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WHY 
BC 
TEACHERS 
STRIKE 
a 
presentation 
aimed 
at 
people 
who 
care 
to 
understand 
our 
position
To 
understand 
where 
teachers 
are 
coming 
from, 
it 
is 
pertinent 
to 
look 
at 
what 
has 
happened 
in 
the 
US 
over 
the 
last 
few 
decades, 
because 
the 
current 
BC 
government 
has 
been 
pushing 
us 
in 
the 
same 
direction. 
! 
! 
! 
! 
! 
! 
! 
! 
! 
! 
! 
! 
! 
(The 
US 
is 
the 
greatest 
economy 
in 
the 
world, 
what 
could 
possibly 
go 
wrong?)
We 
are 
at 
a 
point 
where 
the 
famous 
1% 
richest 
citizens 
have 
decided 
to 
stop 
paying 
for 
the 
rest 
of 
us—like 
we 
weren’t 
the 
workers 
and 
consumers 
who 
made 
them 
rich 
in 
the 
Oirst 
place.
“For Premier Christy Clark, the 
BC Teachers' Federation has 
become Moby-Dick, the object of 
hatred to be pursued to the ends 
Another 
problem 
is 
that 
the 
BC 
Liberal 
leadership 
feels 
very 
strongly 
that 
of the earth.! 
teachers 
are 
a 
nefarious 
bunch 
and 
must 
be 
beaten 
into 
submission. 
! 
Their 
tactics 
in 
dealing 
with 
us 
are 
less 
than 
benevolent, 
to 
put 
it 
mildly. 
! 
So, 
every 
time, 
we 
are 
forced 
to 
go 
on 
strike 
because 
government 
proposals 
are 
deliberately 
outrageous*. Bill Tieleman 
Clark has become Captain Ahab, 
driven mad in her desire to 
destroy the union version of the 
white whale.! 
That became apparent last week 
when the BC Liberal government 
announced what is a truly crazy 
plan -- to pay parents of students 
$40 a day if the union strike 
continues into September.! 
Crazy, because it makes no sense.! 
Clark's scheme would instantly 
dispose of the estimated $12 
million in daily savings from the 
strike without putting a penny 
into improving public education.” 
http://billtieleman.blogspot.ca
* 
The 
BC 
Liberal 
treatment 
of 
teachers 
was 
found 
unconstitutional 
by 
two 
supreme 
court 
rulings—to 
no 
avail, 
as 
these 
people 
are 
effectively 
above 
the 
law. 
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/british-columbia/bc-supreme-courts-bad-faith-ruling-hardens- 
divisions-between-teachers-province/article17106343/
https://www.bctf.ca/BargainingAndContracts.aspx?id=31833
BC 
curriculum 
is 
continually 
revised 
to 
favour 
job 
skills 
over 
anything 
else—we 
are 
led 
by 
people 
who 
want 
schools 
to 
produce 
cheaply 
trained 
workers 
rather 
than 
critically 
thinking 
citizens.
Anything 
you 
need 
to 
do 
to 
enrich 
your 
intellectual 
life, 
you 
can 
pay 
for 
it 
yourself. 
! 
! 
! 
! 
! 
! 
! 
! 
! 
! 
! 
! 
But 
who 
can 
afford 
private 
Art 
or 
Music 
classes? 
Not 
the 
middle 
class, 
if 
the 
1% 
keep 
running 
the 
show.
BC 
teachers 
have 
opposed 
FSA 
tests. 
That’s 
because 
the 
FSA 
budget 
could 
be 
spent 
on 
helping 
kids.
The 
business 
community 
who 
manages 
this 
province 
is 
obsessed 
with 
accountability. 
They 
believe 
that 
a 
good 
teacher 
is 
someone 
who, 
out 
of 
a 
class 
of 
30 
students, 
should 
reliably 
produce 
30 
reading 
and 
counting 
units— 
FSA 
tests 
are 
designed 
to 
measure 
just 
that. 
! 
Our 
masters 
do 
not 
want 
to 
know 
how 
much 
of 
our 
time 
is 
spent 
addressing 
social, 
emotional 
and 
mental 
health 
issues. 
