Tag Archives: Ford

Ontario’s Directives for Return to School

August 10, 2021

On August 3, 2021, Ford’s government released a 26-page document outlining its directives for elementary and secondary students returning to school five days per week for the first time in months. As Robin Ureck noted in this Globe and Mail opinion piece from August 5, 2021 entitled, “Ontario’s COVID-19 back-to-school plan: hoping, praying and replaying”,  “one would think the Ford government would throw absolutely everything in its arsenal at this last vulnerable space: a comprehensive rapid testing program, ventilation overhauls with monitoring, windows that actually open in all classrooms, vaccination requirements for teachers and older students, and so forth. Instead, it seems to have merely recycled last year’s plan, tweaked a few details and added in some questionable new permissions.”

 

Opposition parties have universally lambasted the Ford government’s directives on back to school for September 2021:

 

Education advocates have also expressed concerns about Ford’s back-to-school directives. Annie Kidder, Executive Director of People for Education, has noted how surprising it is that there was hardly anything about vaccinations or about what would happen if there is an outbreak in schools outlined in the Ford government’s back-to-school directives.

 

Wendy Goodes took the Ontario Science Table’s recommendations and compared those to what was actually released by the Ford government, to highlight many shortcomings of Ontario’s directives for back-to-school this September.

And the Ontario Parent Action Network (OPAN) expressed its disappointment to the Ford government’s directives for September immediately following the announcement.

https://twitter.com/parentaction4ed/status/1422922051262767105

 

And folks such as Amy Greer, who was a co-author on the Ontario Science Table school document expressed outrage about the Ford government’s return to school directives.

Much like last year’s directives on back-to-school from the Ford government, this year’s directives appear to rely heavily on low community spread of COVID-19 and its Delta variant in order for schools to be safe. With Ontario’s reproduction rate at 1.38 and daily counts rising, Ford’s “plan” seems like anything but a good one for our children’s safe return to in-person learning five days a week this September.

Failing Grades for Both Canada and Premier Ford

June 8, 2021

A Failing Grade for Canada

Canada has repeatedly failed Indigenous children, their families and their communities. The discovery of 215 children buried in unmarked graves at Kamloops Residential School has highlighted that there was nothing about Canada’s Residential Schools that was safe, healthy or conducive to learning.

NOTE: Several weeks after 215 unmarked graves were found Kamloops Residential School, on June 24, 2021, the Cowessess First Nation announced a preliminary finding of 751 more unmarked graves near the former Marieval Indian Residential School in Southeast Saskatchewan. We expect additional unmarked graves will continue to be unearthed.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC) was formed in 2007, in response to the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement, the largest class-action suit in Canadian history. In June 2015, the TRC presented the executive summary of the findings contained in its multi-volume final report, including 94 “calls to action” (or recommendations) to further reconciliation between Canadians and Indigenous Peoples.

The following recommendations are specific to Education:

6. We call upon the Government of Canada to repeal Section 43 of the Criminal Code of Canada.

7. We call upon the federal government to develop with Aboriginal groups a joint strategy to eliminate educational and employment gaps between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Canadians.

8. We call upon the federal government to eliminate the discrepancy in federal education funding for First Nations children being educated on reserves and those First Nations children being educated off reserves.

9. We call upon the federal government to prepare and publish annual reports comparing funding for the education of First Nations children on and off reserves, as well as educational and income attainments of Aboriginal peoples in Canada compared with nonAboriginal people.

10. We call on the federal government to draft new Aboriginal education legislation with the full participation and informed consent of Aboriginal peoples. The new legislation would include a commitment to sufficient funding and would incorporate the following principles:

i. Providing sufficient funding to close identified educational achievement gaps within one generation.

ii. Improving education attainment levels and success rates.

iii. Developing culturally appropriate curricula.

iv. Protecting the right to Aboriginal languages, including the teaching of Aboriginal languages as credit courses.

v. Enabling parental and community responsibility, control, and accountability, similar to what parents enjoy in public school systems.

vi. Enabling parents to fully participate in the education of their children. vii. Respecting and honouring Treaty relationships.

11. We call upon the federal government to provide adequate funding to end the backlog of First Nations students seeking a post-secondary education.

