DANIEL CAUDLE

News Record

Education Minister Lisa Thompson’s Blyth constituency office became Ground Zero on April 26 for opposition that continues to mount against the Ontario government for its proposed changes to the education system.

Roughly 300 protesters took up signs and stood in front of the Huron-Bruce MPP’s office. The protest came less than two weeks after the Avon Maitland School District sent redundancy letters to 69 secondary school teachers, telling them their services wouldn’t be required in September.

“We are here to send a message to Lisa Thompson that we will not be quiet when it comes to the drastic educational cuts her and Doug Ford have caused for our province,” said Shane Restall, OSSTF District president.

As classes ended on Friday, teachers made their way to Blyth where they staged a demonstration.

Both sides of Queen Street began to fill with people as the protest began at 4:30 p.m. Members marched up and down the street for about an hour.

Chants of “Here for the students” and “Cuts hurt kids” echoed throughout the crowd as Restall spoke to the crowd. He said teachers must fight for their students, adding that the needs of the province’s students must be made higher than the government’s desire to change drinking legislation, “cuts for the wealthy”, and “horse racing.”

Those who attended the protest were asked to sign a petition that will be sent to Queen’s Park.

Among the protesters were employees of the Huron-Perth Catholic School Board, the Avon Maitland District School Board, the Waterloo Region District School Board and the Upper Grand District School Board.

Thompson wasn’t at the office.

The protest was held a day after NDP education critic Marit Stiles held a roundtable discussion in Clinton to discuss the proposed cuts.

Hours before the protest, the Ontario government announced that school board funding for 2019-20 would equate to $12,246 per pupil, compared to $12,300 received in this school year.

Overall, funding will be $24.66 billion, up marginally from the $24.53 billion provided for education in Ontario for 2018-19, the government said.

Thompson also announced the government would set aside $1.6 billion in a fund to protect teachers’ jobs, and further promised that no teacher would lose his or her job because of larger classroom sizes or the implementation of online education.

We are investing a landmark $1.6B in teacher job protection. This funding will make sure not a single teacher will lose their job as a result of our proposed changes to class sizes or e-learning. #onpoli — Lisa Thompson (@LisaThompsonMPP) April 26, 2019

A second protest is planned for outside of MPP Randy Pettapiece’s office at 55 Lorne Ave, Unit 2 in Stratford on Friday, May 3 from 4:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.