- 2 months ago
PART 2: https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x9six8m
A few things to note:
The lady kept repeating the same thing each time one of the speakers finished their speeches. Since this was rather repetitive, I didn't record it again. It was fine the first time.
A high pass filter was used to correct bad audio a few times. Rain shield was used until the rain eventually stopped. It was windy, so things got knocked down a few times, interrupting the speeches. This I cut out.
The camera started turning off abruptly during a few of the speeches, in which I had to pull the battery off briefly, then reinstall it, also stopped recording a few times during the speeches. Can't figure out why this keeps happening, guess it's the record button fault that sony never fixed before the camera was put out in the marketplace.
A few things to note:
The lady kept repeating the same thing each time one of the speakers finished their speeches. Since this was rather repetitive, I didn't record it again. It was fine the first time.
A high pass filter was used to correct bad audio a few times. Rain shield was used until the rain eventually stopped. It was windy, so things got knocked down a few times, interrupting the speeches. This I cut out.
The camera started turning off abruptly during a few of the speeches, in which I had to pull the battery off briefly, then reinstall it, also stopped recording a few times during the speeches. Can't figure out why this keeps happening, guess it's the record button fault that sony never fixed before the camera was put out in the marketplace.
Category
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LearningTranscript
00:00:00D.J. DeRay will be continuing with the live set after 1 p.m.
00:00:18Good morning and thank you all for joining us today.
00:00:21The first day that the provincial legislature will do.
00:00:25We are gathered here to collectively say no to fail for a degree and fund our schools,
00:00:33fund our community, not policing in schools.
00:00:43I would like to acknowledge that we are on stolen indigenous land.
00:00:50I would like to acknowledge that these lands have been and continue to be inhabited by many nations of indigenous peoples since time immemorials.
00:01:03In the land that we are using today, we know what we know as a tribe of ancestors,
00:01:09the people of the United States, the people of the United States, the people of the United States, the people of the United States,
00:01:18who all come from the United States.
00:01:21Acknowledging as well those who came here in Baltimore, as a result of the Trent Atlantic Enslavement Treaty.
00:01:31And so we honor and pay tribute to ancestors of African origin in the center.
00:01:38We are stating, it is necessary to move beyond just acknowledgment.
00:01:45This isn't just a checkbox to be marked off.
00:01:48It is indigenous.
00:01:50Black Afro-Indigenous.
00:01:52Black African diasporic peoples across intersecting identities,
00:01:57whether it be disabled, neurodivergent, queer, and trans, are those who are most negatively
00:02:04impacted by police, policing, cultural logics, practices, policies, and systems across so-called
00:02:13Ontario, Canada, and globally, and they continue to be systematically denied their humanity
00:02:22and harmed. Currently, there are multiple bills across the country, including right here in
00:02:33Ontario, that are undermining Indigenous rights, Indigenous self-determination, and self-governance
00:02:41such as Bill 5. Some immediate calls to action. Follow 8th Fire Rising on Instagram and check
00:02:50out their website, 8thfirerising.ca. As well, follow Okinawa. They are a youth-led movement
00:03:01uniting First Nations youth across so-called Canada. They are taking action, including right
00:03:07here in Ontario. United against Provincial Bill 5 and Federal Bill C-5. Again, this is a legislation
00:03:20that is threatening First Nations rights, lands, and futures. It is our duty to learn on ways
00:03:29how to get involved and be in solidarity with Indigenous peoples. Both also have ongoing actions
00:03:36that folks can partake in and support. And it is both our individual and collective responsibility
00:03:43to do so. And just as Bill 33 is anchored by colonial carceral control, as is Bill 5. Making this
00:03:56connection from the onset of this teaching and rally and delving us into Bill 5 is Eve Saint.
00:04:06She, her pronouns, she, her, is a Wet'suwet'en land defender. She was at Giddington checkpoint
00:04:12during the RCMP's militarized invasion of unceded territory in 2020, where dozens of unarmed Indigenous
00:04:21people were arrested at gunpoint, which helped spark the shutdown Canada movement. Eve is a financial
00:04:31divestment campaigner for Giddington checkpoint and a leading organizer in the movement urging
00:04:37RBC to divest from coastal gasoline and the fossil fuel industry. Eve is a public speaker and based
00:04:49in Toronto where she cares for her two beautiful small children. Eve.
