OPSEU 330 (ex)President Silvanna Petersen wearing riot gear…
I spent all of today at the Ontario Legislature as a guest of MPP Rod Jackson. We met before the session began and I shared some of my research- including how the UN Special Rapport for Torture got involved when an American school started using remote control electroshock weapons on autistic kids. Jackson was very enthusiastic about stopping Ontario schools from using martial arts blocker pads against these kids. I enjoyed meeting him, and have great respect for the issue he took to the floor today.
Jackson introduced a private members bill to ban the use of the blocker pads. Usually private members bills don’t go very far- but this bill was so obviously needed that it had very few objections. In fact, not a single member of the legislature could deny it was needed.
I was seated in the lower gallery, about two meters away from where the MPP’s sit- right beside the NDP contingent. The first couple of hours were focussed on debating and discussing the placement of slot machines at racetracks. There was a funny thing I noticed about that debate- when referencing the slot machines, all of the MPP’s used the word ‘gaming’. But, when mentioning the government shutting them down, they would call the government’s actions ‘gambling’. It is so obvious many of them are gaming on the side of the gambling companies. Sad.
Anyhow, Jackson introduced bill 102 very well, and it was obvious from the start that the other MPP’s were behind him. That should be expected- because, how could any reasonable person (outside of a union leader like Sylvanna Petersen) think it is acceptable to use martial arts gear against children!
There were a few very excellent points made from the floor. First, if parents used the same tactics at home against their kids, they would probably have their kids taken away. Next was that while worker safety is important- the dignity of the children should always come first.
Monique Taylor, an MPP for the Hamilton Mountain riding did an interesting speech on behalf of the NDP. She was between a rock and a hard place- she had to show as much support for the unions as possible without continuing OPSEU’s assault on the children. So, she framed her speech on the fact that we need to pay more money to the Educational Assistants (EA’s), and that they need to hire more of them.
I can’t disagree with her on the ratio of students to EA’s, but I’m not sure how raising their salaries is going to help. The right kind of EA’s aren’t taking the job for the money, but because they have an inherent need to help special needs students.
In the end, the bill was passed- though, it will be going into committee for some adjustments to the wording- Jackson’s assistant assured me that this means the bill will pass once it goes through the committe. That said, there’s still the opportunity for the NDP to try and tie the bill up in the committee. But, I’ll be watching- and, if they dare, the whole world will be watching.
Today, Rod Jackson is my hero. Let’s hope the NDP stays afraid of being seen as not wanting to support the end of this shameful chapter in Ontario’s history…
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Thanks for your great work on this, Greg.
Public Education is hell for the autistic and many outliers—the Union people are very scared of losing the golden goose. As autistic people gain communication ability through things like iPads, etc. there is going to be a big accounting for how they were abused by their “caregivers” who are more like Ranch Hands that treat the children, especially the disabled, like cattle.
An autistic child should be given a choice about whether or not it wants its body used as an excuse to pay a union hack. Compulsory Education is Slavery. I find few things more insulting than a slaver who says it’s not slavery because the enslavement “benefits” the child.
“how could any reasonable person (outside of a union leader like Sylvanna Petersen) think it is acceptable to use martial arts gear against children!”
In my experience, Union People are not reasonable. Unions are military organizations that use force to blockade workplaces, in order to extort contracts from their employers. That sort of private militia might have been expedient historically, but today they are an albatross around the neck—they clearly want to be able to beat on the population in order to keep their gravy train running.
The bill passed… Damn it!! :( :( :( I’ll tell you this, if they did this at the training workshop I was at (Corbrook) I’d be freaking out… Alot of us would I’m sure… it’s degrading and threatening! Handling disabled people like they’re proposing is ludicrous! They’d better not try this on adults within the disabled community cause even an autistic adult can “bite” back (metaphorically speaking)!
They might be able to tie the bill up, I hope they get it trashed! It shouldn’t even be an issue… If they don’t parents and concerned people will fight it!
For those who are curious, Corbrook is a transition-to-work program which does assembly and packaging. We have many people working there with physical and mental disabilities
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