12. We call upon the federal, provincial, territorial, and Aboriginal governments to develop culturally appropriate early childhood education programs for Aboriginal families.

So much listening, collaboration, funding, and commitment to do better is needed to address Canada’s hitherto abject failure of Indigenous children, their families and communities. 

A Failing Grade for Premier Ford and his Government 

Premier Ford and his government failed to make the public health policy decisions that could have led to better outcomes for Ontario’s students, their families, teachers, education workers and Ontario’s businesses. In Robyn Urback’s Globe and Mail opinion piece of June 3, 2021 entitled, Doug Ford’s pandemic response has been the worst of Canada’s Premiers, she states,

“nowhere else in Canada have children been out of school so long, have seniors been hit with two equally devastating waves, have outdoor activities been so restricted for months, have personal service workers been forced into such prolonged shutdown and have retailers and other businesses faced such extended restrictions. And in exchange for these sacrifices, the province can boast … average case numbers, and above-average deaths.”  and also  notes, “Along with kids, Ontario’s seniors – particularly those in long-term care homes – have disproportionately borne the burden of Mr. Ford’s aimless, undisciplined approach to pandemic control.” 

Fix Our Schools’ focus continues to be on ensuring that Ontario’s schools are safe, healthy, well-maintained buildings that provide environments conducive to learning and working. Throughout the pandemic, Premier Ford has claimed that he shared this focus, and that he prioritized Ontario’s students, their schools and education, and their mental health.

However, in our opinion, Premier Ford and his government have:

and in so doing, Premier Ford and his government have ultimately failed Ontario’s students and their families and our economy.

Acknowledging this failure, we must now look forward to ensuring Ontario’s students return to school in September as safely as possible and with as much normalcy as possible, to be sure. To deliver on this goal, Premier Ford and his government must ensure standards, metrics, data and investment are in place as quickly as possible. Success also requires that Premier Ford provides leadership that allows both the education and public health sectors to maintain a steadfast focus on September.

Beyond safety and normalcy, we also need a vision of excellence for Ontario’s schools and education beyond what was considered “normal” prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. Let’s remember that pre-pandemic, $16.3-B of disrepair existed in Ontario’s schools following decades of provincial underfunding, and we had no standards in place for schools to measure whether schools and classrooms were safe, healthy, well-maintained and provided environments conducive to learning. This vision for excellence absolutely must be developed with input from all education stakeholders. Given that Ford’s government was elected having a scant education policy platform, his government has no mandate from the electorate to determine this vision on its own. Ontario’s children and youth are going to need to be prioritized for many years to come.

Citizen Advocacy Works!

A recent study found that when citizens make direct contact with their local government representative – they do influence decision-making and policy. This same study also found that sharing personal stories is a powerful way to communicate with your local government representatives. So, at a time when many people have started to disengage, feeling a lack of control and a lack of hope at times – we encourage you to dig deep and advocate on behalf of Ontario’s students.

Please email Premier Ford or call him at 416-325-1941
Please email Education Minister Lecce or call him at 416-325-2600
Please also contact your local MPP

Please share your stories with our provincial leaders. Tell them how school closures and online learning have been impacting the children in your life. As two doctors wrote, “we cannot let our children and youth become the pandemic’s collateral damage.” Let’s work together to make Ontario’s children a priority now.

Safe, Healthy, Well-Maintained Schools – a Non-Partisan Issue

February 2, 2021

Ever since the Fix Our Schools campaign began in 2014, we have operated in a non-partisan manner, recognizing that the goal of safe, healthy, well-maintained schools is a non-partisan issue. Whether we spoke to a 78-year old white man who lived in rural Ontario and had always voted conservative, or whether we spoke to a 23-year old Black woman who lived in downtown Toronto and voted NDP, the consistent and unanimous response to stories of disrepair in schools, or substandard learning conditions was simple:

We need to fix our schools

To fix our schools requires money and, in Ontario, the only money that can be used to fix schools comes from our provincial government.

