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.”