Press release: Nova Scotia Parents for Public Education is expressing disappointment with the lack of leadership and accountability from Education Minister Zach Churchill regarding health and safety in Nova Scotia Schools.

There is a substantial wage and benefits gap between Early Childhood Educators employed by child care centres and those who work at the provincial pre-primary program. At a press conference hosted by Nova Scotia NDP MLA Claudia Chender, early childhood educators explained why this is not only unfair, it’s also creating all kinds of problems for child care centres throughout the province.

Nothing comes easy in the collective bargaining between the Dalhousie Faculty Association and the Dalhousie Board of Governors. Now the BoG announced it is willing to sign off on all but one of the Conciliation Board recommendations. That one issue, not a biggie in the grand scheme of things, affects at what point in time instructors qualify for educational leave.

Judy Haiven: “While many in the mainstream media called Lepine a madman (but interesting, never a terrorist, as they might have done today), Canadian feminists saw that something more sinister and more systemic had happened.”

Paul Wozney: “Today, just like they have done every day for the past three months, almost 150,000 Nova Scotian children and adults (up to 35 at a time) crowd into small poorly ventilated classrooms where masks are not universally required, which also lack proper handwashing stations. Nowhere else is this tolerated. If you hosted a gathering like this in your home, you’d be fined.”

There will be no strike or lockout at Dalhousie this Fall semester. Earlier this afternoon the Board agreed to a proposal by the Dalhousie Faculty Association (DFA) to refer the outstanding bargaining issues to a conciliation board who could recommend possible resolutions

Françoise Baylis on the looming strike at Dalhousie: “People feel completely disrespected. Because of the pandemic people are working harder than they probably ever have, for the benefit of the students and for the benefit of the institution. We’re doing so much with so little, and this is how they treat us. They tell us how grateful they are, yet this is how they show their gratitude.”