The Hook: Political news, freshly caught
Ministry responds to Adult Ed concerns, restores some courses
Less than two month after announcing it was retracting funding for several key adult education courses, the Ministry of Education has agreed to restore funding to six high school-level courses. Read more…
Do You Agree with BC’s Decriminalization Rollback?
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Do you have a special story to share from your own backyard? Read the results of that poll here.
New website translates French-language media coverage of student protests
A new website is providing translations of the French-language Quebec media coverage of the ongoing student protests. Read more…
BCTF supports Cowichan Valley 'restoration' budget
The BC Teachers' Federation is putting their support behind the only school district to submit a needs-based budget this year. Read more…
- Education and
- BC Politics
Legal challenge to Quebec protest law delayed to Friday
A legal challenge against Quebec's controversial Bill 78 requiring protests and rallies of more than 50 people to give police eight hours notice of expected attendance and route, will be heard in Quebec Superior Court on Friday. Read more…
Climate skeptics often highly rational, survey finds
Knowing lots about science doesn't make you any more likely to support the scientific consensus that humans are causing global warming, suggests a new survey in Nature Climate Change. Read more…
Quebec students, government to resume negotiations over tuition increases
Quebec students and the provincial government will return to the bargaining table today in a high-stakes attempt to end the months-long dispute over tuition fees. Read more…
Hundreds at Vancouver rally to support Quebec students
Over 200 protestors stood in solidarity with Quebec students at a rally in downtown Vancouver to mark the 100th day of students' protest in Montreal. Read more…
COPE calls for MLA meeting on adult education
*Updated* The Coalition of Progressive Electors (COPE) wants Vancouver MLAs to sit down with the Vancouver School Board to discuss the necessity of fully funding adult education in the district. Read more…
- Education and
- BC Politics
Quebec education minister resigns amid tuition crisis
Veteran Liberal minister and Quebec Deputy Premier Line Beauchamp today announced a surprise end to her political career. Read more…
Quebec's silent student majority: the two-thirds quietly completing class
MONTREAL - They are the 66 per cent. And they have been mostly invisible in the torrent of stories about Quebec's student unrest. Read more…
To smash or not to smash? In Montreal, pacifists tell vandals to tone it down
A division has emerged at the student protest marches being held nightly in Montreal, with a peaceful majority denouncing a smaller group intent on committing acts of vandalism. Read more…
BCTF responds to School Act, union expulsions
BC Teachers' Federation President Susan Lambert says some proposed changes to the School Act could be positive if more research had been conducted first. But teachers who disagree with her statements, or disobey the union's withdrawal from extracurricular activities, have no fear of expulsion or unemployment. Read more…
- Education and
- BC Politics
Call for 'social strike' by biggest Quebec student protest group, translated via Rabble.ca
As protests build in Quebec, the organization CLASSE, representing a majority of student protestors, is calling for labour and other organization to join them in a wider "social strike" across the province. Rabble.ca published a translation of the group's statement, noting that, "The CLASSE is the largest of the student coalitions or federations leading the strike movement across Quebec. It represents more than half of the 180,000 students now on strike..." Read more…
Teachers who volunteer will be protected from union says minister
Comments by a union official suggesting teachers who volunteer will forced out of the profession are bullying and inappropriate, Education Minister George Abbott said today. Read more…
Ministry announces changes to School Act
Changes to the School Act announced today include opening up a mix of online and in-class learning to the younger grades and eliminating a rigid school calendar. Read more…
- Education and
- BC Politics
Talks break off between Quebec government and student groups
Their three-day attempt at negotiation was always a long shot: the sides were an ideological chasm apart, with the government refusing to back down on tuition hikes and student groups demanding exactly that, and perhaps more. So the discussion ended as it began -- with rowdy scenes in the street and no solution in sight. Read more…
BCTF win one, lose one in contract dispute
Teachers celebrated a bittersweet victory, followed by a loss, this morning when their announcement of a membership vote in favour of withdrawing from extracurricular activities was followed by the BC Labour Relations Board's ruling that they must issue retroactive report cards next week. Read more…
- Education and
- BC Politics
BCTF asks LRB to cancel mediator's appointment
The British Columbia Teachers' Federation has asked the Labour Relations Board to cancel the appointment of Charles Jago as mediator in the labour dispute with its employer. Read more…
Education Ministry adds strike savings to learning fund
The $37 million saved by the Ministry of Education from the three-day teachers' strike earlier last month will be put into the Ministry's Learning Improvement Fund, bumping up the total to $195 million from $165 million over three years. But it's not even half of the $130 million extra the teachers' union says schools need every year. Read more…
- Education and
- BC Politics
Education mediator's 2006 report saw labour agreements as 'constraint'
In a 2006 report, the person appointed to mediate the contract dispute between the British Columbia government and teachers described labour agreements as "constraining" leadership in the province's education system. Read more…
