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The 1997 Ontario teachers' strike was a
labour dispute A labor dispute is a disagreement between an employer and employees regarding the terms of employment. This could include disputes regarding conditions of employment, fringe benefits, hours of work, tenure, and wages to be negotiated during co ...
between the
government of Ontario The Government of Ontario () is the body responsible for the administration of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. The term ''Government of Ontario'' refers specifically to the executive—political Minister ...
under Premier
Mike Harris Michael Deane Harris (born January 23, 1945) is a retired Canadian politician who served as the 22nd premier of Ontario from 1995 to 2002 and leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario (PC Party) from 1990 to 2002. Taking the PC ...
of the
Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario The Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario (PC; ), often shortened to the Ontario PC Party, or simply the PCs, colloquially known as the Tories, is a Centre-right politics, centre-right political party in Ontario, Canada. During its uninterr ...
(PCs), and the
Ontario Teachers' Federation The Ontario Teachers' Federation (OTF; , FEO) is the professional body representing over 160,000 teachers in Ontario's publicly funded schools. It operates the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan (OTTP), which in 2021, was Canada's largest single-pro ...
(OTF) and its member labour unions. The strike occurred in the context of Harris'
Common Sense Revolution The phrase Common Sense Revolution (CSR) has been used as a political slogan to describe conservative platforms with a main goal of reducing taxes while balancing the budget by reducing the size and role of government. It has been used in places ...
, a program of deficit reduction characterized by cuts to education and social services. In September 1997, the PCs introduced Bill 160 (the ''Education Quality Improvement Act, 1997''), which sought to reduce education spending and transfer numerous aspects of school administration from local
school boards A board of education, school committee or school board is the board of directors or board of trustees of a school, local school district or an equivalent institution. The elected council determines the educational policy in a small regional area, ...
to the provincial government. In response, teachers participated in a province-wide
walkout In labor disputes, a walkout is a labor strike, the act of employees collectively leaving the workplace and withholding labor as an act of protest. A walkout can also mean the act of leaving a place of work, school, a meeting, a company, or an ...
beginning on October 27, 1997. The strike was the largest teachers' strike to ever occur in North America at the time, with walkouts by over 126,000 teachers resulting in the closure of nearly all of Ontario's 4,742 public schools. Despite opinion polling indicating that a majority of the public supported the striking teachers, the strike concluded on November 10, 1997, after the leadership of several teachers' unions instructed their members to return to work. The OTF ultimately failed to extract major concessions from the government, and Bill 160 passed on December 1, 1997.


Context

In the
1995 Ontario general election The 1995 Ontario general election was held on June 8, 1995, to elect members of the 36th Legislative Assembly of Ontario, 36th Legislative Assembly of the province of Ontario, Canada. The writs for the election were drawn up on April 28, 1995. ...
, the
Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario The Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario (PC; ), often shortened to the Ontario PC Party, or simply the PCs, colloquially known as the Tories, is a Centre-right politics, centre-right political party in Ontario, Canada. During its uninterr ...
(PCs), under party leader
Mike Harris Michael Deane Harris (born January 23, 1945) is a retired Canadian politician who served as the 22nd premier of Ontario from 1995 to 2002 and leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario (PC Party) from 1990 to 2002. Taking the PC ...
, won a majority of the seats in the Legislative Assembly. The party campaigned on the "
Common Sense Revolution The phrase Common Sense Revolution (CSR) has been used as a political slogan to describe conservative platforms with a main goal of reducing taxes while balancing the budget by reducing the size and role of government. It has been used in places ...
", a platform of policies aimed at reducing the provincial deficit by lowering taxes and cutting public services. The PCs had an acrimonious relationship with the province's labour sector, particularly teachers' unions; in 1995, controversy erupted after a video leaked of Minister of Education and Training
John Snobelen John Snobelen (born ) is a former politician in Ontario, Canada. He was a Progressive Conservative member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1995 to 2003, and served as a cabinet minister in the government of Mike Harris. Background S ...
stating that the party needed to "invent a crisis" to generate public support for its plans to overhaul the province's education system. From 1995 to 1998, "Days of Action" were held as a series of rolling, one-day
general strike A general strike is a strike action in which participants cease all economic activity, such as working, to strengthen the bargaining position of a trade union or achieve a common social or political goal. They are organised by large coalitions ...
s organized by labour unions in opposition to the Harris government. On January 13, 1997, the PCs passed the ''Fewer School Boards Act, 1997'' (Bill 104), which amalgamated
school boards A board of education, school committee or school board is the board of directors or board of trustees of a school, local school district or an equivalent institution. The elected council determines the educational policy in a small regional area, ...
in the province and established the Education Improvement Commission to make further recommendations about reforms to Ontario's public education system. At the annual meeting of the
Ontario Teachers' Federation The Ontario Teachers' Federation (OTF; , FEO) is the professional body representing over 160,000 teachers in Ontario's publicly funded schools. It operates the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan (OTTP), which in 2021, was Canada's largest single-pro ...
(OTF) that March, a motion was passed to sanction the government if it sought to restrict
collective bargaining Collective bargaining is a process of negotiation between employers and a group of employees aimed at agreements to regulate working salaries, working conditions, benefits, and other aspects of workers' compensation and labour rights, rights for ...
rights for teachers; in a member-wide vote in May 1997, 84.2 percent of
Ontario Secondary School Teachers' Federation The Ontario Secondary School Teachers' Federation (OSSTF) is a Canadian trade union which represents 60,000 members across Ontario. Founded in 1919, its membership includes public high school teachers, occasional teachers, teaching assistants, ps ...
(OSSTF) members voted in favor of province-wide action. The following month, the PCs introduced the ''Public Sector Transitions Stability Act, 1997'' (Bill 136), which restructured public sector unions; the bill was amended in September after pressure from the
Ontario Federation of Labour Ontario is the southernmost province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it is home to 38.5% of the country's population, and is the second-largest province by ...
(OFL).


