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Doug Ford wants to invoke Notwithstanding Clause

3 points by FpUser ↗ HN
Ontario teachers want to go on strike after failed negotiations. They are not being paid enough to have any semblance of decent life. Provincial Government could declare them essential service. This will put teachers back to work and force an arbitration which would normally give them some decent deal.

Instead our Ford threatens Notwithstanding Clause - this unique Canadian abomination of basic rights. Which is basically - fuck you and fuck you rights, we will do as we please. All after voting huge salary increase for our "servants".

This whole Notwithstanding clause and politicians like Ford make a mockery of basic human rights. It just does not belong to a democratic societies.

Ford go drink your beer with Xi.

6 comments

[ 3.1 ms ] story [ 27.4 ms ] thread
jleyank
Look at Legault in Quebec re the notwithstanding clause as he’s used it several times. Any government that relies on suppressing fundamental rights to govern is not legitimate. This coupled with a four year majority really sucks. Basically, the charter of rights and freedoms in Canada and its provinces is toilet paper.
FpUser
>"Basically, the charter of rights and freedoms in Canada and its provinces is toilet paper."

My thoughts exactly

Pixeltect
Average salary for an Ontario teacher with 10 years experience is $95K Cad ($70K USD).
beezlebroxxxxxx
CUPE does not cover full time teachers, they are the support staff, EAs, administrators, custodians, etc. In other words, they are the people that ensure most schools can actually function, and they make significantly less 95K CAD. The average for them is closer to 40K. Many of them work multiple jobs out of necessity.

Regardless of how much they make, banning them from striking, imposing a contract on them and fining them for striking is a spit in the face of all labour.

ipaddr
Would teaches give up 10k and give it to the staff providing them all of this support?

With the average Canadian salary less than 39,000 should there be such a gulf between teachers and the staff who support them?

beezlebroxxxxxx
It's not a zero sum game. The Ontario government is choosing to not negotiate with CUPE.

Bringing up average Canadian salaries does not reflect the COL differences between the provinces and territories.

If education is so important, and the Ontario provincial government explicitly runs on improving and ensuring the quality of education, then ensuring everyone who works in education has a high standard of living and salary in order to bring the best quality to schools is in their own interest.