Yet 
a 
hungry 
child 
cannot 
memorize 
multiplication 
tables 
; 
a 
bullied 
and/or 
suicidal 
teenager 
will 
rarely 
care 
about 
descriptive 
paragraph 
writing. 
! 
FSA 
tests 
measure 
none 
of 
those 
factors, 
yet 
they 
are 
used 
to 
determine 
which 
schools 
are 
worth 
investing 
into. 
BC 
Liberal 
logic 
never 
deems 
it 
wise 
to 
invest 
in 
“bad” 
teachers’ 
struggling 
students, 
it 
believes 
in 
rewarding 
success—so 
money 
seldom 
goes 
where 
it’s 
most 
needed. 
Therefore 
BC 
teachers 
will 
continue 
to 
oppose 
FSA 
tests.
If 
teachers 
gain 
a 
decent 
salary 
increase, 
it 
will 
empower 
nurses, 
police 
ofOicers, 
government 
workers—the 
whole 
working 
class—to 
negotiate 
a 
fairer 
share 
of 
the 
pie. 
! 
! 
! 
! 
! 
! 
! 
! 
! 
! 
! 
! 
! 
(Not 
a 
good 
thing 
if 
you’re 
a 
BC 
Liberal.) 
!
We simply can’t afford to pay 
! 
you more in this economy. 
! 
Don’t 
they 
know 
that 
we 
in 
the 
middle 
and 
working 
classes 
are 
their 
best 
customers?
We, 
the 
middle 
class, 
largely 
spend 
our 
money 
where 
we 
live: 
we 
buy 
houses, 
cars, 
TVs 
and 
clothes, 
we 
go 
to 
restaurants, 
we 
visit 
the 
local 
pubs… 
provided 
we 
can 
afford 
to. 
We 
do 
not 
send 
billions 
of 
dollars 
to 
Switzerland 
or 
to 
the 
Bahamas 
so 
they 
can 
elude 
the 
Taxman. 
(Note 
how 
the 
North 
American 
middle 
class 
consumption 
is 
only 
expected 
to 
go 
from 
5.5 
to 
5.8 
trillions—about 
5% 
over 
20 
years.)
HERE 
IS 
THE 
BOTTOM 
LINE: 
Money 
that 
goes 
to 
the 
middle 
class 
is 
money 
that 
will 
get 
re-­injected 
into 
the 
economy 
and 
therefore 
create 
jobs. 
! 
Anyone 
with 
an 
offshore 
account 
is 
removing 
wealth 
from 
Canada—then 
they 
tell 
us 
we 
can’t 
afford 
to 
properly 
fund 
public 
schools.
According 
to 
the 
BC 
Liberals, 
we 
can’t 
afford 
to 
fund 
a 
decent 
public 
school 
system 
for 
the 
average 
BC 
child. 
! 
To 
be 
fair, 
here 
is 
the 
kind 
of 
institution 
where, 
whether 
or 
not 
they 
get 
their 
tax 
cuts, 
their 
own 
children 
are 
educated 
: 
(This 
is 
a 
view 
of 
the 
independent 
St. 
George’s 
junior 
school 
in 
Vancouver. 
Not 
bad, 
eh?)
Here 
is 
the 
awesome: 
BC 
“independent” 
schools 
are 
funded, 
in 
non-­negligible 
part, 
with 
our 
tax 
dollars. 
“Provincial funding for private schools has risen at a much 
higher rate than it has for the public system. According to 
B.C. Teachers' Federation estimates based on Ministry of 
Education numbers for the 2014 budget, 
the public system's funding increased by 16.9% 
between 2005 and today. 
The private system's funding increased by 45.6%.” 
Crawford Kilian, BC's Private School Boom, TheTyee.ca
Why 
stop 
at 
$136,270 
and 
$150,000? 
Billionaires 
live 
in 
this 
province! 
If 
we 
taxed 
another 
(totally 
random 
numbers) 
1% 
on 
people 
earning 
1 
to 
5 
million 
a 
year, 
2% 
on 
people 
earning 
5.1 
to 
10 
million 
a 
year, 
3% 
on 
people 
earning 
10.1 
to 
30 
million 
a 
year, 
4% 
on 
anyone 
above, 
THESE 
GUYS 
WOULD 
STILL 
BE 
GAZILLIONAIRES, 
the 
difference 
would 
change 
nothing 
to 
their 
lifestyle.
