Students and supporters rally at the Alberta Legislature to protest the province’s decision to order striking teachers back to work, in Edmonton on Thursday.JASON FRANSON/The Canadian Press
Students around Alberta walked out of class on Thursday in protest of the provincial government’s decision to send teachers back to work after a nearly four-week-long strike.
The walkout came one day after more than 700,000 students returned to school for the first time since Oct. 6, when teachers walked off the job after being unable to reach a collective agreement with the government.
On Monday, the provincial government introduced legislation to force teachers back to classrooms that included the notwithstanding clause, shielding the bill from Charter challenges. In doing so, teachers were forced to accept the agreement 89.5 per cent of them had rejected a month earlier.
Students say the walkout had been organized through social-media group chats.JASON FRANSON/The Canadian Press
Several hundred students stood outside the Alberta Legislature in Edmonton on Thursday morning after walking out of classrooms. Many wore red and carried placards with messages reading, “Chat, is this real?” and “Fund me.”
The Alberta Teacher’s Association had been asking for class-size limits, suitable teacher-student ratios and provisions for students with complex needs. The deal imposed by the United Conservative government does not include provisions for those concerns.
Students outside the legislature said the walkout had been organized through social-media group chats.
“What’s happening isn’t right, and what we want to do here is show our support for our teachers,” said Vienna Lam, a Harry Ainlay High School student who was with a group of friends from band class, carrying their instruments to the protest.
Inside the legislature, Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides downplayed the number of students protesting and said most students want a return to normal.
“I support students having the ability to express their views and voice their concerns,” he said. “Of course, they’ve been out of class for three weeks … and I’m concerned that they might be missing something more important.”
In downtown Calgary, students filed out of Western Canada High School and thundered down sidewalks toward City Hall, bolstered by passing cars honking in support. Many of the kids were holding signs critical of the UCP government.
“Notwithstanding? I stand with teachers,” read one sign. Another said: “In 130 days I’ll be a voter. Charter rights matter to me.”
The Western students merged with hundreds of others from across the city. Echoing their Edmonton counterparts, they said the walkout was a grassroots campaign that spread quickly among students.
Jochelle Bolivar, a Grade 11 student from St. Mary’s High School, helped organize her school’s walkout and also reached out to students in places like Cochrane and Lethbridge to join the movement.
“Change obviously won’t occur overnight,” she said. “But when stuff like this happens, conversations happen and awareness grows.”
She, like many others at the walkout, said overcrowding is a serious issue in her school.
Unions in a bind as governments increasingly use arcane pieces of the law to quash strikes
Olivia Bowden-Harris, a Grade 12 student from Western, said some of her classes have more than 40 students and there is little opportunity for one-on-one time with teachers.
“It’s almost impossible to get from class to class. There are so many people,” she said.
Alma Malik and Ayva Pearson, both Grade 11 students from Crescent Heights High School, said their student body has planned walkouts before but none as successful as Thursday’s.
“If the government doesn’t care for our teachers, they don’t care about us either, because, if they’re not paying our teachers and changing our class sizes, it affects our education,” said Ms. Pearson.
Jason Schilling, president of the Alberta Teachers’ Association, said students understand what is happening in their own schools.
“Students are the ones who are directly affected by what’s going on in classrooms, so the fact that they are standing up for themselves and organizing these events is an indication of how much they care about their own education,” he said.
Premier Danielle Smith has defended her government’s use of the notwithstanding clause as a way to end the “damage” to students unable to attend school during the strike. Ms. Malik dismissed that as nothing more than an excuse.
“It really just doesn’t seem like they have anyone’s best interests in mind except for their own,” she said. “I would rather go back to school under the conditions that teachers want, rather than to be forced back.”