Ontario's Teachers' Unions Call Out Ford For 'Frustrating' New Health Measures

Following the round of announcements on Monday about the new public health measures, some of Ontario's teachers' unions took it upon themselves to pen letters to Premier Ford and weigh in on how it could affect their students.

At the start of this week, the Ford administration extended school closures for at least another two weeks until January 17, even though schools were previously set to reopen for in-person learning on January 5.

“Putting these targeted and time-limited measures in place will give us more opportunity to deliver vaccines to all Ontarians and ensure everyone has maximum protection against this virus," Ford said in the January 3 announcement.

During this period of time students at all schools across Ontario will make the switch to remote learning.

Following the news of the updated restrictions, the Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario published a letter renewing its calls for safety measures that can actually bring about in-person learning to the province's students.

"This shift to remote learning is frustrating because we know it could have been avoided had the province funded and implemented safety measures at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and not half-measures," ETFO President Karen Brown said in the January 3 letter.

"We recognize the hardships that come with another round of remote learning. To ensure this is the last time we need this emergency measure, we will continue to call on the Ford government to invest in adequate infection prevention measures."

The ETFO laid out the safety measures that they believe should be taken in order to safely bring back in-person learning to students, which include N95s to all education workers, vaccine requirements for eligible staff and school visitors, rapid antigen tests to staff and students, HEPA filters, and an immediate expansion to the paid sick leave program.

"The province must [also] continue to monitor and report COVID-19 cases/outbreaks in schools and ensure they are communicated to close contacts. The suspension of this practice has resulted in grave concern and hesitancy about a return to in-person learning, especially because additional infection prevention and control measures, like N95 masks, are not yet in place," members with the ETFO wrote, and added that Ontario should put a plan in place for staff absenteeism.

The Ontario Secondary School Teachers' Foundation and the Ontario English Catholic Teachers' Association also wrote letters to the Premier that echoed the same sentiments as ETFO's letter, but also noted how Ford failed the province's students, education workers, and parents, with his "last-minute decision making."

Before all of the school announcements, over 500 Ontario doctors called on the Ford administration and pleaded with them not to shutter schools due to the extensive "harm" these closures have on children and youth.