A Teacher's Response to Bill 115

[Jaden Lairson is a secondary teacher in Ottawa. His letter, dated January 10th, to colleagues is reprinted here with permission]

Dear Colleagues,

The Minister of Education recently stated: “the Bill has worked well and

served its purposes.” I can’t believe that this is passing for legitimate

government reasoning, it reminds me of quotes from the Ministry of Truth in 1984

or things that used to come out of John Snobelen’s office when he was Minister

of Education in the Harris government. This Bill has been and continues to be a

disaster for public education, civil society, and labour rights. Right to work

legislation can not be far behind if left unchecked.

The Bill has forced all of us as educators to make some incredible

decisions, decisions that go against the very core of why we decided to become

teachers. Like most of you I believe that a full service, well funded public

education system is the backbone of a democratic functioning civil society.

Participating in a system that values every individual, provides the highest quality

education possible, and challenges young people to grow not just intellectually,

but also encourages them to be engaged active citizens that participate in

Canadian society. I believe that extra-curricular activities are an important

element of education and have over the last 10 years devoted untold hours to

that belief that engaging students outside of the classroom is key element of

education that builds better a better society.

Bill 115 has had a devastating impact on me personally and quite frankly

makes me question my decision to become a teacher, because we have a

government that clearly does not value education. They have used the most

basic and fundamental right of education as a crass political tool. However my

convictions have not changed. I became a public school teacher by choice

because I felt it was the best way I could affect positive change in my society.

Without the right to collectively bargain we will very quickly become a second

rate profession, which consequently will lead to a second rate system. A system

quite frankly I do not want to be a part of. The choice for our society to make is

do we want a system like Georgia or a system like Finland. Our profession and

our system is worth fighting for with everything we have, using every tool we

have. This fight will force us to make some difficult decisions and it will come

with personal sacrifice. It is a fight that is worth it. At this difficult time, more

than ever, we have to remain united and remain strong. We all have to

remember why we became teachers. We all have to dig deep and ask ourselves

what type of society do we want to live. A society that values the principals of

egalitarianism, hard-work, acceptance, respect, and empathy is a society worth

fighting for.