If 
these 
people 
cared 
about 
our 
country, 
they 
would 
pay 
their 
fair 
share. 
They 
earn 
indecent 
sums, 
why 
shouldn’t 
they 
pay 
proportionally 
indecent 
taxes?
Because 
they 
have 
decided 
not 
to 
bother.
Take 
a 
look, 
for 
instance, 
at 
the 
main 
BC 
Liberal 
backer. 
In 
2011, 
their 
net 
income 
increased 
by 
43%, 
according 
to 
Wikipedia. 
Do 
you 
really 
believe 
the 
key 
problem 
in 
this 
dispute 
is 
that 
the 
Teachers’ 
union 
is 
too 
powerful?
“On his first day in office 12 years ago 
Premier Gordon Campbell slashed 
B.C.'s personal income tax rate across 
the board by 25 per cent. 
! 
Campbell also reduced the corporate 
income tax rate and eliminated the 
corporate capital tax.” 
Doug Ward, 
BC Liberals' 12 Years of Tax Shifts, Explained, 
TheTyee.ca
No 
such 
thing 
as 
a 
free 
tax 
cut: 
here 
are 
some 
of 
the 
decisions 
inspired 
by 
the 
resulting 
loss 
of 
revenue. 
www.kidsinvictoria.com
Why Teachers Strike
“I hear all this, you know, ‘Well, this is class 
warfare, this is whatever.’ No. There is nobody in 
this country who got rich on his own. Nobody. 
“You built a factory out there? Good for you. 
But I want to be clear: you moved your goods 
to market on the roads the rest of us paid for; 
you hired workers the rest of us paid to 
educate; you were safe in your factory because 
of police forces and fire forces that the rest of 
us paid for. You didn’t have to worry that 
marauding bands would come and seize 
everything at your factory, and hire someone to 
protect against this, because of the work the 
rest of us did. 
“Now look, you built a factory and it turned 
into something terrific, or a great idea? God 
bless. Keep a big hunk of it. But part of 
the underlying social contract is you take a hunk 
of that and pay forward for the next kid who 
comes along.” 
Photograph by Nigel Parry for Vanity Fair 
US 
senator 
Elizabeth 
Warren, 
! 
explaining 
why 
we 
are 
NOT 
advocating 
for 
communism, 
but 
for 
a 
more 
balanced 
capitalism. 
This 
is 
not 
about 
eliminating 
inequality, 
it’s 
about 
keeping 
our 
society 
healthy.
Teachers 
don’t 
believe 
the 
current 
movement 
toward 
unchecked 
inequality 
is 
good 
for 
our 
society.
Some 
interesting 
people 
agree 
with 
us. 
This 
is 
what 
a 
man 
who 
wants 
to 
help 
his 
country 
sounds 
like. 
That, 
to 
me, 
looks 
like 
“leading 
by 
example.”
“In a capitalist economy, 
the true job creators are 
middle-class consumers. 
! 
And taxing the rich to 
make investments that 
make the middle class 
grow and thrive is the 
single shrewdest thing 
we can do 
for the middle class, 
for the poor, 
and for the rich.” 
! 
Nick Hanauer, 
CEO, early Amazon investor 
“Anyone who’s ever run a business knows that 
hiring more people is a capitalist’s course of last 
resort, something we do only when increasing 
customer demand requires it. In this sense, calling 
ourselves job creators isn’t just inaccurate, it’s 
disingenuous.”
Meanwhile, 
the 
BC 
Liberals 
do 
things 
like 
this, 
then 
they 
tell 
us 
we 
are 
unreasonable 
when 
we 
beg 
for 
3 
or 
4 
% 
a 
year 
so 
we 
can 
keep 
up 
with 
inNlation.
If 
we’re 
going 
to 
talk 
about 
accountability, 
how 
have 
the 
BC 
Liberals 
earned 
the 
right 
to 
raise 
their 
own 
salaries?