00:04:56All right. Thank you, Chi Miigwech. Chi Miigwech. Thank you, everyone, for showing up. And thank you, Andrea,
00:05:09so much for everyone who organized this gathering today. And we're in the time right now where we
00:05:18definitely need to be in solidarity with one another. Yes. We cannot fight these bills alone. Right now,
00:05:30we know that their strategy is to flood these, these, this country, these provinces with all these bills so
00:05:40that we are unable to fight each one. That is their strategy right now. Shame. Shame. So unity. We need to come together. Okay. So with
00:05:53So with eighth fire rising for, um, because I, you know, saw shut down Canada, and I saw everyone rise up and be in
00:06:02solidarity with Wet'suwet'en. I saw people just throw down at once. And so when these bills came, all the Indigenous
00:06:11people were upset. And I could see another shut down Canada moment 2.0. And it may come to that.
00:06:22It may come to that. It may come to that. We may not see it right now. But these people, this government,
00:06:29this genocidal government, genocidal government, they have genocidal mindset when it comes to Indigenous
00:06:39people. That's what this land, this, this government was built on. These laws were built on to genocide my people.
00:06:49And it still continues. Shame. Shame. Shame. It still continues till this day. So all across so-called
00:06:58Canada, we see bills. Bills in Nova Scotia. Bills in Quebec. Bills here in Ontario. Bills in the Prairies.
00:07:07Alberta. And so-called British Columbia. And Bill C5, Bill C2, which may be Bill C12. Shame.
00:07:16Shame. And it's Indigenous lands that these, that, um, that are impacted first by these projects. And they will not stop
00:07:26until every project is built. And they took our voice and our power away. But guess what?
00:07:33Shutdown Canada proved that we have the power. By showing up with just our bodies, our voices, and our spirit. We shut down this country. And we will again, mark my words, we will again. You will not be pushing through Indigenous lands without our consent.
00:08:00Without our consent.
00:08:05And we need to step, we need to come together. Because in this climate crisis, right now, we cannot afford any more, all the projects that they want to push through. Our, our, um, climate is way too sensitive right now.
00:08:22So we will be calling on our allies because we are protecting, we are protecting everyone here. Okay? We're protecting the children, everyone's children. You know that the children here in the schools, right?
00:08:38Right? And it's the, the police. The police, the RCMP, they made a special, a special unit crew to criminalize Indigenous land defenders.
00:08:50Shame. Shame. And we are brutalized by these, by this, um, arm of the RCMP, by this policing, where we cannot move freely on our lands. Shame.
00:09:04Shame. Shame. Just recently, Slato, Shea, and Corey just got, went through the court system and were brutalized by RCMP. And they, um, the charges are that they will spend time in jail if they are out on their lands, blocking their lands. They can't even be on their own lands. So shame. Shame. Shame.
00:09:26Shame. And so, this is a similarities right now because, you know, when I see Bill 33, like, my, like, I, I give so much to all the people who are organizing against this bill, against policing in these schools because they police our bodies. These are innocent children.
00:09:48Yes. Innocent children. Innocent children just going to school. That's it. Shame. Shame.
00:09:53Shame. Yes. So, uh, keep up the good work, you know, um, Andrea and everyone else. Nationwide, we do got to fight these bills and we do have to come together and keep your eyes out. Yes, please, please, um, you know, follow, uh, eighthbyarising.ca.
00:10:12We are, um, you know, impacted communities, uh, indigenous movement leaders and, um, and, uh, community leaders that do not want, that do not want industry in their territories. So, and they have, they have told that they will be shutting it down. So, please keep your eyes out. And we are stronger together. We are stronger together. Okay.
00:10:40Thank you so much for grounding us in the reality that our struggles are interconnected struggles and that we are stronger in solidarity.
00:10:58Thank you all for joining us at our policing preschool provincial campaign tour finale.
00:11:08Teaching and rally at Queen's Park.
00:11:13My name is Andrea Vasquez Jimenez. Gender pronouns. She, her, ella, director and principal consultant of Policing Free Schools.
