Teacher job action derails Terry Fox fun run at Toronto school
Posted September 30, 2015 5:21 pm.
Last Updated September 30, 2015 8:28 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Ongoing job action by elementary teachers forced a Toronto school to significantly downgrade its Terry Fox fun run on Wednesday.
Students showed up at Bedford Park Public School near Yonge and Lawrence on Wednesday ready to break a sweat in honour of the Canadian hero.
But shortly after classes started, the school’s principal announced that the event at Wanless Park was cancelled and students would instead run a ceremonial lap around the school.
“What a major disappointment…” one parent wrote CityNews in an email.
Toronto District School Board spokesperson Ryan Bird later confirmed that the planned run hit a snag as a result of work-to-rule job action by public elementary school teachers.
“There was to be a Terry Fox run at a nearby park this morning, however last night, the union informed the principal that due to the ongoing labour action, teachers would not be taking part,” Bird said.
“Due to safety concerns, it was not possible to run the event at that location as teachers were needed to assist with walking approximately 750 students to the park.
“As a result, the principal organized an impromptu Terry Fox run in the school yard.”
On Tuesday night, Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario (ETFO) president Sam Hammond said talks were set to resume after the government requested a return to the negotiating table.
Earlier Tuesday, ETFO filed an Unfair Labour Practice Complaint with the Ontario Labour Relations Board, accusing the province and the Ontario Public School Boards’ Association of refusing to bargain in good faith.
ETFO represents 78,000 elementary public school teachers, occasional teachers and education professionals across the province.
The union started a work-to-rule campaign back in May, citing wages, class sizes and teacher prep time as major sticking points in their negotiations.
