The Globe and Mail
Teachers in contempt, B.C. judge concludes
British Columbia’s defiant public-school teachers were found in contempt of court late yesterday for their continuing province-wide illegal strike. After a rare Sunday hearing, Madam Justice Brenda Brown of the B.C. Supreme Court said citizens do not have the right to choose which court orders to obey and which to flout.
CTV
Teachers guilty of contempt says BC court
A B.C. Supreme Court judge has declared the province’s teachers in contempt of court. “No citizen or group of citizens may choose which orders they may obey,” said Justice Nancy Brown in issuing her ruling on Sunday. She had decided in favour of an application from the British Columbia Public School Employers Association.
Vancouver Sun
Teachers to defy contempt ruling; They won’t return to work despite court’s threat of fines
B.C.’s public school teachers vow to remain out on the picket line, despite a court ruling declaring their actions to be against the law and the threat of significant fines.
“The actions we’re taking do not signal any disrespect for the law,” Jinny Sims, president of the British Columbia Teachers’ Association, said Sunday after losing a legal battle in B.C. Supreme Court that hinged on the teachers’ right to strike.
The Daily News (Nanaimo)
While the possibility of a teachers’ strike this fall has been known for months, Polita Rositano, a Grade 8 student at Woodlands Secondary School, said she was still caught off guard when teachers took to the picket lines Friday.
Teachers in contempt, B.C. judge concludes
By ROD MICKLEBURGH
Monday, October 10, 2005 Posted at 4:59 AM EDT
From Monday’s Globe and Mail
Vancouver — British Columbia’s defiant public-school teachers were found in contempt of court late yesterday for their continuing province-wide illegal strike.
After a rare Sunday hearing, Madam Justice Brenda Brown of the B.C. Supreme Court said citizens do not have the right to choose which court orders to obey and which to flout.
“If one may breach a court order, so may another . . . and anarchy cannot be far behind,” Judge Brown told the court.
The contempt application was made by the province’s school boards, which had earlier filed a cease-and-desist order from the B.C. Labour Relations Board in the Supreme Court, giving it the legal effect of a court order.
After she found the teachers guilty of contempt, however, Judge Brown delayed a hearing until Thursday to determine what penalties should be handed out.
The delay, which was strongly opposed by lawyers for the school boards, gives the teachers a few more days to consider how far they want to continue their defiance before being punished.
It also virtually guarantees no school for more than 600,000 elementary and high-school students tomorrow and Wednesday.
But at the same time, Judge Brown warned: “I am hopeful that teachers are responsible citizens and they will pay attention to my ruling.”
Should the strike continue, heavy fines will almost certainly be applied to the striking teachers’ union, the B.C. Teachers’ Federation. It is not anticipated that individual classroom instructors will be singled out for punishment.
BCTF president Jinny Sims wasted little time reasserting her union’s intention to stay off the job, despite yesterday’s contempt ruling.
Saying she was saddened by the decision, Ms. Sims said the teachers’ action is “in no way” intended to be disrespectful to the courts or the law.
“We are taking a stand against the unjust and punitive legislation of this government,” she declared. “Sometimes a law is bad, and we, as citizens, have to take a stand.”
Michael Hancock, meanwhile, a lawyer for the B.C. Public School Employers’ Association, called the contempt of court ruling “a sad day for education in British Columbia. Hopefully, our teachers will now go back to work.”
More than 42,000 teachers began an indefinite strike last Friday to protest against Bill 12, a government bill imposing a two-year contract extension on them, with no wage increase and no improvement in their working conditions.
The bitter dispute seems certain to produce the most prolonged shutdown of the province’s public schools in more than 20 years.
Before Judge Brown issued her ruling, BCTF lawyer John Rogers argued that there was a history to the current dispute, which had seen the Liberal government restrict teachers’ right to strike by designating education as an essential service and strip them of the ability to negotiate working conditions.
“In 3½ years, the teachers have gone from full collective bargaining to no collective bargaining rights,” he said. “It’s important to understand why they determined it was necessary to take a stand.”
Mr. Rogers said the teachers’ illegal strike is in the tradition of civil disobedience against unjust laws.
“This is not a defence, but civil disobedience does exist.”
However, school board lawyer Nazeer Mitha said the teachers’ walkout is a far cry from noble struggles against evils such as segregation in the southern United States and apartheid.
“This deals with wages and working conditions,” he said. “Teachers may feel aggrieved, but that does not excuse their conduct and obligation to obey the law.
“There is no doubt the BCTF is in contempt of court, and it is flagrant, premeditated and deliberate.”
The issue, Mr. Mitha said, is not about all the various players in the current conflict. “It is about an order of this court. If the court is going to make an order, it has to be obeyed.”
Judge Brown agreed. “The issue before me is not whether the legislation is appropriate, or whether the teachers’ position is correct,” she ruled.
“It is about the obligation of every citizen to obey a court order.”
No talks have been scheduled among any of the many parties involved in the dispute.
With a report from Canadian Press
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The Vancouver Sun
Teachers to defy contempt ruling
They won’t return to work despite court’s threat of fines
Darah Hansen and Jonathan Fowlie
Vancouver Sun
Monday, October 10, 2005
B.C.’s public school teachers vow to remain out on the picket line, despite a court ruling declaring their actions to be against the law and the threat of significant fines.
“The actions we’re taking do not signal any disrespect for the law,” Jinny Sims, president of the British Columbia Teachers’ Association, said Sunday after losing a legal battle in B.C. Supreme Court that hinged on the teachers’ right to strike.
“Rather, we are engaging in a political protest against the provincial government and its unjust legislation. We strongly believe some laws are so unjust that we cannot stand by and allow them to go unchallenged,” Sims said.
