ETFO Annual Meeting! That's amazing. You know I just want to share something with

you. I don't know why for the last couple of days, couple of nights, I have not been

able to sleep. It's like I was anxious about something and last night, if you follow my

twitter feed, I ended up right here at about midnight and I tweeted out a picture of this

room when it was empty. No, not one person, well yeah there was one person, me in the

room. You could have heard a pin drop. It was so quiet.

What a difference today. Walking into this room with the amazing energy that you've brought

with you as you represent our members across this province. Thank you so much for being

here and I am excited about the week ahead. What a difference a year makes my friends!

I know you will agree that the Ontario we live in today has changed drastically since

last we gathered at our 2018 Annual Meeting. Over the past year we have faced deep cuts,

chaos, uncertainty, insults, attacks, but, as we always do, time and time again, we met

these challenges head-on and fought back. Together we made certain, absolutely certain

that our message and our resolve as a collective reached every corner of the province with

advertising on television, radio, billboards, transit, on-line and this year in Cineplex

theaters. And since our last annual meeting we have

wasted no time organizing and mobilizing our members and the public.

We stood together and successfully fought off some of the blatant attempts by the Conservative

government to undermine publicly funded public education and vital public services in this

province. This was thanks to your efforts, the unwavering solidarity of our members and

our amazing allies across this province. And on that note I just want to take a minute,

I want to recognize a few groups of people who were key throughout this year.

First and foremost I want to recognize your phenomenal Executive leadership team, including

Sharon, Jerry and Bobbi, our GS and DGSs and your executive members, thank you for everything

you've done this year. Next, I want to recognize our local presidents.

Local presidents that are in this room, the local leaders have done such an amazing job

this year. All year, as always you have been there when we have needed you. I would like

all local presidents in this room, will you please stand up so we can recognize and thank

you. What a team! I also want to take a minute and ask all the

first-time delegates in the room to stand up so we can recognize you. Thanks so much

for being here. When you get up to a microphone over the next few days for the first time

let us know that you are a first time delegate. As Lorna said, we have t-shirts for you. We

have these giant cannons that we shoot them at you. We shoot them out to you with it and

you have to catch them before you speak. Anyway, amazing, thanks.

Listen, finally before we get into this, I want to recognize some special guests that

are here, just a few of our amazing allies. I am going to ask them, they are at the back

of the room, I am going to ask them to stand up. But if you would do me a favour, if you'd

hold your thunderous applause to the end, that would be great so we can recognize all

of them together. First, we have the president of the Canadian

Teachers' Federation at the back, Shelley Morse. Shelley stand up. We have, go ahead

clap if you want. Let's do it that way. Like I'm going to tell you what to do.

The president of the Newfoundland and Labrador Teachers' Association and currently a CTF

vice-president, Dean Ingram. President of OSSTF, Harvey Bischof is here

at the back of the room. President of the Nova Scotia Teachers' Union

and also currently a CTF vice-president, Paul Wozney.

And the president of our francophone colleagues, the federation AEFO, Remi Sabourin is here

with us. Remi stand up. And another special guest who is here today,

who stood up in the legislature and defended publicly funded education day in and day out

over the past year. The education critic for the official opposition, Marit Stiles is in

the back of the room. So listen, as I put together my remarks for

today it was a challenge, because what I want to try and do is recap the year, talk about

where we are and where we are going. So I have to let the parliamentarian know that

we are not going to be able to break for dinner. There won't be any election speeches tonight

because I need about eight hours to take you through everything that's happened.

My friends, just over a year ago, as soon as Doug Ford's government came to power, they

started to make cuts and create mayhem and it quickly became very clear that they had

forgotten about "the people." Shame! You feel free to say shame at any point throughout

my remarks. One of the first things that Ford did was trash carbon pricing and all related

investments, including a $100-million fund earmarked for school repairs. Yes, it is going

to take us eight hours. And yes, he did this while there was (and

still is) a massive $15B backlog in school repairs.

The Toronto district School Board alone, one example, lost $25M designated for school repairs

because of that cut. And may I just note here? That recently, with

all of that, the Ontario and Saskatchewan courts of Appeal threw out the challenges

by Ford and his conservative friends to the Federal climate change initiative. Saying

that what the federal government does is within the constitution and they threw it out.

And now we have the federal government reaching out and offering funding directly to school

boards from that federal carbon revenue. What an absolute mess!

Almost at the same time the Conservatives were tearing up the Physical Education & Health

curriculum, or as they referred to it, the "sex-ed" curriculum, and hiding it, tore it

up and then hide it away in a closet or tried to hide it away in a closet somewhere at Queen's

Park. But we wouldn't let that happen and we didn't

let that happen. Without hesitation, people from all walks

of life organized, and took a stand. During our annual meeting last year we kicked off

the protests and spoke out as we marched to Queens Park calling for the reinstatement

of the 2015 Health and Physical Education curriculum.

Trustees, the LGBTQ community, health professionals, community groups, our members, our local leaders,

the labour movement, and so many others, many of those I introduced in the back of the room

and their affiliates, we spoke up together and we marched in the streets, we held public

meetings, and protested that regressive decision at every turn.

And one of the most inspiring actions, quiet frankly throughout all of that, occurred when

high school students across the province took a stand, an amazing stand, and went on strike!

But you know, we didn't just protest, on behalf of our members and the students in this province,

ETFO took the Ford government to the Ontario Superior Court. The court ruled in favour

of the government, as we know, saying that the government of Ontario has a constitutional

right to develop, implement, and change curriculum. Wow, we knew that and we agreed with that.

Of course they have that right. That was never our argument.

