Students have 'right to learn,' says Doug Ford government as contract talks heat up

The Doug Ford government is floating the idea that Ontario students have a "right to learn," in an effort to gain leverage in its contract talks with unions representing teachers and education workers.

The phrase is part of the government's messaging that its main mission for the school system this year is keeping kids in class.

This framing sets up a potential battle pitting students' right to learn against education workers' right to strike, with some 250,000 teachers and support staff in negotiations for new contracts. 

"We will stand up for your child's right to learn, from September right to June. Nothing is more important," wrote Education Minister Lecce in an opinion piece published in the Toronto Sun.

Lecce also referred to "what feels like never-ending education union strikes" in the article. 

"The point of that op-ed was to make clear to families that we believe philosophically as a government that children should be in school, that they have fundamental rights that they can learn every day without interruption," said Lecce Tuesday at Queen's Park.

Lecce did not say whether the government has plans to enshrine the "right to learn" in law, such as making schools an essential service. 

But the Ontario NDP's education critic, Marit Stiles, views Lecce's use of the term as a clear indication the government would use back-to-work legislation if strikes ensue in the education sector. 

"Threats like that are what's going to lead to disruption in this province of our school year," Stiles told reporters at Queen's Park on Tuesday. "They're setting a terrible tone in negotiations."

Contracts for the five major Ontario education unions expired at the end of August and the unions are now in early stages of bargaining with the province: 

• Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario (ETFO) — 83,000 teachers and support staff in the elementary school system.
• Ontario Secondary School Teachers' Federation (OSSTF) — 60,000 teachers and support staff in high schools.
• Ontario English Catholic Teachers' Association (OECTA) — 45,000 teachers across the English Catholic system.
• Association des enseignantes et enseignants franco-ontariens (AEFO) — 12,000 teachers and support staff in the French-language public and Catholic systems.
• CUPE's Ontario School Boards Council of Unions (OSBCU) —  55,000 education workers such as custodians and administrative staff. 

OSBCU members are set to hold a strike vote starting Sept. 23. That could put educational support staff across in the province in a strike position in October. 

During a news conference Tuesday outside a Toronto high school, OSSTF president Karen Littlewood accused the government of "instilling fear in parents and students by villainizing unions and educators, saying that our contract negotiations are going to cause disruptions to the school year." 

The Ford government has spent an unspecified amount of tax dollars on an advertising campaign promoting what it calls its "Plan to Catch Up" in the 2022-23 school year. 

During the last round of contentious contract talks in the education sector, in the 2019-20 school year, the Ford government did not invoke back-to-work legislation.

Hundreds of thousands of students lost multiple days of classes that winter amid a combination of rotating and provincewide strikes by various unions. 

The labour disputes ended soon after the COVID-19 pandemic hit Ontario, when the unions and government agreed to two-year extensions of existing contracts, at a time when schools across the province were closed for public health measures and classes were conducted online.