00:11:24At Policing Free Schools Canada, we are dedicated to catalyzing systemic changes and a paradigm shift towards the co-creation of transformative, healthy,
00:11:37equitable, healthy, equitable, life-affirming, laboratory, healing-centered, policing-free educational spaces.
00:11:47And this can only be a reality because it is inclusive of a strong, properly funded, supported, and resourced public education system.
00:12:02We work on these systemic issues alongside and in solidarity with our national partners across so-called Canada and international partners across what is known currently as the United States, the United Kingdom, and South Africa.
00:12:18As the issue of policing in schools, the school prison nexus, and the carceral continuum is a systemic issue and crosses colonial borders.
00:12:30The provincial campaign for policing free schools Ontario is a coalition network of Ontario-based partners, individuals, organizers, and organizations.
00:12:42As an organizational lead of the provincial campaign for policing free schools Ontario, today we are culminating the provincial campaign tour.
00:12:54The campaign trail consisted of 10 local stops across the province, starting September 9th all the way through to this past Friday, October 17th.
00:13:04This was done so in a span of under six weeks, from Ottawa to Peel Region, Halton Region to Durfant, Wellington,
00:13:14Sudbury in Northern Ontario, Sudbury to Central County, Hamilton, Waterloo Region to York Region, and Elgin, Middlesex, Oxford, London.
00:13:26We co-hosted press conferences alongside our policing free schools, local based partners across the province, and alongside supporters and community in attendance.
00:13:38And today, on October 20th, the first day that the provincial legislature resumes, we are at Queen's Park for our provincial campaign tour finale.
00:13:52And alongside all of you, we are here to send a clear message from across the province to the foreign government, the education minister, Paul Calandra, and his two parliamentary assistants to the minister of education, MPP Jess Dixon and MPP Billy Pang.
00:14:14And that is that we, unequivocally, collectively say no to Bill 33.
00:14:21No to power grabs.
00:14:24No to taking over school boards.
00:14:27No to the elimination of democratically elected school board trustees.
00:14:32No.
00:14:33No.
00:14:34No to policing in schools.
00:14:35No.
00:14:36No to policing in schools.
00:14:37And yes.
00:14:38Yes to properly funded, supported, and resourced public education.
00:14:44We.
00:14:45We are demanding.
00:14:48So today's teaching and rally we will be hearing from many, including from former students to current students, educators, trustees, parents, and caregivers, community organizers,
00:15:01professors, artists, organization leaders, union leaders, and Ontario new democratic members of provincial parliament and more with one uniting message.
00:15:14Know to Bill 33 and fund our schools, fund our communities, not policing in schools.
00:15:29Community members who have joined us, there are snacks and beverages right beside our policing free schools learning booth.
00:15:39Please pick them up.
00:15:40Please pick them up.
00:15:41This is through donations of the OSSTF York Region.
00:15:44We also have two paper campaign petitions.
00:15:47Folks are able to sign them both.
00:15:49These will be retabled by the Ontario new democrat MPP Kristen Wong Tam, which were formally tabled at the legislature by former Ontario new democratic Jill Andrew.
00:16:01There are also police in schools pocketbooks from our national campaign partners, the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association, which they have a national mandate.
00:16:11And those resources were intentionally created as a national resource guide.
00:16:16Also feel free to grab a lush gift set as there is also a limited supply.
00:16:23Prior to hearing from more speakers for today, I will start by anchoring us today with an overview of Bill 33 and also specifically as it relates to the amendments of the Education Act and the current provincial landscape.
00:16:39Bill 33 titled Supporting Children and Students Act, this proposed sweeping legislation, contrary to its name, has nothing to do with supporting students.
00:16:50Instead, Bill 33 is a distraction from the real issue.
00:16:55A chronically underfunded public education system by the Ford Conservative government.
00:17:02Shamed!
00:17:03Which, I may add, in 2018, at that time, our public education system was already an underfunded public education system under the Liberals due to the per-student funding formula rather than a needs-based funding formula that so many have been advocating for years.
00:17:28Shamed!
00:17:29Shamed!
00:17:30And now, with the Ford Conservative government continuously choosing to make it worse, chronically underfunding by $6.35 billion since 2018, as reported by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.
