalhousie University)
Allison McDonald
Gillian Creese
Emily Marshall
Michele Jayasinha
Graham E. Johnson (Professor of Sociology, Department of Anthropology and Sociology University of British Columbia)
Julianne Doctor (Vancouver DPAC Exec rep)
Alannah Young
Jonathan Hanvelt
Elizabeth Johnson (Curator of Ethnology and Associate of the Department of Anthropology UBC Museum of Anthropology)
Amy Hanser (Assistant Professor of Sociology Department of Anthropology and Sociology University of British Columbia)
Marnie Fukushima-Flores
Jennifer Peterson (PhD Candidate UBC Faculty of Education)
Charles Yates
Wendy Nielsen (Department of Curriculum Studies UBC)
Marg Osterreicher
James Hughes
James J. Feng, (Associate Professor Dept. Chemical & Biological Engineering, UBC)
Lianne Britten
Brenda Penton
Sharon Biwer
Steve Baker
Elliott Brunell (Pres. UBC Faculty Association)
Stephen Petrina
Mary MacAulay (David Livingstone Elementary School Parent)
Kathy Whittam
Heather Burpee
Janet McPhee (cochair Jules Quesnel PAC)
Margaret F. Choinski (Clinical Instructor School of Audiology and Speech Sciences Faculty of Medicine, UBC)
Kevin J. Benoy
Rosalind M. Irving
Lisa Agius
Brian Green
Hansen Chou (M.A. Student University of British Columbia)
Susanne Osmond and Glen Hollingshead (parents of Oliver, grade 3, Nootka Elementary, Vancouver)
Cathi Shaw (PhD Student Instructor, Centre for Educational Technology, SFU)
Steve Spencer
Juanita Skinner Nelson BC SD#8
Anna Coffin (parent of Upper Lynn Elementary School)
Laurel Tien (PhD Student University Of British Columbia)
Shauna Halcrow
Jo-Anne Dillabough (Associate Professor, Department of Educational Studies, UBC)
Shelagh Penty (Department Secretary Department of Curriculum Studies)
Jo-Anne Naslund (Instructional Programs Librarian Education Library, UBC)
Rick Archambault (President, Strathcona Community Centre Association)
Heidi Verburg
Rosamel Millaman Reinao
Robin O’Day (PhD Student in Anthropology, UBC)
Sam Heppell (UBC Student)
Wendy Poole (Faculty Member, UBC)
Beatrice Scott
Shelley Hymel, Professor, Faculty of Education, UBC
Anita Schuller
Lena Lew
Jill Lewis UBC Student/Future Teacher
Sharon P. Fraser
Deborah Barton, B. Ed
Thomas Gauthier
Ben Paré
Kit Grauer (Department of Curriculum Studies, University of British Columbia)
Dawn Steele
Lisa Floe
Dr. J. Olivia Scalzo (parent of a special needs child, and former PAC chair in an inner city school).
Lisa Lindal
Linda Riches (Prince George)
Liz Hamel
Aimee Pollard
Leonard Durante
Patti Baccus
Heidi Gonzalez
Marv Westwood
Margaret Giacomello (Library Technician: Interlibrary Loans – Borrowing Kwantlen University College Library )
Dawn Currie (UBC)
Brandy Wiebe (PhD Student Sociology, UBC)
Tanya Stevenson (Parent and Special Education Teacher Mackenzie, BC)
Lorraine Gibson (GIS Technician/EDI-Coordinator Human Early Learning Partnership UBC )
Lisa Johnson (Manager, Community and Strategic Initiatives UBC Campus & Community Planning)
Amanda Marques – UBC Grad Student
Madeleine Macivor (UBC FNHL)
Barbara Wood (CoDevelopment Canada)
Patricia Fahrni
Felice S. Wyndham (Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology and Sociology, University of British Columbia)
Susan Jaeggle
Hazita Harun
Carolye Kuchta
Mar-y-paz Rivera (IT Coordinator UBC First Nations House of Learning)
Ulrike Radermacher (Co-Chair U. Hill Sec. PAC)
Daryl Sturdy
David Wu
Beverley Gartrell (SFU Sociology/Anthropology, retired)
Soowook Kim (Ph.D Candidate, Dept. of Curriculum Studies, Faculty of Education, UBC)
Louise Lamphere (Department of Anthropology, University of New Mexico)
Scott Gray, Salmon Arm, B.C.
Tracey Rabone, Salmon Arm, B.C.
Louise Craig, Lillooet, B.C.
Keith Craig, Lillooet, B.C.
Shannon Craig, Prince George, B.C.
Colleen Craig, Salmon Arm, B.C., who is a public education teacher
Ann Doyle (UBC)
William Narvey (Kistilano PAC exec and SPC member)
Mike Dowler (MA Music Education Student, UBC)
Marilee Roome
Jacqueline Solway, Associate Professor Trent University
Petra Ganzenmueller (Chair, Sessional Faculty Committee, UBC Faculty
Association)
Jill Warland, (Argyle Secondary School, North Vancouver, BC, Teacher and Parent)
Sowgol Torani
Wes Pue, South Delta
Linc Kesler (Associate Professor & Director, First Nations Studies Program UBC)
Sharon Roseman (Memorial University)