History


Introduction of Bill 160

On September 22, 1997, Snobelen introduced the ''Education Quality Improvement Act, 1997'', more commonly known as Bill 160. Under Bill 160, responsibilities for multiple aspects of school administration would be transferred from local
school boards A board of education, school committee or school board is the board of directors or board of trustees of a school, local school district or an equivalent institution. The elected council determines the educational policy in a small regional area, ...
to the provincial government. In particular, the bill would grant the province the ability to determine school funding,
class size Class size refers to the number of students a teacher faces during a given period of instruction. Measurements and definitions Some researchers and policymakers have studied the effects of class size by using student-teacher ratio (or its ...
s, the levying of school property taxes, and the number of hours allotted for teacher prep time; it would also permit non-
certified teacher A certified teacher (also known as registered teacher, licensed teacher, or professional teacher based on jurisdiction) is an educator who has earned credentials from an authoritative source, such as a government's regulatory authority, an educ ...
s to instruct in public schools, and implement
standardized testing A standardized test is a test that is administered and scored in a consistent or standard manner. Standardized tests are designed in such a way that the questions and interpretations are consistent and are administered and scored in a predetermine ...
for students. While the government stated that the purpose of Bill 160 was to "improve the performance of Ontario schoolchildren", critics of the bill argued that its true aim was to diminish the power of school boards and teachers unions, and that the passing of the bill would amount to CAD$1 billion in cuts to the province's education system and layoffs for up to 10,000 teachers. On September 25 the OTF threatened strike action if Bill 160 was passed, and from September 26 to October 10 held regional meetings and rallies across the province to prepare its membership for potential strike action. A rally organized by the OTF held at
Maple Leaf Gardens Maple Leaf Gardens is a historic building located at the northwest corner of Carlton Street and Church and Wellesley, Church Street in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The building was originally constructed in 1931 as an indoor arena to host ice hoc ...
on October 7, 1997, was attended by over 24,000 demonstrators. In a
cabinet shuffle A cabinet reshuffle or shuffle occurs when a head of government rotates or changes the composition of ministers in their cabinet, or when the head of state changes the head of government and a number of ministers. They are more common in parliam ...
on October 10, Harris replaced Snobelen as education minister with David Johnson, who on October 20 rejected the OTF's proposals to amend Bill 160. OTF President Eileen Lennon announced on October 22 that a province-wide teacher
walkout In labor disputes, a walkout is a labor strike, the act of employees collectively leaving the workplace and withholding labor as an act of protest. A walkout can also mean the act of leaving a place of work, school, a meeting, a company, or an ...
would occur in protest of the bill; that same day, Harris denounced the planned walkout as an illegal strike in a televised address. On October 24, the ''
Toronto Star The ''Toronto Star'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and part of Torstar's Daily News Brands (Torstar), Daily News Brands division. ...
'' published a leaked document indicating that deputy education minister Veronica Lacey would receive a
bonus payment A bonus payment is usually made to employees in addition to their base salary as part of their wages or salary. While the base salary usually is a fixed amount per month, bonus payments more often than not vary depending on known criteria, such ...
if she successfully cut $667 million from the province's education budget. The scandal lent credence to the OTF's claims that the primary goal of Bill 160 was to implement cuts, and forced the Harris government to acknowledge that it planned to reduce education spending.