00:17:46Shamed!
00:17:47Shamed!
00:17:48Shamed!
00:17:49Meanwhile, Paul Calandro recently on Newstalk 1010 had stated that the funding model had been the same for many, many years.
00:17:58That it's a per-student funding model.
00:17:59That it's a per-student funding model.
00:18:00And they continued to state, if it's not enough, we'll get more.
00:18:05The Minister of Education knows that the education funding is not enough, yet chooses to worsen our public education system.
00:18:15Shamed!
00:18:16Shamed!
00:18:17Shamed!
00:18:18And Paul Calandro is gaslighting.
00:18:20He is gaslighting all of us, creating his own alternative facts, hoping that people will believe his lies if they hear the same messaging enough times.
00:18:33This, too, is a distraction from the government's multiple scandals.
00:18:38You name it!
00:18:39Greenbelt!
00:18:40Thermo Spa!
00:18:41Ontario Place!
00:18:42Skills Development Slush Fund!
00:18:45Legal goss for lawsuit losses!
00:18:48Shamed!
00:18:49Shamed!
00:18:50These scandals, to name a few, and corruption, are this government's waste of hard-earned taxpayers' dollars in the billions, in the billions of dollars.
00:19:07Shamed!
00:19:08And ultimately, their decimation of our public systems and public common goods, such as privatization of healthcare, long-term care, childcare, and more.
00:19:20Including the deterioration of our community-based supports.
00:19:25Bill 33 is a distraction from fiscally irresponsible, harmful, and deadly Ford.
00:19:33Bill 33 has everything to do with a power grab, seeking to further centralize provincial government power.
00:19:43This time with the intent to making it easier to take over school boards in pursuit of ending the role of democratically elected school board trustees
00:19:54and towards decimating our public education system.
00:19:59Shame!
00:20:00Shame!
00:20:01They are moving towards privatization under the guise of school choice.
00:20:08Placing profit over students and towards dismantling school boards as we know it.
00:20:15Shame!
00:20:16Shame!
00:20:17Shame!
00:20:18Bill 33 has everything to do with concentrating and increasing police power through legislating police decision-making authority over school boards.
00:20:29including democratically elected school officials.
00:20:33It ultimately standardizes policing as a normalized fundamental feature in schooling spaces through mandating policing in schools across the province.
00:20:46Shame!
00:20:47Shame!
00:20:48Bill 33 expands policing in schools through tiered and layered policing regardless of where one is situated in the province.
00:20:58And this gross negligence and human rights violation will ultimately exacerbate harms of school based policing and entrench the school prison nexus provincially.
00:21:15And we know that the relentless pursuit of policing in schools is intrinsically connected to the takeover of school boards.
00:21:26For instance, Bill 33 is already being exercised prior to it even becoming legislation, including at boards where they have been taken over, such as the London-based Thames Valley District School Board, who serves students across areas of Elgin, Oxford, Middlesex and the City of London.
00:21:51Keep in mind that at the moment that the school boards that have been taken over are school boards where their original and initial police in school programs, including SRO programs, in one way or another were removed.
00:22:10There is a direct correlation with takeover of school boards and policing in schools across the province right now.
00:22:21Shame!
00:22:22Shame!
00:22:23Shame!
00:22:24Bill 33 is a carceral education policy.
00:22:28Bill 33 is about carceral control and it is about further funneling money into, further funneling money into policing and carceral measures and taking money away from education and the well-being of students, educators, workers and school communities.
00:22:49Shame!
00:22:50Shame!
00:22:51Shame!
00:22:52Shame!
00:22:53Shame!
00:22:55Ultimately, Bill 33 is an attack on public education across the province.
00:22:59An attack on democracy and with it, an attempt to systematically silence students, parents, caregivers, guardians and communities across the province.
00:23:12Shame!
00:23:13Bill 33 is the means to the end of having any form of government accountability and
00:23:22is expanding unilateral provincial government power, hiding away from public scrutiny to
00:23:29expedite what they already have planned to do, and indeed what has already been underway.
00:23:37Chronically underfund, defund, distract, dismantle, privatize, and profit.
