TORONTO, ONT. â Mother-of-two Liana Salvador-Watts has a challenge for Ontario Premier Doug Ford and Education Minister Stephen Lecce.
âI would love for Ford or Lecce to just come here for a day, and not just keep these kids safe and happy, but actually teach them something,â she told HuffPost Canada Thursday. âItâs not easy!â
The lactation consultant is playing teacher to some 20 kids at a legion hall west of Toronto for two days. She and a group of organizers with the pro-union Ontario Parent Action Network set up five âpay what you canâł child-care spaces in low-income neighbourhoods while elementary teachers are on strike.
Most of the camps had between 20 and 30 kids registered, organizer Jess Lyons told HuffPost, except for one in Newmarket, Ont., which had 70.
Earlier: Ontario elementary teachers say a deal was close before government changed its tune. Story continues after video.
âWe want to highlight the fact that parents and families share the same goals as our educators,â Lyons said. âWe want to help each other out ⊠and make the strike days easier.â
Salvador-Watts said sheâs most worried that full-day kindergarten wonât be around when her three-year-old son, Theo, starts school. Theoâs five-year-old sister, Naomi, is currently enrolled in full-day kindergarten with both a teacher and an early childhood educator (ECE).
Naomiâs French vocabulary is âincredibleâ now and her English reading has âimproved dramatically,â her mother said.
âIt terrifies me to think that my son, when he enters the school system, that may not be there.â
âItâs magic what they can do in a classroom. It terrifies me to think that my son, when he enters the school system, that may not be there.â
Salvador-Watts hired two education workers for the York camp by collecting $10 donations from the parents who could afford it. There were four volunteers also present, doing crafts and games with the kids. One was Salvador-Wattsâ neighbour, a grandmother.
Ontarioâs elementary teachers are staging rotating walk-outs and weekly province-wide strikes after fresh negotiations with the province fell apart last Friday.
The government said it committed to keeping full-day kindergarten during negotiations last week. But the president of the Elementary Teachersâ Federation of Ontario (ETFO), Sam Hammond, said the commitment wasnât formal.
âEverything that we agreed to has to be part of the collective agreement ⊠not a letter that is given to our general secretary in the lobby of the hotel,â Hammond told reporters Monday.
ETFO is one of four major Ontario teachersâ unions staging strikes or work-to-rule campaigns right now.
The government argues that the teachers are only fighting for more compensation. But the teachers say theyâre taking a stand against the governmentâs other policies, including bigger class sizes and mandatory online learning.
The politics of it all wasnât lost on Salvador-Wattsâ campers at the legion.
Many kids shouted out âstrike,â when she asked them what their teachers were up to.
âAnd why are they on strike?â
âBecause Justin Trudeau doesnât pay them any money!â one child supposed.
âYou are so close,â Salvador-Watts answered.
With a file from The Canadian Press