Strike

Beginning on October 27, 1997, over 126,000 public and
Catholic school Catholic schools are Parochial school, parochial pre-primary, primary and secondary educational institutions administered in association with the Catholic Church. , the Catholic Church operates the world's largest parochial schools, religious, no ...
teachers, principals, and vice principals participated in a province-wide walkout. At the time, the action was the largest teachers' strike to ever occur in North America. More than 2.1 million students were affected; nearly all of the province's 4,742 public schools were closed, with a few remaining open under the supervision of non-teaching staff. While the action was referred to as a "strike" in public discourse, it was technically a protest, as the demonstrators were opposing actions by the government rather than the school boards they were employed by; consequently, the demonstrators did not earn
strike pay Strike pay is a payment made by a trade union to workers who are on strike to help in meeting their basic needs while on strike, often out of a special reserve known as a ''strike fund''. Union workers reason that the availability of strike pay in ...
for the duration of the action. The strike was supported by the
Canadian Auto Workers The National Automobile, Aerospace, Transportation and General Workers Union of Canada, commonly known as the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW), was one of Canada's largest labour unions. In 2013, it merged with the Communications, Energy and Paperwork ...
(CAW) and
Canadian Union of Public Employees The Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE; ) is a Canadian trade union serving the public sector – although it has in recent years organized workplaces in the non-profit and para-public sector as well. CUPE is the largest union in Canada, ...
(CUPE), with CUPE president
Sid Ryan Patrick Cyril "Sid" Ryan (born 1952) is a Canadian labour union leader and politician. Ryan is the former president of the Ontario Federation of Labour. Biography Born in Dublin, Republic of Ireland, and third eldest of ten children, Ryan emigrat ...
calling for a general strike in support of the teachers. Five hours after the strike commenced, the government announced that it intended to file an
injunction An injunction is an equitable remedy in the form of a special court order compelling a party to do or refrain from doing certain acts. It was developed by the English courts of equity but its origins go back to Roman law and the equitable rem ...
to order teachers back to work. On October 28, the government rejected the OTF's proposal to end the strike, and announced plans to remove principals and vice principals from the union representing teachers. The government submitted its injunction to the
Supreme Court of Ontario The Supreme Court of Ontario was a superior court of the Canadian province of Ontario. Created in 1881 pursuant to the Ontario Judicature Act (1881), the Supreme Court of Ontario had two branches: the High Court of Justice Division and the Appell ...
on October 31, which was rejected by justice James C. MacPherson on November 3. In his ruling, MacPherson dismissed the government's claim that the strike was causing "irreparable harm", and noted that the provisions of Bill 160 were broad enough to potentially invite a challenge under the ''
Charter of Rights and Freedoms The ''Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms'' (), often simply referred to as the ''Charter'' in Canada, is a bill of rights entrenched in the Constitution of Canada, forming the first part of the '' Constitution Act, 1982''. The ''Char ...
''. He stated that the government's seeking of the injunction was "significantly premature", and that a ruling on the legality of the strike could only be obtained if the school boards who employed the striking teachers sought a decision from the
Ontario Labour Relations Board The Ontario Labour Relations Board is an adjudicative agency of the Ministry of Labour, Training and Skills Development and was established by the Ontario government in 1948. It defines itself as "an independent, quasi-judicial tribunal mandated ...
. On November 4, negotiations between the OTF and government broke down, with no additional negotiations scheduled. Prior to the strike, a Wright
opinion poll An opinion poll, often simply referred to as a survey or a poll, is a human research survey of public opinion from a particular sample. Opinion polls are usually designed to represent the opinions of a population by conducting a series of qu ...
found that 70 percent of Ontarians supported school reform, while 56 percent opposed a potential teacher walkout. As the strike progressed, public opinion shifted in favor of the teachers:
Environics Environics Research is a fully Canadian-owned company that provides consulting and market research services for businesses, governments, and non-profit organizations. It offers an array of research, consulting, and communications services. Th ...
conducted daily opinion polls during the strike, which by the conclusion of the strike found that 63 percent of Ontarians felt that Bill 160 should be withdrawn in part or in full, while only 28 percent supported the government. An Angus Reid poll of Toronto residents found that while 55 percent supported the government at the start of the strike, by its conclusion, 54 percent supported the teachers.


