May 13, 2005
VANCOUVER – The BC Teachers' Federation is trying to stop its critics from speaking out in support of education as an essential service and exposing its plan to hold a strike vote after the provincial election, said Abbotsford-Mt. Lehman BC Liberal candidate Mike de Jong today.
De Jong was responding to the BCTF's threat to sue the BC Liberal Party for commenting on a document that shows the BCTF executive is planning to discuss a strike vote as early as May 19.
"They have tried to bully teachers into supporting their political campaign, they have brought politics into public schools, and now they are trying to silence us. Teachers won't be silenced, parents won’t be silenced and we won’t be silenced," said de Jong. "The BCTF wants an NDP government so that students can be used as pawns in a labour dispute. We will keep education as an essential service – period."
The BCTF is spending $5 million on this election campaign – 25 per cent more than a political party is allowed to spend.
"This is clearly a campaign to elect the NDP," said de Jong. "There are eight former BCTF officials on the NDP candidate slate, including David Chudnovsky, the three-term BCTF president who demanded a 34 per cent pay increase for teachers. The NDP has promised to remove education as an essential service."
De Jong pointed out that a growing number of teachers are objecting to the BCTF's tactics – which include blatant anti-Liberal TV ads, bombarding teachers and parents with propaganda, and pressuring teachers to sign declarations in support of the BCTF's political objectives. Last night on Global television, a Pitt Meadows teacher said he had quit as a union representative because of the BCTF's political tactics.
"Teachers and parents are saying enough is enough – the BCTF has gone too far. The BC Liberals will not allow our students to be used as pawns in labour disputes with the teachers or support workers. The choice is clear: education as an essential service with the BC Liberals, or chaos and paralysis in our schools under the NDP."
