More than 50 teachers from Lester B. Pearson School Board elementary schools in Saint Lazare demonstrated at the corner of Ste. Angelique and Bedard streets in Saint Lazare Thursday. (Photos by Kristina Edson)
Teachers wore black PTU t-shirts outlining their feelings.
Educators fighting new ‘quiet revolution’
Motorists honked horns, shouted encouragement and even delivered coffee and donuts as teachers with the Lester B. Pearson School Board picketed outside of the board’s Vaudreuil-Soulanges schools Thursday morning.
Later the same morning more than fifty educators from Evergreen, Forest Hill Sr. and Jr. and Birchwood elementary schools convened on Oct. 29 at the corner of Ste. Angelique and Bedard streets in Saint Lazare, while others from Mount Pleasant and other area schools demonstrated on Côte-St. Charles near the Highway 40 on-ramp. Wearing black Pearson Teacher’s Union, PTU, t-shirts bearing the words ‘I support quality public education and better learning conditions,’ the teachers waved banners and placards and shouted chants to get their message across. They later moved the demonstration to the LBPSB head office in Dorval to voice their displeasure with the board’s alleged support of the government’s position. Josée Mallette, a Birchwood elementary teacher with 25 years experience, says the PTU notified its members via email about the board’s position. Mallette’s become aware of an overall decline in the quality of education and conditions in Quebec classrooms in the past few years. Noting that while teachers want a salary increase consistent with the cost of living, Mallette said their fight is for the kind of education children in Quebec will receive if the government is successful in pushing through all of its initiatives. “It’s about class sizes, a healthy working environment and help for students in an inclusive board,” Mallette said while picketing on the unseasonably warm morning where the rain had thankfully held off.
Quite Revolution
Likening the current fight with Quebec’s 1960s Quiet Revolution, a term first coined by an anonymous writer in The Globe and Mail, Mallette felt parents supported the teachers because “they understand what’s at stake.” Natalie Perron, a teacher from Forest Hill Sr. elementary in Saint Lazare said teachers are taking unpaid days to strike. “For everyday we strike we don’t get paid but this is what we have to do to get our message across,” she noted, adding, “this is about the students.” Perron feels the current struggles can be traced to the Marois government, which introduced the current “cycle program” whereby students have two years to complete certain “competencies” before cycling up to a new level. For teacher Angela Davison the class sizes the Couillard government wants to impose are not realistic. “I’ve had 32 students in my classroom…. I’ve taught with three students in one class who just came from hospital programs because of various special needs. The kids just won’t get the attention under those conditions,” she noted. According to Mallette, today’s teachers deal with special needs students including those on the autism spectrum, those with Tourette’s Syndrome, or a range of intellectual and behavioral needs, and some with issues with violence. “And we’re seeing this in Saint Lazare, not the inner city,” she said. Meanwhile, school support staff, including morning, lunchtime and after school workers, will strike on Nov. 4, when schools will again be closed. Another round of rotating strikes are scheduled to take place on Nov. 16 and 17. A province wide strike that will include 400,000 public sector employees is scheduled to take place on Dec. 1, 2 and 3 barring a lack of progress in talks between unions and the government.
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