Quebec's back-to-school plan blasted by head of teachers' union
The head of one of Quebec's teaching unions criticized the province's newly unveiled back-to-school plan for being too cavalier with student and staff health with the COVID-19 pandemic still ongoing.
“I'm very concerned for elementary schools in particular,” said Quebec Provincial Association of Teachers president Heidi Yetman. “Yes, it's good to see masks are going to be worn in common areas and hallways, but I would like to err on the side of caution. We should really be looking at more measures instead of less measures.”
Earlier on Wednesday, Education Minister Jean-Francois Roberge rolled out the particulars for how the fall semester will work in the province's elementary and high schools. Students will be required to wear masks in common areas, but won't need to wear them in classrooms.
The plan also calls for the use of the province's soon-to-be-deployed vaccination passports for participation in some extracurricular activities. It also does away with the classroom “bubbles” that had previously been a mainstay of the effort to restrict the spread of COVID-19 in schools.
Yetman said she was “concerned” about the lack of bubbles and social distancing, saying “We're going in with a variant that spreads like wildfire with students under 12 that are not vaccinated.”
Currently, only Quebecers ages 12 and over are eligible for COVID-19 vaccines.
“I'd rather go in with more added measures now and slowly remove them than to continuously change the measures as we move into the fall,” said Yetman. “Teachers have told us the most stressful part of last year was the constant change of directives every two weeks.”
However, the lack of bubbles was received more warmly in other quarters.
“For parents, when we did our consultation, they did not want to have bubbles anymore, so that's good news,” said Kathy Korakakis, head of the English Parents' Committee Association.
English Montreal School Board chairman Joe Ortona said the board is looking forward to “ having a return to normal as much as possible,” including a focus on in-person learning. However, the focus of the EMSB is “the safety and security of everybody and we're just not ready, right now, based on the numbers and trends, to go completely in that route.”
“I'm concerned they don't seem to go far enough right now.”
Ortona said it's too soon to say what additional measures, if any, the EMSB might implement in its schools.
“Obviously many parents are concerned about the measures. We are as well. We're going to consult with our stakeholders, including our teachers and if there are extra measures we have to take, we're going to do so.”
Above the measures themselves, Yetman decried the process by which the government made the decisions that will affect hundreds of thousands of students and their families.
“Consultation with this government has been non-existent,” she said. “We had a meeting with the minister of education earlier this week, we had half an hour with him and that was it. There was not really any consultation. He reaches out to us, he asks us our opinion and the following day it's already decided. It feels like the decisions have already been made and they're just checking how we feel about it. I wouldn't call that consultation.”
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
India's foreign minister reacts to murder charges, claims Canada welcomes criminals
India's Foreign Affairs Minister accused Canada of welcoming criminals from his country in response to the RCMP's recent arrests in a homicide that has roiled tensions between the two countries.
15-year-old boy stabbed in Ottawa on Thursday dies
A 15-year old boy who was critically injured after a stabbing in Nepean on Thursday has died of his injuries, Ottawa's English public school board said Sunday.
Dash cam catches moment suspected drunk driver hits parked car, sends it careening into North Shore flower shop
Police say it’s fortunate no one was injured or killed in a collision at North Vancouver’s Park and Tilford shopping centre Saturday evening that sent one vehicle careening into a flower shop and another into a set of concrete barriers outside a Winners store.
Actor Bernard Hill, of 'Titanic' and 'Lord of the Rings,' has died at 79
Actor Bernard Hill, who delivered a rousing cry before leading his people into battle in 'The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King' and went down with the ship as the captain in 'Titanic,' has died.
'A tiny city:' Pro-Palestinian campus protesters organize for another week
Pro-Palestinian activists have set up tents at universities in Toronto, Ottawa, Vancouver and Montreal, following a wave of similar protests at campuses in the United States linked to the Israel-Hamas war.
Lawsuit against Meta asks if Facebook users have right to control their feeds using external tools
Do social media users have the right to control what they see — or don't see — on their feeds?
A Holocaust survivor will mark that history differently after the horrors of Oct. 7
This year's Holocaust Remembrance Day, which begins on Sunday evening in Israel, carries a heavier weight than usual for many Jews around the world.
Princess Anne lays wreath at Battle of Atlantic ceremony; honours late Queen
Princess Anne saluted Canadian veterans and current forces members and honoured her late mother during separate ceremonies Sunday in Victoria as she wrapped up a three-day British Columbia West Coast royal visit.
El Nino weakening doesn't mean cooler temperatures this summer, forecasters say
As Canadians brace themselves for summer temperatures, forecasters say a weakening El Nino cycle doesn’t mean relief from the heat.