Our challenge focused on Ford's fumbling of that whole issue, that he and his government,

he is particularly trying to intimate teachers, constrained their professional judgement and

ensured that students would no longer, or try to ensure that students would no longer

benefit from a comprehensive content as found in the 2015 curriculum.

You know, things like consent, gender identity and same sex marriage.

The most important aspect of that court's decision was the recognition and the confirmation

page after page of a teacher's right to use their professional judgement to establish

inclusive learning environments and to teach any and all parts of the 2015 curriculum without

fear of reprisal. That was a huge win. But as you know we are still, still waiting

for the revised Health and Physical Education curriculum!

Over the past year we have seen first hand that the priority of this government is not

what's best for "the people", it's all about the deficit, at all cost no matter what they

have to do, who they have to push aside, they want to reduce the deficit.

With that as their singular focus we've seen them, with the stroke of a pen, overnight,

cancel the $15 an hour minimum wage, and attack Bill 148 and workers' rights in this province.

They cancelled the basic income pilot, pulling the rug out if you will from under 4000 people

and their futures in this province. They cut funding to libraries, they cut $300M from

mental health care, dismantled OSAP, and attacked the Canadian Federation of Students and their

union in this province! They slashed $85M in funding for children

and youth at risk, slashed the Ontario Music Fund, eliminated the office of the child advocate,

shut down the expert panel to end violence against women, eliminated the Indigenous Culture

Fund and made drastic deep cuts to legal aid in this province.

And I haven't even mentioned health care. I can go on for another twenty minutes or

half an hour. And the whole time they were doing this and their budget in April, they

made sure that they provided $3.6 billion in tax relief to corporations in this province.

Shame on this government. What else have they done? You thought we were

finished. Well, they cancelled the Indigenous curriculum writing sessions as you know, but

12 months later, without any collaboration with indigenous leaders or the community,

they released their version of an Indigenous curriculum for grades 9-12. Harvey can speak

to this much better than I can, Liz and Remi. But, to make matters worse, that curriculum

is comprised of, my understanding, 10 elective course.

Shame on this government for making Truth and Reconciliation, Indigenous Education,

in this province and in this country, an elective! This is a long-term fight my friends. When

a regressive, right-wing Conservative government is elected, they inevitably attack as we've

seen hard-won worker rights. We saw it with Harris, Harper, and now Ford. And if you are

paying attention, you see it happening in Alberta, but we hope, we hope, it is not going

to be happening across Canada after October. Let's all go back in March, the Conservatives

unleashed devastating attacks on many different fronts when the announced: funding cuts, increases

to class size averages, the elimination of thousands of teaching positions, and an absurd

introduction of four mandatory online courses for secondary students.

Those attacks and the cuts were confirmed with the release of the 2019 provincial budget

in April and the "Grants for Student Needs." You know, the Ontario Auditor General said

that an investment of at least $1.4 Billion dollars was needed in 2019-20 just to maintain

what we know is an already struggling education system. And we know now, since then, that

did not happen! They didn't even put in the rate of inflation into the budget in publicly

funded education. With all that, to this day, Ford continues

to say that no one, no one will lose their job! And even if he's saying no front line

worker will lose their job, shame on him. Tell that, tell that, to the 160 Upper Canada

District School Board employees, for example, who are being laid off. Teachers; educational

assistants, early childhood educators, English language learner instructor and instructional

assistant positions; school office support staff; library staff; speech and language

assistants. And this is just one example as I said from so many school boards across province.

Or tell it to the 7,000 UFCW workers who are employed right now at Beer Stores across this

province who are going to lose their jobs because of you not agreeing to hold up your

end of the bargain with assigned contracts. Shame on this government.

Let's be very clear. We were certain that this government, as we headed into March,

were fully prepared to remove the class size caps in Full-Day Kindergarten and the primary

grades, but our overwhelming response, your overwhelming response to their trial balloon

made them think twice! Together the people of Ontario protected Full

Day Kindergarten and primary grade class sizes. Our members, sister unions, labour, parents

and experts, took a collective stand. And together we sent over 100,000 emails to

MPPs through the Building Better Schools website. Every single MPP was flooded with emails and

their phones were ringing off the hooks about the importance of small class sizes. My friends

together we did it. And as you know, and I just want to say something

here, that yes we managed to dodge that bullet if you will or those cuts, but I want you

to know that the minute I realized as your president that we had what our colleagues

in the other 3 affiliates who are being attacked and having class size averages drastically

increase and what that was going to do to them I immediately let them know that we have

their backs and we will stand with them to fight to ensure that we can fend off those

cuts. And as you know, while all of this was happening,

the government ripped up the needs-based autism funding, misled the public and willfully created

months of chaos and uncertainty for thousands of families in Ontario.

But the families directly impacted by those cuts organized a relentless campaign to force

the Conservatives to back down. They said early on in that struggle that they were never

going away and OMG they have not! Those families and their allies, won a 6-month

delay for those children currently receiving therapy, they recently won another extension

because of their activism. A panel has been established to provide input on a needs-based

program. But none of that would have happened, none of it, without their tenacity, but they

know and we know that it's not over. These families will now have to wait until

April 2020 for news of what a new needs-based program might look like. Their concerns and

anxiety about the future continues. What the future and well being of their children continues.

Will they need to sell their home or get a second job to cover the cost of essential

therapy for their children? These decisions they have to make every day. Will they wait

for the call to be on that list to get the therapy they need through that program? Or

will it do now what they have to do, as I've said to look after the needs of their children.

That remains to be seen. I can't honestly, I can't begin to imagine