Of 
course, 
whatever 
the 
regime, 
wealth 
has 
always 
bought 
political 
power.
But 
Canada 
and 
the 
US 
have 
arguably 
reached 
a 
point 
where 
government 
feels 
more 
like 
an 
oligarchy 
(a 
powerful 
few 
always 
have 
their 
way) 
than 
like 
a 
democracy 
(a 
majority 
of 
people 
feel 
like 
the 
state 
works 
on 
their 
behalf).
Only 
a 
vocal 
citizenry 
can 
reverse 
that 
trend.
Why Teachers Strike
“You Teachers keep whining, but the BC liberals were 
democratically elected. They are doing what people want, 
so you need to shut the hell up and take it with a smile.” 
Speaking for myself, here is why I can’t do that: 
! 
1. the government has illegally ripped up our contracts—the electorate 
not seeming to care about it doesn’t make that fact any more palatable, 
2. it is a fundamental democratic right to express our views and try to 
get the citizenry to see our side of the argument, 
3. the neediest citizens tend not to vote (basic belief that no party 
cares about them… so why bother?), 
4. few people actually want to know what’s going on. Many are 
satisfied to save a few hundred bucks on their taxes, not realizing the 
cost in lost services until unfortunate things happen to people they care 
about, 
5. unfortunate things are happening to people I care about—I work 
with kids who need support or adaptations ; I see colleagues 
overwhelmed with increasing “special needs” students having to choose 
every day whether they should slow everyone down or leave those kids 
behind, 
6. working with other people’s children in no way eliminates my 
responsibility to provide for my own family.
“I am a Canadian, 
free to speak without fear, 
free to worship in my own way, 
free to stand for what I think right, 
free to oppose what I believe wrong, 
or free to choose those who shall govern my country. 
! 
This heritage of freedom I pledge to uphold for myself and all mankind.” 
John Diefenbaker
The Great Gatsby, Warner Bros Pictures 
For 
the 
record, 
I 
love 
that 
some 
people 
get 
to 
be 
multibillionaires, 
it 
gives 
the 
rest 
of 
us 
something 
to 
dream 
about.
But 
as 
a 
democratic 
society 
we 
have 
a 
moral 
obligation 
to 
give 
our 
less 
fortunate 
citizens 
the 
means 
to 
improve 
their 
lives. 
! 
The 
fact 
is 
public 
education 
plays 
a 
huge 
part 
in 
fostering 
social 
justice.
So 
here 
is 
your 
assignment: 
do 
your 
own 
thinking. 
If 
you 
feel 
the 
BC 
government 
is 
doing 
a 
great 
job, 
congratulations, 
you 
get 
to 
do 
nothing. 
! 
! 
! 
! 
! 
! 
! 
! 
! 
! 
! 
! 
! 
! 
If 
you 
believe 
they’re 
doing 
some 
damage, 
please 
consider 
using 
your 
voice.
To illustrate my points I have used cartoons by David Horsey, 
who has chronicled the evolution of American society 
for the Seattle Post Intelligencer and the Los Angeles Times, 
winning two Pulitzer prizes in the process. 
! 
(I hope this man is disturbingly wealthy.) 
http://s100.chasejarvis.com
Why Teachers Strike
Sources 
http://thetyee.ca/News/2013/05/06/BC-Liberals-Tax-Shifts/ 
http://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2012/02/27/BC-Tax-Cut-Era/ 
http://www.the-peak.ca/2014/05/province-shifts-funding-from-liberal-arts-to-trades-training/ 
http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/should-canadian-millionaires-pay-more-taxes-1.1106636 
http://www.ufcw.ca/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3377:inequality-on-the-rise-canadas-richest-canadians- 
richer-than-ever&catid=83:infographics&Itemid=393&lang=en 
http://www.canadianbusiness.com/lifestyle/map-where-canadas-richest-people-live/ 
http://www.socialworkdegreecenter.com 
http://www.kiplinger.com/article/business/T019-C021-S001-middle-class-spenders-will-lead-global-growth.html 
http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/tx/ndvdls/fq/txrts-eng.html 
http://business.financialpost.com/2013/04/03/massive-offshore-tax-haven-account-leak-includes-names-of-450- 
wealthy-canadians/ 
http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Corporations+fill+Liberal+coffers/8280000/story.html 
http://www.glassdoor.com/Overview/Working-at-Teck-Coal-EI_IE730420.11,20.htm 
http://samuel-warde.com/2014/07/elizabeth-warren-2011-campaign-trail/ 
http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Christy+Clark+boosts+maximum+salaries+aides+cent/8510982/story.html? 
