Scholarship fund honours former school trustee
Longtime educator Allen Blakey was a champion of public education. The four-term Vancouver school trustee and former B.C. Teachers’ Federation president could always be counted on to advocate against inequality in the school system. He spoke out whether kids were being shortchanged through provincial grants to districts, fees imposed on lowincome families, or parental fundraising that benefited wealthier schools over their poorer counterparts.
“While the motivation may be pure, it adds to inequities in the system since all school neighbourhoods don’t offer equal fundraising potential,” Blakey wrote on Straight.com in 2011 when he was seeking reelection with the Coalition of Progressive Electors. “Teachers providing financial assistance for the needs of students in their class has become the norm and will continue to grow as teachers try to meet their students’ unmet needs.
“One teacher has even made a public plea for socks, shoes, snacks, and a wide array of goods to meet personal and educational resources for inner city kids.” On May 6, Blakey died at the age of 84. One of his former colleagues on the
Vancouver school board, trustee Allan Wong, is the point man for a scholarship fund being created in Blakey’s name. Wong, the longest-serving trustee on the Vancouver school board, can be reached at al.wong@telus.net.
Blakey’s legacies included preventing the closure of five East Vancouver schools. This came in 2010, when he voted with other Coalition of Progressive Electors and Vision Vancouver trustees to resist pressure from the then–B.C. Liberal government to shutter them in the face of a budget shortfall.
One of the saved schools was Sir William
Macdonald elementary at 1950 East Hastings Street. It later became an Aboriginal-focus school and has since been renamed Xpey’ elementary.
Sir Guy Carleton was another one that was kept open. The others were Champlain Heights Annex, Sir Richard McBride Annex, and Queen Alexandra.
In a BCTF video, Blakey said his father was a shipyard worker and Labour Party supporter who moved to Canada in 1923. His mother, a nurse, came five years later and they met in Winnipeg, where he was born in 1936.
In 1955, Blakey began his teaching career in Cranbrook, B.C. He recalled overseeing a class of 25 kids from grades 4 to 7 that included one student with special needs: a girl with Down’s syndrome, dwarf structure, and epilepsy. In the clip, he revealed that he “learned one hell of a lot” from the girl.
Blakey became president of the Vancouver Elementary School Teachers’ Association in 1968 and served as the BCTF president from 1979 to 1981.
“Al was a pioneer of the teachers’ union movement in B.C. and played a key role in the BCTF becoming a strong union with strong values,” the BCTF said in a statement on social media. “Our condolences go out to his loved ones.”
Blakey was also on the organizing committee of OneCity Vancouver, which elected two municipal politicians in 2018: Coun. Christine Boyle and school trustee Jennifer Reddy.
Reddy tweeted that Blakey joined her on many mornings as they met families. She also revealed that he taught her the importance of using every opportunity to be “fiercely anti-racist”.
“When we did politics together I felt strong,” Reddy declared. “Thank you Al.” g