BY MARY ELLEN MARUS
TORONTO-A massive turnout of teachers from all over Ontario converged on Queen's Park December 13 to protest CAN $400 million in proposed cuts to the province's education system.
Nearly 400 busloads of teachers organized by the Ontario English Catholic Teachers Association traveled from as far as Ottawa and Sudbury, making it the largest protest yet against Premier Mike Harris's Conservative government and one of the largest demonstrations at the provincial legislature in recent memory. Local papers reported more than 35,000 joined the protest.
Tom Jordan, a special education teacher, explained why he came on one of seven buses from Brockville. "These cuts will hurt the most vulnerable. There will be a two-tiered education system - one for the rich and one for the poor."
Claire Pryor, a high school librarian from St. Pious in Ottawa, detailed the effects of the cuts saying, "Adult education and night school will be ended, which will hurt immigrants. Department heads, vice principals, and guidance teachers will go as well as junior kindergarten. French programs will be knifed. Classroom sizes will increase as well as teachers' workloads. On top of this another $400 million is due to be cut from post-secondary education." University tuition will rise by up to 20 percent. She believes "we need a mass walkout of all the teachers across the province," not just the Catholic school teachers.
A York University student, Courtney Harris, said she was here to protest "just because I want to be able to go to school. My scholarship grant was frozen but the tuition increased." Her friend said that she holds down two part- time jobs during the school year to get by. Harris, who volunteers as a teacher at a North York elementary school, emphasized that in her grade six class there are not even enough desks and books to go around.
The education cuts are part of Bill 26, an omnibus bill that outlines cuts of $8 billion. The bill would give the provincial government sweeping powers to enact user fees and close hospitals. Workers say it will lead to crowded classrooms and higher tuition fees; fewer hospitals with longer waiting lists; deteriorating public transit, roads, and bridges; and an increase in the number of homeless.
In the wake of this bill looms the possibility of a strike by Ontario's 50,000 civil servants.
The government has promised to cut 14,000 civil service jobs, cut pensions, and privatize some operations. Current negotiations with the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU) could leave the union in a position to strike or be locked out in early February.
OPSEU teachers at the Great Lakes College private high school for foreign students, faced with the owner's demand of wage cuts from 40-70 percent, recently threw up a picket line in protest. Because the government eliminated anti-scab legislation workers had previously won, the strikers now confront replacement teachers.
Labor officials speaking at the rally said this demonstration was a model for the whole labor movement. The president of the Canadian Union of Public Employees, Sid Ryan, drew big applause when he said, "We're coming to a city near you," referring to the plans of the union tops to call for a second city-wide shutdown after the successful strike in London, Ontario, December 11.
When shown photos of the mobilizations by French workers in Paris in the Militant newspaper, Ginny Balogh, a French immersion teacher, responded, "That shows it can be done."
Naomi Joliffe contributed to this article.