00:23:45No matter how many children, students, workers, families, and school communities get hurt,
00:23:52the Doug Ford government has already made their choice.
00:23:57They choose to wastefully pour millions of tax dollars into non-evidence-based and fiscally
00:24:03irresponsible and harmful measures of policing in schools through the Ministry of Solicitor
00:24:09General's Community Safety and Policing Grant.
00:24:13And that this education system has already been plummeting millions of dollars into technological
00:24:20surveillance across schooling spaces.
00:24:25Students' learning conditions are workers' working conditions.
00:24:29And rather than addressing the root causes, the systemic, chronic underfunding of education,
00:24:35alongside addressing social and structural determinants of health inequity, which includes a strong
00:24:43public education system, the Ford government chooses to siphon funds out of our schools and
00:24:49communities.
00:24:50Shame!
00:24:51Shame!
00:24:52Shame!
00:24:53Shame!
00:24:54The government knows that they cannot police their way into school safety, student safety,
00:24:59or student academic achievement.
00:25:02As for the relationship-building narrative that keeps continuously being parroted by the education
00:25:08minister, the ministry spokesperson, the press secretary for Ontario's minister of education,
00:25:15continuously saying that police and school programs, and I quote, help foster positive relationships
00:25:22between students and law enforcement, ultimately making Ontario schools safer, end quote.
00:25:31This is disinformation.
00:25:36The government is choosing to spew disinformation.
00:25:41The narrative that they weaponize is intellectually disingenuous and a misleading harmful narrative
00:25:47that has already been debunked by Ontario-based Gita Medan and University of Alberta Faculty of Education,
00:25:55Professor Alexander Da Costa.
00:25:58We know the impact of policing in schools.
00:26:02The research is clear when it comes to the systemic issue of policing in schools, as is
00:26:09clear student testimonials from former students and current students, and people's lived and
00:26:16living experiences.
00:26:18And that is that policing does not make educational spaces safer.
00:26:25Policing does not prevent or reduce the manufactured crisis of violence in our educational spaces.
00:26:35Policing has harmful impacts on students, including on student achievement, educational outcomes,
00:26:42and student well-being.
00:26:44I want to make it clear, as well, that as school boards across the province, including
00:26:50even those who had removed or paused their original and initial police and school programs,
00:26:56some of those have opted for a reformist approach and have continuously maintained policing in schools
00:27:03under different means and under different names.
00:27:06That is why Bill 33 is not, it is not about the return or reintroduction of police in schools provincially.
00:27:18Provincially, it is about mandating and the expansion of policing in schools, including but not limited to the SRL program,
00:27:27as there are dozens of names of police in school programs and policing in schools, including police-led programs across the province.
00:27:37And I want to make it clear, the reality is that one cannot reform policing in schools out of its systemic harms.
00:27:49And we've already seen what happens across the country when reforms, revisions, reimagining, transforming, strengthening, evolving, updating, new approach, relaunching, revamping, redesigning, refreshing.
00:28:12We've heard of all of the names.
00:28:15When revisions to police in school programs takes place, when rebranding happens, when renaming happens,
00:28:23when changing the composition of police in school programs, such as diversifying officers,
00:28:30or more training as a means to have access to schools and students,
00:28:34or further specifying the purpose, roles and responsibilities of police in school programs.
00:28:41That is, that the harms remain intact, and harms are replicated and perpetuated, as this is a systemic issue.
00:28:52Again, it is not possible to reform one ways out of these harms, regardless of intent.
00:29:02And it's fundamentally a no to all forms of policing in schools, including police in school programs, regardless of the name they go by and its reforms,
00:29:14wherever they may be across the province and elsewhere.
00:29:17And we are in solidarity with those across the country where the creation of mandated policing in schools has already happened, including in BC.
00:29:28Meanwhile, police budgets continue to balloon, including under the rationale for the need to maintain or to expand policing in schools.
00:29:38Funding is stifoned out of what actually would co-create thriving and healthy schools and communities, which in and of themselves are safe.
00:29:47Bill 33 is not a surprise to us. It was indeed solely a matter of time.
00:29:54As this bill, again, is in alignment with Ford's ongoing track record.
00:30:00Their track record and fixation on colonial carceral control, anchored by punishment, harm and waste of taxpayers' dollars.