Sunday afternoon B.C. Supreme Court Justice Brenda Brown ruled in a special hearing that the striking teachers are acting in contempt of a Labour Relations Board order, issued Thursday, that declared the job action illegal.
“No citizen or group of citizens may choose which rules they will obey,” the judge said.
Brown said her decision was not based on whether the legislation under protest by teachers is fair, or whether the teachers’ position in respect to the legislation is correct.
“The issue before me is both narrower — confined to the consideration of the breach of the [LRB] order on Oct. 6 — and wider — concerned with the obligations of every citizen to obey court orders and the implications for democratic society if citizens choose which orders they will obey and which they will breach,” she said.
“It is the rule of law, in this case obedience to court orders, which permits us to enjoy rights and liberties in a civilized and democratic society,” the judge said. “These are fragile social constructs which are seriously weakened when a group refuses to obey orders from the court. If one may breach a court order, so may another, leaving none of us with rights or privileges.”
“I am hopeful that the teachers, as responsible citizens, will appreciate the significance of what I’ve had to say today, and its significance for citizens at large where court orders are breached,” she said.
Just how much the teachers will pay out in penalties, however, will have to wait until Thursday when the court will hear submissions from lawyers for both the teachers’ union and their provincial employers.
According to lawyer Nazeer Mitha, the B.C. Public School Employers’ Association will be seeking a monetary fine.
Mitha said ordering the arrest of the province’s 42,000 teachers was possible under law, but not practical.
“It would take more than all the police forces in this province to deal with this dispute,” he told the court Sunday.
Outside the court Sunday, Mike Hancock, general council for the employers’ association, said any penalty imposed should be stiff enough to get teachers to call off the strike.
“They [the union] are paying just about $2 million a day in strike pay, so the question is … what does it take to get their attention?” Hancock said.
Hancock said Sunday’s ruling represented “a sad day” for education in British Columbia — “that we’ve come to a point where our teachers’ union has been found in contempt of court.
“We hope the [teachers’ union] will hear the message the judge delivered today and will go back to work.”
Hancock added that the longer teachers’ remain on strike, the more serious the contempt will be considered.
Sims refused to discuss the union’s money situation Sunday, commenting only that the union has not asked for financial assistance from any other union at this time.
More than 90 per cent of union members voted last Wednesday to walk off the job in protest of Bill 12 — legislation introduced by the B.C. Liberals last week that will see a contract imposed on teachers until June 30, 2006. Picket lines went up around schools across the province Friday.
Sims said pickets will remain in place Tuesday, unless Labour Minister Mike de Jong agrees to sit down and negotiate a mutually agreeable contract with teachers.
The teachers are seeking to negotiate a cap on class sizes, improved working conditions and a 15-per-cent wage hike.
The teachers’ union is still holding out for a reversal of the original LRB ruling. An appeal of that order, which declared the strike to be illegal, is scheduled to be heard Tuesday by the board.
In his submissions to the court on behalf of the BCPSEA heard early in the day Sunday, Mitha argued that everyone must obey the law, “even if we have to hold our noses” at times.
Teachers, he said, are no different — and, in fact, must be held to a higher standard than others in society because they are expected to act as moral exemplar.
Mitha said there was “no doubt” the teachers’ union acted in contempt of court when it sanctioned a strike by its membership, and that the contempt was “flagrant, premeditated and deliberate.”
Meanwhile, John Rogers, lawyer for the B.C. Teachers’ Federation, argued teachers are merely practicing civil disobedience, a fundamental right in western democracies.
“In my summation, [the strike] is a reflection of how strongly teachers feel about what’s been imposed upon them that they have engaged in this conduct,” Rogers said.
Rogers further argued that while issues of wages and working conditions are not protected under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, they are still “fundamental circumstances of the human condition” and, therefore, worth fighting for.
dahansen@png.canwest.com
jfowlie@png.canwest.com
© The Vancouver Sun 2005
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The Daily News (Nanaimo)
Monday » October 10 » 2005
Students sound off on strike
Robert Barron
The Daily News
Saturday, October 08, 2005
While the possibility of a teachers’ strike this fall has been known for months, Polita Rositano, a Grade 8 student at Woodlands Secondary School, said she was still caught off guard when teachers took to the picket lines Friday.
“There’s been talk of a strike at the school but I didn’t think it would happen so fast,” Polita said from her home Friday.
“While some of the students are happy the teachers went on strike, there’s also concern that if the strike goes on a long time, we’ll probably have to make up the time this summer. As well, some of the Grade 12 students are worried about their provincial exams if it’s a long strike.”
Asked how she felt about her teachers breaking the law and engaging in an illegal strike, Polita said she doesn’t like it.
“I think they’re doing it because they don’t like what they see happening with education in the province and they’re standing up for their rights, but I think they should have ‘waited it out’ a little longer before deciding to strike,” she said.
Other students in Nanaimo are standing firmly with the teachers in their job action, some even making their own picket signs and walking the picket lines.
Katherine Mitton and Mike Skoropad, students at Dufferin Crescent Elementary School, talked a group of their friends into joining their teachers Friday.
“We want to help them because they’re really good teachers and they need our help right now,” Katherine said.
“Our school needs smaller classes, more time for students in the library, better books and supplies and I think the teachers deserve a raise. Teachers rule and we need school.”
Asked if she felt teachers are setting a bad example for students by participating in an illegal strike, Katherine said she felt the teachers “have good reasons” for resorting to job action.
Will Murray, a Grade 8 student from Woodlands who spent eight years at Dufferin, said he thinks if anyone is setting a bad example for students in the issue it’s Gordon Campbell.
SEE ALSO
-Unions back teachers – A3
-Parents uneasy as teachers thumb nose at law – A3
-No end in sight – A7
© The Daily News (Nanaimo) 2005
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