__federated=1 
http://ows.edb.utexas.edu/site/its-more-just-economic-crisis/jimmy-carter-1977-1981-and-ronald-reagan-1981-1989 
http://topinfopost.com/2014/06/30/ultra-rich-mans-letter-to-my-fellow-filthy-rich-americans-the-pitchforks-are-coming 
http://www.ted.com/talks/chrystia_freeland_the_rise_of_the_new_global_super_rich?language=en 
Fred Subra, August 2014

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Why Teachers Strike

  • 1. WHY BC TEACHERS STRIKE a presentation aimed at people who care to understand our position
  • 2. To understand where teachers are coming from, it is pertinent to look at what has happened in the US over the last few decades, because the current BC government has been pushing us in the same direction. ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! (The US is the greatest economy in the world, what could possibly go wrong?)
  • 3. We are at a point where the famous 1% richest citizens have decided to stop paying for the rest of us—like we weren’t the workers and consumers who made them rich in the Oirst place.
  • 4. “For Premier Christy Clark, the BC Teachers' Federation has become Moby-Dick, the object of hatred to be pursued to the ends Another problem is that the BC Liberal leadership feels very strongly that of the earth.! teachers are a nefarious bunch and must be beaten into submission. ! Their tactics in dealing with us are less than benevolent, to put it mildly. ! So, every time, we are forced to go on strike because government proposals are deliberately outrageous*. Bill Tieleman Clark has become Captain Ahab, driven mad in her desire to destroy the union version of the white whale.! That became apparent last week when the BC Liberal government announced what is a truly crazy plan -- to pay parents of students $40 a day if the union strike continues into September.! Crazy, because it makes no sense.! Clark's scheme would instantly dispose of the estimated $12 million in daily savings from the strike without putting a penny into improving public education.” http://billtieleman.blogspot.ca
  • 5. * The BC Liberal treatment of teachers was found unconstitutional by two supreme court rulings—to no avail, as these people are effectively above the law. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/british-columbia/bc-supreme-courts-bad-faith-ruling-hardens- divisions-between-teachers-province/article17106343/
  • 7. BC curriculum is continually revised to favour job skills over anything else—we are led by people who want schools to produce cheaply trained workers rather than critically thinking citizens.
  • 8. Anything you need to do to enrich your intellectual life, you can pay for it yourself. ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! But who can afford private Art or Music classes? Not the middle class, if the 1% keep running the show.
  • 9. BC teachers have opposed FSA tests. That’s because the FSA budget could be spent on helping kids.
  • 10. The business community who manages this province is obsessed with accountability. They believe that a good teacher is someone who, out of a class of 30 students, should reliably produce 30 reading and counting units— FSA tests are designed to measure just that. ! Our masters do not want to know how much of our time is spent addressing social, emotional and mental health issues. Yet a hungry child cannot memorize multiplication tables ; a bullied and/or suicidal teenager will rarely care about descriptive paragraph writing. ! FSA tests measure none of those factors, yet they are used to determine which schools are worth investing into. BC Liberal logic never deems it wise to invest in “bad” teachers’ struggling students, it believes in rewarding success—so money seldom goes where it’s most needed. Therefore BC teachers will continue to oppose FSA tests.
  • 11. If teachers gain a decent salary increase, it will empower nurses, police ofOicers, government workers—the whole working class—to negotiate a fairer share of the pie. ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! (Not a good thing if you’re a BC Liberal.) !
  • 12. We simply can’t afford to pay ! you more in this economy. ! Don’t they know that we in the middle and working classes are their best customers?
  • 13. We, the middle class, largely spend our money where we live: we buy houses, cars, TVs and clothes, we go to restaurants, we visit the local pubs… provided we can afford to. We do not send billions of dollars to Switzerland or to the Bahamas so they can elude the Taxman. (Note how the North American middle class consumption is only expected to go from 5.5 to 5.8 trillions—about 5% over 20 years.)
