Canada Day is generally a time for Canadians to enjoy some good weather, a day off, and maybe a fireworks display.

If we’re being honest, most Canadians don’t spend July 1st thinking about our history in any deep way.

We might celebrate our wilderness, our health care system, and some of our more endearing symbols like the beaver or the moose.

But this Canada Day falls days after the grim discovery of a grave site of 761 children at a Saskatchewan residential school, and only weeks after a similar find at a Kamloops location.

Residential schools are places Indigenous children were taken after being forcibly ripped from their homes by Canadian governments. That alone is damaging enough. But now we are confronted with the fact thousands of children never returned home.

This was genocide. It meets the definition we apply to similar events elsewhere, and we have to start using that term.

This is not a problem of the past. This did not happen long ago. The Saskatchewan residential school in question only closed in 1996.

The victims of these schools live with us today. They live with painful memories, and they pass on that trauma to their own children and grandchildren.

We don’t need to forget about the things we like about Canada. But we need to make Canada a better place for everyone. That starts with reconciliation for aboriginal people.

One way you can help is by wearing orange today. Orange shirts have become the symbol of support for the survivors of residential schools. This simple act tells survivors that we see them and are trying to understand their struggle.

This Canada Day, let’s commit to the hard work needed to rebuild the Indigenous communities and lives shattered by residential schools. Let’s make Canada the country we want it to be, the country it should be, for all people living here.

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CUPE congratulates sister Gloria Lepine on her election as Equity Vice-President for Indigenous Workers at the 2021 Canadian Labour Congress Convention.  Read More…Click Here

For immediate release

EDMONTON – The provincial president of the union representing non-teaching staff at Edmonton Public Schools says there will be fewer support staff in September than there were in September 2019, before the pandemic.

When asked why, CUPE Alberta President Rory Gill replied, “Two words. Jason Kenney.”

Gill says underfunding and cuts done under the cover of the pandemic are catching up with the school district.

“In April of 2020, the UCP fired educational assistants by Twitter,” said Gill.  “When schools resumed in-class learning, 181 staff never returned. This September, additional staff may be missing as well.”

Gill said the blame lies not with the school district, which has used reserve funding to get through the pandemic, but with the Kenney government’s funding of education.

“Every time he thinks parents aren’t looking, Jason Kenney cuts a little more from public education, and then lies about it and tries to confuse the issue,” said Gill. “In this one district alone, there are hundreds of special needs kids who will be forced to make do with fewer educational assistants in September.”

“It’s frankly sickening what Kenney has done to special needs kids in Alberta,” said Gill. “Kenney promised no front-line cuts. He’s broken that promise and some of the most vulnerable, voiceless students are the ones paying the price.”

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For immediate release

Union drive hits hurdles as Alpha House fights dirty
CUPE accuses social service provider of firing key organizer, intimidating staff

CALGARY – An attempt to unionize about 300 employees of Alpha House Society is turning ugly after the agency fired a key union organizer and interfered in attempts to organize a union.

The Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) has filed an unfair labour practices complaint with the Alberta Labour Board alleging the agency threatened and intimidated employees after the union filed an application to represent employees.

Alpha house is a not-for-profit society providing addiction and housing services to people in Calgary and Lethbridge. A Labour Board certified vote determining the fate of the union drive wraps up this week.

CUPE Alberta President Rory Gill says that within two days of CUPE’s application with the board, Alpha House fired a key union organizer, handed out large bonuses to employees, and sent memos to employees threatening wages and working conditions if the union succeeds.

The terminated union organizer had received a glowing performance review in December and had no issues brought to his attention since then.

“This is union busting, and Alpha House should be ashamed of itself,” said CUPE Alberta President Rory Gill. “Instead of firing union organizers without cause and banging out threatening staff memos, the society needs to take a ‘hands-off’ approach to this and leave the decision to unionize where it belongs – in the hands of employees.”

“Employees who work with some of Calgary’s most needy and vulnerable deserve the right to decide their own fate, free of intimidation and bullying.”

CUPE is seeking the reinstatement of the wrongfully dismissed employee and a declaration from the Labour Board declaring that Alpha House violated the law. Gill said he also wants the Society to commit to a neutral stance on the unionization of its employees.

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