bureaucracy at its best.

As many of you will be aware, the BC Teachers are on strike, in protest of many things (a forced contract, the elimination of collective bargaining for issues such as class size and composition, as well as no meaningful wage increase since the early 90's). My mom is one such teacher, and I couldn't be more proud of her. The day after they went on strike, she turned our kitchen calendar to October, and saw a picture of Tommy Douglas -- Canadian champion of free health care, social welfare, and other programs. He was an essential part of Canada becoming the nation it is today, and his policies were based on Biblical principles -- to take care of the weak, the sick, the poor, the widows, the dispossessed, and also the idea that we are all children of God, and therefore equal, and deserving of the same treatment and care.
Anyway, below is an email from my dad in response to my asking what was happening with the strike.

"Vince Ready, the 'facilitator' appointed to try to bring an end to the dispute has apparently declared an 'impasse' today. So, Mom, who said she predicts they'll be back by Oct 31st, may be right. It's disappointing. The government doesn't seem to be budging.

The supreme court is to rule tomorrow regarding what further penalties to apply to the union. (they have already frozen all of their assets--physical and financial--and no strike pay can be given members). And the Crown Prosecutor is considering whether or not the teachers are still only in 'civil contempt' of court or 'ciminal contempt' of court. When he will rule on that, I don't know.

The whole LM is expected to 'shut down' tomorrow as all public sector unions (except hospitals, care homes, and likely bus drivers) strike or respect pickets.

It's no fun. That's for sure." (LM stands for Lower Mainland).

It's disappointing and disenchanting, I suppose, to realize that our BC Liberals don't really care about the people in the province. It's a real slap in the face for people living in a "democracy".
The teachers, and now other CUPE workers, who are striking are public servants. The teacher's I've spoken to are much more concerned about the declining quality of public education than they are about the wage increase. In BC, we are being led by a government that would support a private/public system of education, not to mention health care. It is a system that benefits the rich, and punishes the poor, one which Tommy Douglas and other Canadian politicians fought hard to do away with.

It certainly leaves me disillusioned, and not knowing what to do. As a young person, a student, perhaps an idealist, I have lost a lot of respect for Gordon Campbell and his party. I think many people our age are disgusted with the current political system, and thus refuse to engage in it. This particular current event illustrates the hopelessness that one can feel in today's system. In many ridings in BC, the Liberals won less than the majority of votes, but the Liberal candidate was elected, because the majority of votes were split between the Green Party and the NDP. I thought this would cause the Liberals to wake up, and pay attention to what people were saying, but apparently it hasn't.



In my family we've been praying first and foremost that the hearts of our politicians would be softened towards God....that's the only place we believe change can come from.