  • 14. HERE IS THE BOTTOM LINE: Money that goes to the middle class is money that will get re-­injected into the economy and therefore create jobs. ! Anyone with an offshore account is removing wealth from Canada—then they tell us we can’t afford to properly fund public schools.
  • 15. According to the BC Liberals, we can’t afford to fund a decent public school system for the average BC child. ! To be fair, here is the kind of institution where, whether or not they get their tax cuts, their own children are educated : (This is a view of the independent St. George’s junior school in Vancouver. Not bad, eh?)
  • 16. Here is the awesome: BC “independent” schools are funded, in non-­negligible part, with our tax dollars. “Provincial funding for private schools has risen at a much higher rate than it has for the public system. According to B.C. Teachers' Federation estimates based on Ministry of Education numbers for the 2014 budget, the public system's funding increased by 16.9% between 2005 and today. The private system's funding increased by 45.6%.” Crawford Kilian, BC's Private School Boom, TheTyee.ca
  • 17. Why stop at $136,270 and $150,000? Billionaires live in this province! If we taxed another (totally random numbers) 1% on people earning 1 to 5 million a year, 2% on people earning 5.1 to 10 million a year, 3% on people earning 10.1 to 30 million a year, 4% on anyone above, THESE GUYS WOULD STILL BE GAZILLIONAIRES, the difference would change nothing to their lifestyle.
  • 18. If these people cared about our country, they would pay their fair share. They earn indecent sums, why shouldn’t they pay proportionally indecent taxes?
  • 19. Because they have decided not to bother.
  • 20. Take a look, for instance, at the main BC Liberal backer. In 2011, their net income increased by 43%, according to Wikipedia. Do you really believe the key problem in this dispute is that the Teachers’ union is too powerful?
  • 21. “On his first day in office 12 years ago Premier Gordon Campbell slashed B.C.'s personal income tax rate across the board by 25 per cent. ! Campbell also reduced the corporate income tax rate and eliminated the corporate capital tax.” Doug Ward, BC Liberals' 12 Years of Tax Shifts, Explained, TheTyee.ca
  • 22. No such thing as a free tax cut: here are some of the decisions inspired by the resulting loss of revenue. www.kidsinvictoria.com
  • 24. “I hear all this, you know, ‘Well, this is class warfare, this is whatever.’ No. There is nobody in this country who got rich on his own. Nobody. “You built a factory out there? Good for you. But I want to be clear: you moved your goods to market on the roads the rest of us paid for; you hired workers the rest of us paid to educate; you were safe in your factory because of police forces and fire forces that the rest of us paid for. You didn’t have to worry that marauding bands would come and seize everything at your factory, and hire someone to protect against this, because of the work the rest of us did. “Now look, you built a factory and it turned into something terrific, or a great idea? God bless. Keep a big hunk of it. But part of the underlying social contract is you take a hunk of that and pay forward for the next kid who comes along.” Photograph by Nigel Parry for Vanity Fair US senator Elizabeth Warren, ! explaining why we are NOT advocating for communism, but for a more balanced capitalism. This is not about eliminating inequality, it’s about keeping our society healthy.
  • 25. Teachers don’t believe the current movement toward unchecked inequality is good for our society.
  • 26. Some interesting people agree with us. This is what a man who wants to help his country sounds like. That, to me, looks like “leading by example.”
  • 27. “In a capitalist economy, the true job creators are middle-class consumers. ! And taxing the rich to make investments that make the middle class grow and thrive is the single shrewdest thing we can do for the middle class, for the poor, and for the rich.” ! Nick Hanauer, CEO, early Amazon investor “Anyone who’s ever run a business knows that hiring more people is a capitalist’s course of last resort, something we do only when increasing customer demand requires it. In this sense, calling ourselves job creators isn’t just inaccurate, it’s disingenuous.”
  • 28. Meanwhile, the BC Liberals do things like this, then they tell us we are unreasonable when we beg for 3 or 4 % a year so we can keep up with inNlation.
