03) ONTARIO GOVERNMENT MUST RESIGN: LET ELECTORS KILL BILL 115

Statement from the Communist Party (Ontario), Jan. 7, 2013

     The Communist Party (Ontario) has called on the government to resign following Education Minister Laurel Broten's action this week. The Education Minister has unilaterally and illegally suspended free collective bargaining between elected Public School Boards and teachers and educational workers' unions across the province. She has imposed wages and conditions of work modeled on the Ontario English Catholic Teachers' Association (OECTA) deal ‑ a deal that is currently being appealed in the courts by OECTA locals whose members were not allowed to vote on the deals agreed to by OECTA officials.

     CPC (Ontario) leader Elizabeth Rowley said: "With Parliament suspended by the Premier, the Minister and government have no right to take such sweeping, arbitrary and anti‑democratic action affecting fundamental rights and freedoms of workers in this province, affecting the rights of public school supporters and elected School Boards to local autonomy and democracy, and severely and negatively impacting over one million public school students, their parents and families.

     "The Premier must reverse Broten's actions, call an election, and let the people decide.

     "The government has misread public opinion on Bill 115 from the start. The by‑election defeat in Kitchener Waterloo was proof that the government was way off in right field with this Bill. The public does not support cuts to public education, attacks on labour and democratic rights, and cuts to wages and working conditions.

     "By adopting the austerity agenda of the 1% and driving it into the 99%, the Liberals hope to regain the support of Big Business which has shifted to the Tories.  The Liberals' only hope is to shift away from the right, by repealing Bill 115, by restoring free collective bargaining, and by adequately funding public education, healthcare, cities, social programs, and public services in Ontario. 

     "The Communist Party will join thousands of protestors at the Liberal Party Convention January 26th to demand exactly this agenda, and the doubling of the corporate income tax rate and restoration of the capital tax as the best and fairest way to pay for it.

     "Further, we reiterate our long‑held demand ‑ now supported by a majority of Ontario electors ‑ for the phasing out of Catholic school funding, and for the establishment of a single, secular, and quality public school system, open to all regardless of religion, gender, sexual orientation, or nationality."

(The above article is from the January 1-31, 2013, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $45 US per year; other overseas readers - $45 US or $50 CDN per year. Send to People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, BC, V5L 3J1.)