Stretched too far . . .
How far can people be stretched until they break? This is the question that has haunted me this past week, reflecting not only on the teacher’s strike, but in conversation after conversation with people who have committed their lives to the service of others.
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Will We Fight for Our Basic Human Rights?
The decision yesterday to invoke the “notwithstanding clause” to force teachers back to work and accept an agreement that 89.5% of teachers had voted against is a gross removal of a fundamental right. Rights only exist in reality if people are willing to defend them. History has shown that when those in power violate the rights of one group, it is not long before the rights of other groups are also violated, unless people fight back.
In 2015, the Supreme Court established that the Charter of Rights and Freedoms protects a right to strike. “The right of employees to strike is vital to protecting the meaningful process of collective bargaining,” wrote Justice Rosailie Abella in their decision. Collective bargaining, backed up by the ability to strike, have been the essential tools that enabled the labour movement to raise wages and improve working conditions. This allows the creation of a prosperous middle class, which we have enjoyed for decades, but now see being eroded. This right is what allows most of us to prosper, and the ease with which our government has chosen to violate this right threatens this shared prosperity.
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Understanding the Municipal Election Results
I find it interesting that the difference between Jeromy Farkas’s winning votes and Sonya Sharp’s was about the same number as the number of people who attended our Mayoral Forum that Farkas attended and Sharp did not. It is a good reminder of why our shared work matters.
Our municipal election has seen unprecedented change to our city council. There are 10 new council members and a new Mayor. We have to go back to 1915, during World War I, when there were nine new council members to find a similar turnover. So what does this mean for us and our work for the Common Good?
Read moreMunicipal Election - Reflections on Communities, Individualism and Citizenship
“He said he wouldn’t meet with us, because we are an advocacy organization, and he wants to meet with real Calgarians, with actual communities and that he does this through door knocking.”
How strange to hear this response to a community organizing alliance. How strange it is to hear this during an election campaign when one of the parties is called “Communities First”
Our Ward Teams have heard a response along this line from several candidates, which makes me wonder if this is something they have been trained to say or if this reflects something far darker - a loss of community, citizenship and democracy.
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