Re: Year-end teachers strike hurts kids, News, June 18
I continue to be aghast when I read statements such as the year-end strike is “unconscionable and unethical.”
As British Columbians, the fact that our government is practising a method of being “holier than thou” with the supreme court has been entirely overlooked.
If any other country was being being run by a government that felt it could step aside the law by appealing supreme court rulings twice, I would expect (and hope) Canadians would consider the defiant act to be “unconscionable and unethical. I also hope they would consider who the arrogant bullies really are in this battle.
More importantly, this strike is about the kids. British Columbia students, our sons, our daughters, our nieces, our nephews and our grandchildren are not as valued as other Canadian students by our provincial government.
How is it acceptable that a B.C. student is not worth the one thousand dollars that every other student across Canada is receiving and how is it possible that the papers have not highlighted this truth?
To sit silently when abuse happens is allowing the abuse to happen.
Negligence is a form of abuse. Teachers say no to this government and to the government’s negligence towards our children.
Yes, this strike hurts and if we continue to allow our students to be the secondary citizens that Premier Christy Clark and B.C. Education Minister Peter Fassbender believe our children to be – based on the fact that B.C. schoolchildren don’t receive the same per student investment as every other province in Canada – then the negligence will continue.
Teachers are not responsible for funding our students. Rather, that’s the responsibility of our government.
Unfortunately, your June 18 editorial feeds the ignorance of what this battle is really about.
Mary Ann Espedido, M.Ed
Saanich