The legislature will reconvene Friday – a day when it doesn’t normally sit – and might sit through the weekend as the Liberal government tries to legislate Ontario’s 12,000 striking college faculty back to work.

The government will again try to introduce the legislation in the afternoon, a move the New Democrats have vowed to oppose. The Progressive Conservatives have agreed to support the legislation that would end the five-week strike.

The NDP blocked a government attempt to present the bill by refusing unanimous consent to allow the Liberals to do so Thursday evening after the normally scheduled time period for introducing legislation.

If it is blocked again Friday, the government said it intends to sit through the weekend.

Some 500,000 students have been out of class since Oct. 16 when instructors, counsellors and librarians at Ontario’s 24 public colleges walked off the job.

It is now the longest-lasting college faculty strike in Ontario’s history.

The legislation would have to pass on Friday for the province’s colleges to prepare for classes to resume Monday, Advanced Education Minister Deb Matthews said.

“We could have done it in 10 minutes and then students would know they’re back in the classroom on Monday,” she said about the New Democrats’ move Thursday.

“It was very disappointing that the NDP decided to block it.”

-- with files from the Canadian Press