Conclusion

The ''
Toronto Star The ''Toronto Star'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and part of Torstar's Daily News Brands (Torstar), Daily News Brands division. ...
'' reported that union leadership discussed ending the strike on November 5, 1997, but that "determination on the part of union membership" led to a decision to continue the walkout. A rally attended by 22,000 demonstrators was held on November 6 in support of the teachers at Queen's Park; that same day, leaders of the Ontario Public School Teachers' Federation (OPSTF), the Federation of Women Teachers' Associations of Ontario (FWTAO), and the Association des enseignantes et des enseignants franco-ontariens (AEFO) announced that its members would return to work on November 10. On November 8, the
Ontario English Catholic Teachers' Association The Ontario English Catholic Teachers' Association (OECTA) is a trade union that represents teachers in publicly funded Roman Catholic schools in the Canadian province of Ontario. It is affiliated with the Ontario Teachers' Federation, the Canad ...
(OECTA) announced its members would also return to work; the following day, the OSSTF announced that following an all-member vote, its members would also return to work. This brought an end to the strike, and on November 10, 1997, schools re-opened and teachers returned to work. At a union session held at the
Hummingbird Centre Meridian Hall is a performing arts venue in Toronto, Ontario, and it is the largest soft-seat theatre in Canada. The facility was constructed for the City of Toronto municipal government and is currently managed by TO Live, an Arm's length body ...
in Toronto on November 14, the decision to end the strike was denounced by members, and union leaders were booed off the stage. Bill 160 passed the legislature on December 1, 1997, and received
royal assent Royal assent is the method by which a monarch formally approves an act of the legislature, either directly or through an official acting on the monarch's behalf. In some jurisdictions, royal assent is equivalent to promulgation, while in othe ...
on December 8, 1997. While the provisions that would have permitted the government to employ non-certified teachers were not included in the final text of the bill, the strike failed to extract any other major concessions from the government. While OSSTF President Earl Manners described the strike as a "phenomenal success", the ''Toronto Star'' noted that "when all is said and done, the teachers have achieved few of their goals in opposing Bill 160".


