FIGHT FOR THE FUTURE OF
ONTARIO
On October 21 the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party will be meeting in Toronto for its annual Policy convention.
Student organizations, labour unions and activists as well as many other anti-poverty and social justice groups will
be converging on Toronto in order to demand an end to the attacks on the rights of the workers, women, youth and poor
of this province. The Access 2000 Committee invites all students, faculty and staff at the University of Windsor
to join us in Toronto for this important event.
The Harris Conservatives are stepping up their anti-social measures with the aim
of convincing organized labour, student groups, teachers and others that if they
put up resistance, it will only make the situation worse. With Bill 74, the "Education
Accountability Act" the government is seeking to take more money out of secondary
and elementary school funding, as well as to put in place measures which do not allow
teachers or school boards to oppose the dictate of government policies. If
they do, they risk being fired, sued, or even charged. On top of this, with the
implementation of Bill 81 "The Safe Schools Act" more measures are being put in
place to criminalize the youth and turn teachers into police in the schools. Elementary
and secondary school teachers are overwhelmingly opposed to this legislation as
an attack on the fundamental right of Ontario's youth to quality education.
Teachers are planning various actions in order to stop the implementation of
the legislation, including strike action. (Find out more about these two controversial
pieces of legislation
here.)
Students, their faculty and university administrations were united in opposing
the implementation of any private universities in the province of Ontario.
Students at this university participated along with thousands across the
country in the Access 2000 Student Strike on February 2nd of last year.
Students took a stand opposing how under-funding to universities is deliberately
being set up to limit access, as well as set up a situation in which universities
are forced to privatize their programs and research even further. Despite this
broad opposition, as the school year ended Harris declared private universities
were coming and there would be no discussion!
Events in Walkerton, Ontario, as well as at Queen's Park in Toronto further show that
the provincial government, much like the Federal Liberals, are not serious about
dealing with the problems facing society at this time. Instead they make great
claims during elections in order to gain power and then sell off and privatize
public resources in order to benefit Canadian monopolies under the guise of
keeping Canada competitive or boosting "job creation". In reality the rights of
the most vulnerable are trampled on, and the police are used to deal with any
opposition.
The Access 2000 Committee at the University of Windsor established itself last
year in order for faculty, students and staff to have an organization from which
we can organize to oppose the cuts to social programs, as well as to discuss how
we can provide solutions to these very serious problems. We are set to build on our
successes of last year and not give in to the logic that instead of organizing
ourselves that we should simply "work within the system". The undemocratic ways
in which the Harris Conservatives rule like dictators do not provide mechanisms
for us to have our say! We plan to continue our research on privatization,
as well as attend mass actions such as the PC Policy Convention, the World March
of Women as well as the Summit of the Americas planned for Quebec City as part
of our work.
Current members as well as anyone interested in getting involved or joining the
delegation to the PC Policy Convention should call 253-3000 ext. 3915 or
contact the A2K Committee by E-mail.
