KITCHENER — The federation representing Waterloo Region's public elementary school teachers is asking schools to stop using The Record as a teaching tool for students as part of a union boycott of the newspaper.

The local chapter of the Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario is upset over what it calls "teaching bashing" and "anti-teacher rhetoric" by one of the newspaper's opinion columnists, Luisa D'Amato.

In a vote passed last month, the union's executive advises its members to cancel their subscriptions to the newspaper, and encourages other local teachers' unions to do the same.

The union is also extending the boycott to the Newspapers in Education program, which teaches students about their local community and includes features on topics such as antibullying and social justice.

In a memo circulated to its 2,800 members, the union asks elementary school teachers to "encourage their school administrators or office managers not to renew (the program) for the 2016-2017 school year."

Greg Weiler, the union head, said teachers should use alternative news sources, such as the Toronto Star, instead of The Record, to teach students about local issues.

He said his members are advised, but not obligated, to follow the boycott. Weiler said the motion was brought forward by a union member, and not the union's executive.

The internal memo says local teachers have taken issue with they called "one sided reporting" by the columnist for over a year.

"Teachers, as a group, have felt the columnist's reporting is something they have a major issue with when it comes to their profession. They've decided to make that known," he said.

"This was not something done to create a media controversy, and it's something I think people would do whether there was advice out there or not."

Melinda Marks, The Record's editor in chief, said the newspaper supports D'Amato and her "unflinching commentary on the issues that are of most concern to our readers in Waterloo Region."

"We are disappointed with the action being taken by the teachers' union. The Record is committed to providing this community with news, analysis and opinion but also a place for dissent and vigorous debate. Our pages offer a forum for discussion not only for journalists but the public as well," Marks said.

"We value the vital work teachers perform in this community and hope they will see the value in what The Record does, too."

D'Amato, the columnist, said teachers should be able to decide for themselves what they can and can't read without direction from their union.

"The public elementary teachers' union is trying to punish The Record because it doesn't like opinions that we published about their highly controversial job actions, which affected children in public schools," she said.

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"This union represents a group of people who are supposed to teach our young children to think for themselves, and presumably to explore ideas. Yet their response to being criticized is to try and silence people who don't agree with them."

- Letter to the editor: I already boycott Luisa D'Amato's biased columns