Aftermath and legacy

In the 1999 election, the PCs lost 23 seats but nonetheless maintained their majority in the Legislative Assembly. Teachers' strikes would continue, albeit on a smaller and localized scale, for the remainder of the PCs' tenure in office. In 1998, teachers in seven
Greater Toronto Area The Greater Toronto Area, commonly referred to as the GTA, includes the Toronto, City of Toronto and the regional municipality, regional municipalities of Regional Municipality of Durham, Durham, Regional Municipality of Halton, Halton, Regional ...
school districts were locked out by school boards following a breakdown in labour negotiations; that same year, teachers in
York Region The Regional Municipality of York, also called York Region, is a regional municipality in Southern Ontario, Canada, between Lake Simcoe and Toronto. The region was established after the passing of then Bill 102, An Act to Establish The Regional ...
were locked out in response to teachers working-to-rule. Teachers in the
Simcoe Muskoka Catholic District School Board The Simcoe Muskoka Catholic District School Board (SMCDSB, known as English-language Separate District School Board No. 44 prior to 1999) administers and governs separate school Catholic education from kindergarten through grade 12 in Simcoe County ...
went on strike twice in 2002, while teachers in the
Toronto Catholic District School Board The Toronto Catholic District School Board (TCDSB, known as English-language Separate District School Board No. 40 prior to 1999) is an English-language public-separate school board for Toronto, Ontario, Canada, headquartered in North York. ...
went on strike in 2003. Though the
Ontario Liberal Party The Ontario Liberal Party (OLP; , PLO) is a political party in the province of Ontario, Canada. The party has been led by Bonnie Crombie since December 2023. The party espouses the principles of liberalism, with their rival the Progressive Co ...
would win a majority government in the 2003 election, few of the reforms implemented by Bill 160 were reversed by the Liberals; in a 2020 interview, Snobelen noted that Bill 160 had become the "foundation of education in the province". Former OSSTF Toronto President Leslie Wolfe referred to the protests as a "pivotal moment" for issues surrounding education funding and governance in Ontario, noting that "it is not hyperbole to suggest that today’s education union political activism was born of the Harris Tory time in power, and his government's determination to vilify publicly funded education and its teachers." Former OTF president Eileen Lennon attributed the protest's failure to an inability by the union to plan an exit strategy, writing in a commemoration of the 10th anniversary of the protests that "by the end of the second week of the protest, it was clear that the government was going to ram the legislation through. They were not going to make any substantial amendments or withdraw it." Douglas Nesbitt of the
University of Manitoba The University of Manitoba (U of M, UManitoba, or UM) is a public research university in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Founded in 1877, it is the first university of Western Canada. Both by total student enrolment and campus area, the University of ...
argues that the failure of the protests can be owed to an ideological split among leaders of the teachers' unions between those who opposed the Days of Action and wished to focus on electoral efforts to support the
Ontario New Democratic Party The Ontario New Democratic Party (NDP; , NPD) is a social democratic political party in Ontario, Canada. The party sits on the centre-left of the political spectrum. It is Ontario’s provincial section of the federal New Democratic Party. The ...
(NDP), and those who supported the Days of Action and opposed the NDP following the party's shift to
austerity In economic policy, austerity is a set of Political economy, political-economic policies that aim to reduce government budget deficits through Government spending, spending cuts, tax increases, or a combination of both. There are three prim ...
policies under premier
Bob Rae Robert Keith Rae (born August 2, 1948) is a Canadian diplomat and former politician who is the current Canadian Ambassador to the United Nations since 2020. He previously served as the 21st premier of Ontario from 1990 to 1995, leader of the ...
. This factionalism among union leadership, Nesbitt argues, resulted in an unwillingness to escalate the scale of demonstrations; he notes that in the wake of the strike's failure, organized labour in Ontario retreated from extra-political action to pursue a strategy of
electoralism Electoralism is a term first used by Terry Karl, professor of political science at Stanford University, to describe a "half-way" transition from authoritarian rule toward democratic rule. As a topic in the dominant party system political scien ...
. Alan Sears of
Ryerson University Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU, or Toronto Met), formerly Ryerson University, is a public research university located in Toronto, Canada. The university's core campus is situated within the Garden District in downtown Toronto, although i ...
(now Toronto Metropolitan University) similarly argues that the 1997 strike "represented the end point of a longer term mobilization dating back to the
Social Contract In moral and political philosophy, the social contract is an idea, theory, or model that usually, although not always, concerns the legitimacy of the authority of the state over the individual. Conceptualized in the Age of Enlightenment, it ...
" passed by the NDP, and that the failure of the strike combined with the end of the Days of Action campaign "took much of the wind out of the sails of the opposition on the education front". During and after the strike, the parents' group People for Education organized an
awareness ribbon Awareness ribbons are symbols meant to show support or consciousness raising, raise consciousness for a cause. Different colors and patterns are associated with different issues. Awareness ribbons can be worn on clothing like pins, they can be ...
campaign, with supporters of the teachers encouraged to wear
apple green Varieties of the color green may differ in hue, chroma (also called saturation or intensity) or lightness (or value, tone, or brightness), or in two or three of these qualities. Variations in value are also called tints and shades, a tint be ...
-coloured ribbons. The 1997 strike is frequently invoked by media during coverage of subsequent labour disputes between the Ontario government and teachers' unions, such as during the rotating teachers' strikes of 2012, 2019, and 2020.


See also

* Metro Toronto Elementary Teacher's strike * S.O.S. Montfort


References


Footnotes


Bibliography

* *


Further reading

*


External links


Pro-strike television commercial produced by the Ontatio Teachers' Federation
via YouTube {{Notable labour disputes in Canada Teachers' strike Ontario teachers' strike Labour disputes in Ontario Education labour disputes in Canada Ontario teachers' strike Ontario teachers' strike