(LifeSiteNews) — There is a massive education strike looming in Ontario, Canada’s most populous province, and journalists in the mainstream are suddenly concerned with the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
For the uninitiated, the Charter, as it is called is Canada’s preeminent constitutional document that outlines the rights Canadians are owed by virtue of civil and natural law principles. It isn’t a perfect document, but it is pretty sound as far as modern constitutional frameworks go.
The Charter is supposed to protect our consciences against government overreach and coercion. According to the document, we are to be afforded natural and civil rights that protect us against all manner of tyranny if a government were to overstep its bounds.
Curiously, however, the Charter seems to have disappeared for 2 1/2 years in light of lockdowns and vaccine mandates, and Canadians were told time and time again that their rights to religion and conscience were not being overridden even if their churches and bodies came second to government’s fetish with viruses and jabs.
Why and how that was able to take place in Canada is a story for another time. The point is, Canada in essence had no Charter in the eyes of the mainstream until just recently.
Union tactics
There is a union called CUPE, which stands for Canadian Union of Public Employees, and in Ontario a massive amount of its members consists of education workers who are not teachers. This includes educational assistants and other employees who help teachers in the classroom. My intention here is not to make any judgment on the individuals, many of whom do good work.
However, as someone who spent years in the publicly funded education system, I can tell you that the union comes first no matter what. And the unions hate conservative politicians.
Just before the lockdown, there were rolling strikes for teachers (who belong to different unions) who were bargaining with the government. Can you guess what they were fighting the government about? A proposal that students in high school would have to do one class a year online, or four classes over four years.
This, apparently, was the apocalypse, as it was impossible that kids could ever get a good education on computers via videoconferencing as teachers are the only capable gurus who can transmit the necessary knowledge to your kids, and it must be done in person.
Well, that all changed about six weeks later when the government said to lock things down. Then, the union fought tooth and nail to ensure that teachers would not return to the classroom because it was too dangerous. Apparently, online learning is only the apocalypse when teachers need to negotiate with the government.
At any rate, just before the teachers were on strike, then demanding the government do what they were striking against, CUPE was also in negotiations with the government about something. Strikes were threatened then as well.
Well, as it stands, CUPE is threatening to strike again, and it could mean that schools will be closed after they are finally open after education workers lobbied that they be closed for the better part of two years.
BREAKING: Education Minister Stephen Lecce indicates the province will not negotiate with CUPE unless they withdraw their strike threat. #onpoli
— Colin D’Mello | Global News (@ColinDMello) November 2, 2022
For its part, the Ontario government has decided to essentially legislate CUPE back to work if they strike, thereby “overriding the Charter” in the eyes of some.
So the government will override the Charter, and the union will “override” the law. Wonderful. https://t.co/lzxN0oTJAc
— Andrew Coyne 🇺🇦 (@acoyne) November 1, 2022
The hypocrisy
The fact that unions are acting like unions is nothing new, and that Ontario’s premier is acting like a thug does not surprise me. However, what really grinds my gears is the utter hypocrisy on behalf of the supposed “journalists” who cover this stuff for a living.
Apparently, since CUPE is crying foul about not being able to strike, which they view as a protected right under the Charter – even though it is not – legacy journalists and legacy media have decided to trumpet the constitutional/worker’s rights narrative.
Left-wing Globe and Mail journalist Andrew Coyne wrote a piece where he argued that if the Ontario government were to override the fictitiously protected “right to strike,” it would constitute a threat to the constitutional nature of Canadian law.
Globe editorial: “The growing use of the notwithstanding clause, in such a cavalier manner, and to deal with humdrum matters rather than constitutional emergencies, threatens Canada’s fragile constitutional order.”https://t.co/ZQpQb9Bj0k
— Andrew Coyne 🇺🇦 (@acoyne) November 2, 2022
“The growing use of the notwithstanding clause, in such a cavalier manner, and to deal with humdrum matters rather than constitutional emergencies, threatens Canada’s fragile constitutional order,” he wrote.
Now, for the sake of argument, let’s say I agree with him. Fine, but how is this any different than what vaccine-free Canadians went through when they lost their jobs or were coerced to do something they didn’t want to do.
I will tell you how it is different: We now know that religious objections and conscience objections are legitimate objections in the eyes of the law under the Charter, unlike the fictitious right to strike that is not protected in the Charter. But legacy media had no problem spreading the idea to the public that the Charter would not protect your right to not be jabbed.
I am still waiting for them to come around and correct themselves in light of recent wins for freedom.
And, as if we haven’t been gaslighted enough by the legacy media here in COVID-topia, some mainstream journos are acting as if the province was wrong to keep kids out of class for so long, and even calling out the premier for his hypocrisy.
Premier Doug Ford in Question Period, says he won’t tolerate students being out of the classroom for even one day.
It was the Ford government that shut down schools for more than 20 weeks during the pandemic (sometimes after promising to keep them open)#onpoli
— Colin D’Mello | Global News (@ColinDMello) November 2, 2022
In any event, the government, the journalists and the unions are all so hypocritical and shameless that they deserve each other.
On a positive note, it seems like they are done complaining about COVID, so maybe this means we are just getting back to the “old normal” where bureaucrats, union bosses and journos all pretend they are impeccable bastions of moral uprightness while they lie and pressure their way to the top.
