Ontario teachers rallying again, but without much energy

Igot a weird email from my daughter’s school earlier in the week. Well, technically, it came via the class parent, the mom who’s volunteered to pass along messages to all guardians of kids in the class. It was an announcement of a small gathering before Thursday morning.

“Teachers will be holding a Walk In to show that the teachers, education workers and many parents/guardians, oppose the cuts to public education,” the email said. ” At 8:30 a.m., (the) staff will meet at the east end of the schoolyard and Walk In the school together. Teachers and staff invite you to be on the field on Thursday morning to show your support.”

Doug Ford’s PC’S have taken a beating in the polls of late. They’ve retreated on some policy planks in the face

of determined opposition, and as I noted last week, opponents of the government seem to have begun to clue in to how to maximize pressure against the premier. I remember well the huge disruptions when former Ontario premier Mike Harris and the province’s teacher unions went to war. Could we be seeing the start of something like that?

So far, I’d have to say no. The 1997 teacher strike in protest of Harris-government cuts was a major event. It was my first year of high school, and was, to me, a surprise vacation — sweet! — but for many others, it was a major hassle. Many of my teachers remained embittered, often vocally so, for the rest of my high school days. I know of friendships that were broken over the political disagreements surrounding the strike. It helped cement Harris as the default Ontario Liberal bogeyman for literally years after he’d left public life. It was nasty.

Even 22 years later, that’s my bar for evaluating a protest against a PC premier. What we saw this week didn’t come close.

In fairness, observing the event ended up being a more fraught task than I expected. One parent standing near the playground took a stray basketball right in the back of the head. Damn near knocked his glasses off. But that was the extent of the drama, and at 8: 30 a. m., as planned, a group of maybe 20 or 30 teachers marched across the field, waving awkwardly, while a few dozen parents formed a human corridor and applauded. It was all very pleasant and civilized.

It was also oddly low key. The email I got from the school referred only to “cuts to public education.” No group — parent, teacher, union, otherwise — claimed the leadership of the event. The email contained a link promising “more information,” but there wasn’t much. It led to a sign- up page, no doubt to gather emails for future campaigns, but there was no further information there, just another vague allusion to needing to “fight for the schools all kids need.” Another link led to a page with some tips for organizing and some sign-up templates and proposed chants but no real information about the cuts that were being protested or information about who was behind the organization. The teachers gave no speeches and carried no signs. There was obviously someone organizing this, but they were keeping a very low profile.

To be clear, I’m not really hoping for another sustained labour dispute like the one Ontario had in 1997 (as interesting as it would be to cover). The 1997 strike was disruptive and, as noted above, nasty. A lot of families were left in the lurch when the schools closed; and teachers on the picket lines felt the pinch of being on drastically reduced strike wages for two weeks. It wasn’t fun for anyone.

But it was well- organized and, in some ways, effective for the teachers. In the end, they returned to work without securing much of anything for their trouble. But the strike led the news locally and even went international. None of it stopped Mike Harris from winning a second majority government two years later, with a slightly increased share of the popular vote (though with significantly fewer seats). But the teachers fought, hard. Their message was heard and retained. People still remember it.

This week? Nothing like that. With the exception of the myopic gentleman getting picked off with a basketball, there was little that was memorable about Thursday’s event. I scanned local headlines — there were a few small stories about similar protests elsewhere, but nothing detailed or co-ordinated. There was a Twitter hashtag, # Walkinforeducation, that was used by assorted parents as well as some opposition MPPS and left- wing thinktank types.

But it didn’t see much action, either. I’m not even convinced most people actually at the event grasped what it was about; one mom, clapping loudly, casually asked me if I knew what was going on — she was simply clapping because other people were.

Maybe next year the teachers will flex their organizational muscle and mobilize. For now, though, it’s probably best it was small. First of all, and I hate to be that guy, but it’s a bit awkward to hold even a modest and polite political rally on D- Day — it’s hard to think of a public policy issue that doesn’t seem trivial next to storming enemy- held beaches or paradropping in the dark into battle with combat-hardened Nazi divisions. Strolling into work on a sunny day to polite applause sure as hell beats advancing through barbed wire into MG- 42 machine- gun fire and artillery barrages. Given the timing, vastly more media attention to a labour protest on the 75th anniversary of D- Day may not have much helped the teachers’ cause.

Secondly, the cuts proposed by the Ford government to education are, thus far ... not horrible? It’s certainly less than what Harris had proposed. Some class sizes would increase, yes. Budgets were trimmed. But even the relatively modest job losses that originally loomed have been headed off by a commitment by the government to spend $ 1.6 billion specifically to ensure that no teacher loses their job. The day before the event, the government announced it would hold most public- sector workers, including teachers, to one per cent annual raises for the foreseeable future — is anyone really going to man the barricades over that?

The Ford government has made some mistakes and has been forced to back off some of its proposals. But the cuts to education are thus far, for the most part, tame. Perhaps it’s fitting that this week’s pushback also fit that description.

teachers gave no speeches and carried no signs.