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The provincial government recently moved a number of public investments, including teacher’s pensions, to be managed by AIMCo.

“The message and the target today was really asking teachers to stand up and really try to make things happen with where their pensions are,” said Nigel Henri-Robinson, one of the rally organizers. “I don’t think we have the ability to shift where AIMCo is at, but we have the ability to speak to the minds and the hearts of the teachers.”

The rally took place as thousands of teachers gather in Edmonton for the North Central Teacher’s Convention. Henri-Robinson said organizers knew there would be a lot of teachers travelling through Canada Place and they would be able to reach them. He hopes that teachers who heard their message will take a number of tactics to make it known they don’t want their pensions to fund the pipeline.

“The teachers really have the ability to put Canada on watch and say we are supposed to be teaching about reconciliation, and this pipeline is not reconciliation,” said Henri-Robinson.

Kailyn Card, an organizer with Beaver Hills Warriors, called for teachers to call representatives within the Ministry of Education and hold their own solidarity rallies.

“We need to rise up, especially as young people who are being in the care of these educators,” said Card. “We need to state that we do not want our educator’s pensions to be funding a pipeline that is actively destroying our communities and our territories.

While hereditary chiefs oppose the pipeline, a number of Indigenous elected chiefs and councillors have approved it. Henri-Robinson said it is important for people to understand the hereditary chiefs have jurisdiction over the land.

“People who are utilizing chief and council system are really just utilizing a colonial tactic,” said Henri-Robinson.

dshort@postmedia.com

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