老兄，有人真的看过22号法案吗？简直糟透了。

The most disgusting part of the use of this whole action by the Ontario government is that this is mechanically going to work towards a perceived surplus in the budget come election time.

Lecce and Ford are using this way to make the narrative sound like “a 2.5% pay increase is something education workers should be happy about, so this strike is out of greed.”

That is far from reality. Any school will tell you that one of the biggest needs they have is more EAs and support staff because, especially in Ontario, they are the lowest paid education workers.

They provide so much of a needed help in the classroom and Lecce, the Education Minister, who has never spent a day in a public classroom, let alone taught in one, doesn’t have any appreciation or understanding that that’s what this strike is about.

Pay support staff what they deserve, and you will have them show up to do the job that we need them to do to make an incredible difference to children’s education.

We’ve learned the value of education workers through COVID shutdowns, everyone knows how important the job these people do is, and Ford and Lecce are making it about money because they wanna cover for a surplus come election time. THEY DONT CARE ABOUT YOUR CHILDREN. If they did, they would support the idea of enticing more people to take up the job of being educational support staff and instead they’re punishing the people that are fighting for it.

They don’t care about you, your children, or your childrens’ education; they care about your vote by pretending to make the province money.

So, the biggest question in my mind right now is - enforcement. How is this thing going to be enforced? By whom? With what powers? The bill is entirely silent on that (although a regulation could and likely will be put into place, as was done with the COVID measures under the Emergency Management and Civil Protection Act.)

But the idea of these $4,000 per day "blanket fines" is just not in there. The Bill has a simple offences clause that would have to be enforced under the Provincial Offences Act. Normally such things are enforced by Provincial Offences Officers, who - by the way - are unionized, and would likely join the picket line before actually handing out any charges.

But if they were going to hand out something like a "ticket", they would have to give you a Part I Summons (for a fine up to $1000). Or they'd have to swear an Information under Part III of the POA. This is a much more onerous process for everyone involved, which would require the officer to conduct an investigation; swear under oath that they have reasonable and probable grounds that an offence occurred; have a Crown review the evidence and determine it was in the public interest to proceed; disclosure to be provided to the defendant (union or individual); a plea of guilty or not guilty to be entered by the defendant; potentially a trial; and then for the court to impose a fine that it thinks is fair.

It's a hallmark of sentencing caselaw that the maximum fine is reserved for the worst offence and the worst offender. On a first offence, defendants generally get a small fraction of the maximum.

All this to say - for now, the Bill is silent on enforcement. But, even if an enforcement Regulation is put into place, the POA courts are already super clogged, and I really don't see many charges getting past the unionized officers, Crowns who consider the public interest, or the court themselves who could simply impose suspended sentences.

Hopefully these aren't famous last words.

I posted this in another thread but everyone who is appalled by this behaviour should email representatives from their area:

Hello Stephen,

As a parent of 3 elementary students (Grade 5, 3 and 1) I just wanted to write to you about the CUPE strike and Bill 28.

https://www.ola.org/en/legislative-business/bills/parliament-43/session-1/bill-28

You gladly take over 4x the salary of an average CUPE worker while freezing their raises and paying them an unlivable wage. You want to know a trick to keep kids in school? Pay the workers - especially the ones who are educating the next generation of Canadians.

I challenge you, walk into a public school and talk directly to those who are inside those buildings everyday. A real leader would have no issues doing this simple thing.

In passing Bill 28, you have opened the door to our rights and freedoms as Canadians to be compromised. You obviously have zero respect for our Charter and all it stands for. First it starts with the right to strike but next it will be any of the following: freedom of expression, thought and belief, freedom of religion and conscience, protest rights, freedom of the press, freedom of association, privacy, the right to counsel, habius corpus and a fair trial, the presumption of innocence, equality, life, liberty and the security of the person and freedom from torture.

Now every provincial government and future federal government gets to see how easy it is to revoke these rights in the Charter. What a mockery of our democracy you have made.

My family has been in Canada for over 50 years. My kids are 4th generation Canadians and you are taking away all our rights. Where do you draw the line? Or better yet where do we draw the line…

I stand with CUPE against your unjust anti-Canadian Bill 28, we will remember who stood for and against this Bill and I look forward to the next elections.

Kind regards,

Sent to:

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