Based on recent reports, we know that Premier Ford’s government is sitting on over $6-billion of unspent federal pandemic funding, so our provincial government has unallocated money literally sitting in its coffers. Based on recent reports, we also know that Premier Ford’s government ignored the recommendations of SickKids, medical professionals, public health professionals, education professionals, and, indeed, it ignored the recommendations of civil servants within the Ministry of Education when this government implemented only “half-measures” to ensure the safety of students and education workers in the classroom amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.  

These are the facts.

So, why is our provincial government politicizing the issue of safe, healthy, well-maintained schools in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic? Is it political to want well-ventilated classrooms? Is it political to want children and adults in schools to be able to readily wash their hands? Is it political to want classrooms where students can readily practice the physical distancing that is a tenet of every single COVID public health message?

The NDP, Liberal, and Green parties all agree on what needs to be done for children and adults to be safe in schools: low community spread, proper ventilation in classrooms, quality PPE, room to practice physical distancing, adequate nurses and custodians, and testing in schools. It is the 11th month of the pandemic, and we still await these measures. These MPP’s represent 57.76% of Ontarians. Why doesn’t Premier Ford listen to hundreds of medical experts, all of the other parties, and a good portion of voters? 

What are we to make of a government using distractions to avoid spending money for the safety of its citizens? The Ford government could choose to listen to students, parents, teachers, health professionals, and its own Ministry staff, but instead, saves the desperately needed funds for some unspecified future date.

Do you agree with Fix Our Schools that the goal of safe, healthy, well-maintained schools, especially in the midst of a pandemic, is a non-partisan one? If this is a non-partisan goal, and there is money in the bank, then what on earth is stopping the Ford government from spending money to get Ontario’s students back in classrooms safely? 

Our Provincial Government Cannot Continue to Rely on Miracles

August 28, 2020

In yesterday’s briefing, Premier Ford said, “We’re really relying on school boards. I just told them I have all the confidence in the world that they’re going to be able to get through this and make sure that the students and the staff are in a very safe environment”. As a co-founder of Fix Our Schools, a parent-led, non-partisan campaign started over 6 years ago to advocate for safe, healthy, well-maintained school buildings in Ontario, I literally felt tears spring to my eyes as I read this – tears of anger, frustration, and disbelief. 

2 DECADES NO CHANGE For Ontario School kidsFor over 20 years, successive provincial governments have relied on school boards to work miracles while being chronically and grossly underfunded by the Province. When Fix Our Schools began in 2014, provincial funding was a mere $150-M per year for school repair and renewal – ONE-TENTH of what industry standards suggested was the bare minimum! Yet the narrative of the provincial government was that somehow, the disrepair that accumulated in our provincial school buildings was the fault of SCHOOL BOARDS?? I guess the provincial government “relying on school boards and having confidence in them” to keep Ontario’s schools safe, healthy and well-maintained didn’t actually work out so well, given that the school boards only had ONE-TENTH of what was actually NEEDED to accomplish this goal. Sound familiar at all?

While we’ve been advocating for adequate, stable provincial funding for years now to ensure all Ontario public schools are safe, healthy, and well-maintained – we now find ourselves in the midst of a global pandemic. COVID-19 has laid bare just how critical public education is to students, families, communities, and our society – and just how critical the school BUILDINGS are to student, teacher, and education worker’s safety and well-being. BUT – it isn’t realistic to starve a system for over two decades and then expect that it is in tip-top shape for you in a pandemic.

What's a parent to do? FIX THIS!Premier Ford: Over the course of the 14 years that I’ve been a parent of students attending publicly funded schools in this province, I have seen teachers, education workers, principals, trustees and school board staff work miracles every single day DESPITE lack of adequate resources from the provincial government. So, I actually DO have confidence that these same individuals WILL somehow over the coming two weeks work MIRACLES to ensure our children are safe and that the adults in school buildings are safe as well. BUT – this isn’t how things ought to be. Public education and schools ought to be a top priority for every provincial government and providing adequate, stable funding is absolutely imperative. However, your government has treated public education and schools as an afterthought to things like bars and nail salons; been slow to provide guidance; continuously flip-flopped on said guidance; and, most disappointing is that your government has continued the long-standing provincial tradition of chronic and gross underfunding of public education and schools – while pushing accountability and responsibility for working miracles down to school boards, teachers, principals, and education workers.