The education minister’s performance in the Legislature today was sad. Liz Sandals had no answer for the OSSTF’s strategy of surprise drone strikes. Like the premier, she was confessing to the Opposition an utter lack of knowledge of why things are so out of control. She did not know why the unions were striking, she said. But they are and they are doing it with a finesse that puts the Government of Ontario in the dunce chair, and incidentally, delivers a whipping to parents and children. It is every individual’s right we suppose to behave like a stevedore on the picket line, hooting like a hooligan. It’s just that we find it hard to think about teachers that way. Each passing day of their services withheld is a day lost in the early learning of these young people. And the reasons given for this are things like dissatisfaction with the way teachers are evaluated. It is scandalous and unacceptable. The government must find the backbone to impose its authority in a way that restores order out of this chaos.
