Conservative leaning pundits paint the B.C. government conflict with the B.C. Teachers’ Federation (BCTF) as both sides’ fault. Nothing could be further from the truth. Supreme Court evidence has found Liberal government negotiators wasted four months in negotiating and took “manifestly unreasonable demands” to force a strike. When the BCTF did not strike, it was so important to Liberal strategy, they increased their attack by trying to cancel leaves, professional development, and cut teachers’ pay. It didn’t work. Teachers stayed in class in spite of this manipulative provocation.
This asks a fundamental question. Who should parents trust with their children? Here we have our government trying to create havoc by pushing teachers to the wall and creating a province-wide shutdown of schools for crassly political gain. On the other side, teachers stayed in the classroom despite attacks on both their profession and livelihood.
The public should remember the adage “by our deeds we shall be known.”
Ted Roberts
Sooke