  • 29. If we’re going to talk about accountability, how have the BC Liberals earned the right to raise their own salaries?
  • 30. Of course, whatever the regime, wealth has always bought political power.
  • 31. But Canada and the US have arguably reached a point where government feels more like an oligarchy (a powerful few always have their way) than like a democracy (a majority of people feel like the state works on their behalf).
  • 32. Only a vocal citizenry can reverse that trend.
  • 34. “You Teachers keep whining, but the BC liberals were democratically elected. They are doing what people want, so you need to shut the hell up and take it with a smile.” Speaking for myself, here is why I can’t do that: ! 1. the government has illegally ripped up our contracts—the electorate not seeming to care about it doesn’t make that fact any more palatable, 2. it is a fundamental democratic right to express our views and try to get the citizenry to see our side of the argument, 3. the neediest citizens tend not to vote (basic belief that no party cares about them… so why bother?), 4. few people actually want to know what’s going on. Many are satisfied to save a few hundred bucks on their taxes, not realizing the cost in lost services until unfortunate things happen to people they care about, 5. unfortunate things are happening to people I care about—I work with kids who need support or adaptations ; I see colleagues overwhelmed with increasing “special needs” students having to choose every day whether they should slow everyone down or leave those kids behind, 6. working with other people’s children in no way eliminates my responsibility to provide for my own family.
  • 35. “I am a Canadian, free to speak without fear, free to worship in my own way, free to stand for what I think right, free to oppose what I believe wrong, or free to choose those who shall govern my country. ! This heritage of freedom I pledge to uphold for myself and all mankind.” John Diefenbaker
  • 36. The Great Gatsby, Warner Bros Pictures For the record, I love that some people get to be multibillionaires, it gives the rest of us something to dream about.
  • 37. But as a democratic society we have a moral obligation to give our less fortunate citizens the means to improve their lives. ! The fact is public education plays a huge part in fostering social justice.
  • 38. So here is your assignment: do your own thinking. If you feel the BC government is doing a great job, congratulations, you get to do nothing. ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! If you believe they’re doing some damage, please consider using your voice.
  • 39. To illustrate my points I have used cartoons by David Horsey, who has chronicled the evolution of American society for the Seattle Post Intelligencer and the Los Angeles Times, winning two Pulitzer prizes in the process. ! (I hope this man is disturbingly wealthy.) http://s100.chasejarvis.com
  • 41. Sources http://thetyee.ca/News/2013/05/06/BC-Liberals-Tax-Shifts/ http://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2012/02/27/BC-Tax-Cut-Era/ http://www.the-peak.ca/2014/05/province-shifts-funding-from-liberal-arts-to-trades-training/ http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/should-canadian-millionaires-pay-more-taxes-1.1106636 http://www.ufcw.ca/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3377:inequality-on-the-rise-canadas-richest-canadians- richer-than-ever&catid=83:infographics&Itemid=393&lang=en http://www.canadianbusiness.com/lifestyle/map-where-canadas-richest-people-live/ http://www.socialworkdegreecenter.com http://www.kiplinger.com/article/business/T019-C021-S001-middle-class-spenders-will-lead-global-growth.html http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/tx/ndvdls/fq/txrts-eng.html http://business.financialpost.com/2013/04/03/massive-offshore-tax-haven-account-leak-includes-names-of-450- wealthy-canadians/ http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Corporations+fill+Liberal+coffers/8280000/story.html http://www.glassdoor.com/Overview/Working-at-Teck-Coal-EI_IE730420.11,20.htm http://samuel-warde.com/2014/07/elizabeth-warren-2011-campaign-trail/ http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Christy+Clark+boosts+maximum+salaries+aides+cent/8510982/story.html? __federated=1 http://ows.edb.utexas.edu/site/its-more-just-economic-crisis/jimmy-carter-1977-1981-and-ronald-reagan-1981-1989 http://topinfopost.com/2014/06/30/ultra-rich-mans-letter-to-my-fellow-filthy-rich-americans-the-pitchforks-are-coming http://www.ted.com/talks/chrystia_freeland_the_rise_of_the_new_global_super_rich?language=en Fred Subra, August 2014