Bill 28 (Keeping Students in Class Act, 2022) — ‘a vicious attack on education workers, parents, students and ALL workers’

Bill 28 (Keeping Students in Class Act, 2022) — ‘a vicious attack on education workers, parents, students and ALL workers’

By MPP Jill Andrew
(Community News Update, Nov. 14, 2022)

The House resumed today and my top priority; repealing Bill 28.

Since the day it was tabled, my position was clear. The Keeping Students in Class Act, 2022, was a vicious attack on education workers, parents, students, and ALL workers and should have never have been passed in the first place. Not only did it not keep students in class, it infringed on the human right to collectively bargain, as written in the constitution, through its use of the notwithstanding clause.

Air Force (RCAF) Foundation Remembrance Day Ceremony at Mount Pleasant Cemetery Mausoleum, where Wing Commander William G. Barker, VC, Canada’s first leader of the RCAF is interred.

While I’m thrilled to have it tossed out, this is only the first step. Education workers are still waiting for a fair deal after they upheld their end of the bargain by heading back to work to keep caring for Ontario students. Rest assured, myself and my Ontario NDP colleagues will continue keeping the pressure on the Ford government to negotiate in good faith and finally pay education workers what they deserve after their wages fell far below inflation over the past 10 years.

Interestingly, Ontario’s Fall Economic Statement was also released today making it crystal clear that the government can raise education workers wages to a livable rate that keeps a roof over their head, food on their table, and their wages above inflation. They are choosing not to.

The same way they’re choosing to deepen the healthcare staffing crisis without a single penny more being put to nurses and healthcare workers. The same way they’re choosing to deepen the housing and affordability crises without the needed investment in affordable home starts, bringing back real rent control, and helping working Ontarians pay their inflated bills.

Let it be known. Whether it’s low wages for essential workers, emergency rooms closing, or mounting grocery bills on top of astronomical rents; these are choices made by this government. Choices they are standing behind. Today showed that.

I also had the opportunity to speak to the government’s Bill 26: Strengthening Post-secondary Institutions and Students Act, 2022 earlier today. This legislation is said to protect students from sexual assault on campus. But upon a deeper dive into how the bill would work, it does not go far enough.

Sexual assault can happen anywhere on campus and sadly, does. It is certainly not limited to employee-student dynamic, as this Bill suggests. Student to student ratios towards sexual assault are damning and cannot be ignored. Yet, they are here. The comprehensive, community-based response sexual assault requires, including annualized funding to rape crisis centres and mental health resources, is also notably missing. Meanwhile, no conversation around dismantling rape culture is complete without one that builds a culture of consent. This government actively disregarded this when they failed to enact MPP Wong-Tam’s Consent Awareness Week Act this September.

I urge the Ford government to make these crucial amendments to effectively strengthen post-secondary institutions and give students the protection from sexual violence each of them deserves.

Last Friday was Remembrance Day, and I was honoured to attend the twelfth annual Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) Foundation Remembrance Day Ceremony at Mount Pleasant Cemetery Mausoleum, where Wing Commander William G. Barker, VC, Canada’s first leader of the RCAF is interred.

I am deeply grateful to our veterans who have served and sacrificed for our country, and additionally to the families and communities surrounding our servie members. May these freedoms we enjoy in Canada never be taken for granted. Thank you for your service!