Protesters disrupt Wynne’s speech
Premier briefly rattled as women voice outrage at seven-week York strike
Protesters from York University disrupted Premier Kathleen Wynne’s Canadian Club speech to demonstrate their anger at a seven-week strike. “You’ve done nothing, Wynne,” shouted one of the four young women who posed as journalists in order to sneak into the premier’s speech Monday at Arcadian Court. “CUPE wants to bargain! CUPE wants to bargain!” they chanted as they unfurled a spray-painted banner reading “We Are The Future Of Education” from above the dais. Some 3,000 academic workers, members of the Canadian Union of Public Employ- ees Local 3903, have been on strike at York since March 5.
The union is seeking improvements to job security and benefits and is also looking for high- er wages. It is demanding a 10.5 per-cent raise over three years. York has offered 6.6 per cent. While Wynne briefly appeared rattled by the twominute protest that ended when the four were peacefully escorted away by staff, she said she shared the demonstrators’ frustration at the impasse.
“I agree with you,” she said before lauding the young people for voicing their concerns.
“We live in a democratic society and isn’t that a wonderful thing,” the premier said.
At Queen’s Park, Progressive Conservative MPP Lorne Coe (Whitby- Oshawa) implored the government to “finally take action to get the 51,000 students back into their class- rooms.”
“This could be the last opportunity the Liberal government has to act to save the semester of tens of thousands of students and allow them to graduate in June,” Coe said.
Advanced Education Minister Mitzie Hunter emphasized that “York is still open and students are still attending classes, as they have been through the duration.
“That being said … this government has taken action,” said Hunter, who noted that Labour Minister Kevin Flynn has “appointed an experienced mediator to bring the sides together, to talk to each party and find a path to resolution.”