00:30:10Bill 33 is reflective and interconnected with so many other actions and legislation right here in Ontario.
00:30:19And we still, to this date, see the continuation of this.
00:30:23On the heels of Bill 33, the Government of Ontario launched a province-wide initiative in collaboration with multiple policing associations.
00:30:33They launched a coordinated answer-the-call PR marketing campaign to increase diversified policing across the province.
00:30:45And the education minister sees school grounds as a recruitment ground. Shame!
00:30:54This is along with the recent announcement of the expansion of police training sites.
00:30:59While simultaneously, post-secondary campuses are closing down due to systemic chronic underfunding.
00:31:07Meanwhile, the Ford Government has already announced almost $200 million into increasing jail beds.
00:31:15We're already working to significantly expand Ontario's jailing through infrastructure, several infrastructure projects towards an Ontario prison expansion.
00:31:28Shame!
00:31:31Equitable access to education is a human right.
00:31:35And policing in schools, including police in school programs, impedes this access.
00:31:40It is overdue for the Ford Government and the Minister of Education to face the facts.
00:31:47And support students through properly funding and resourcing schools, not policing in schools.
00:31:54Fund our schools, fund our communities, not policing in schools.
00:32:01Our next speaker will be delving into Bill 33.
00:32:08With a particular focus on the proposed changes in the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities Act.
00:32:16And the detrimental impacts of post-secondary campuses, students, and workers.
00:32:22Because we are here in opposition to the totality of Bill 33.
00:32:27Siriel Nigelica, gender pronouns she, her.
00:32:30Is the chairperson of the Canadian Federation Students of Ontario.
00:32:34She advocates for the amplification of Black and Francophone voices.
00:32:39And for the recognition of students and Student Union's autonomy.
00:32:43She firmly believes that a free and accessible post-secondary education system is possible.
00:32:50And will continue to work towards it.
00:33:02Good morning everyone.
00:33:03My name is Siriel Nigelica.
00:33:05And I am the chairperson of the Canadian Federation of Students Ontario.
00:33:10The oldest and largest student organization in the province.
00:33:15Representing over 350,000 students across 35 different member locals.
00:33:24We're standing here today on the first day the legislation returns.
00:33:28Not to politely ask.
00:33:30But to deliver one final message to Queen's Park.
00:33:34Students have spoken and have had enough.
00:33:38This is the government's last chance to listen.
00:33:42Bill 33 is on the table.
00:33:45And its intent is crystal clear.
00:33:48This is a full frontal attack on students, workers and communities.
00:33:54It's a dangerous consolidation of power that strikes at the very core of public education in this province.
00:34:03Bill 33 follows the same playbook post-secondary students have seen for decades.
00:34:09The Student Choice Initiative, which targeted vital student and campus services and organizations.
00:34:15The slashing of OSAP.
00:34:17The exploitation of international students.
00:34:20The defunding of research.
00:34:22And the surveillance of our campuses.
00:34:25And each time, without fail, the issues at hand are a direct result of the crisis manufactured by the government.
00:34:34On the other hand, Bill 33 hands sweeping powers to the Minister of Education.
00:34:40Allowing the government to override elected trustees, silence school boards and reshape education without consent.
00:34:48Shame!
00:34:49Shame!
00:34:50Shame!
00:34:51Bill 33 is not about solutions.
00:34:53It's about control.
00:34:55Now, they're targeting ancillary fees.
00:34:59The very fees that make life-giving services possible on our campuses.
00:35:04Students pay thousands in tuition each year.
00:35:08And that is what makes education expensive.
00:35:11Ancillary fees are what make education survivable.
00:35:15They fund student unions, mental health services, food centers, sexual violence support centers.
00:35:24Services that exist only because this government refuses to fund education adequately.
00:35:31And it doesn't stop there.
00:35:33Their language around merit-based admissions undermines the principles of access and equity.
00:35:39It disregards systemic barriers and opens up doors to bias, exclusion, and privatization.
00:35:47Merit, when defined by the powerful, becomes a tool for gatekeeping, not opportunity.
00:35:54Dare commodifying research.
00:35:56Treating our academic work as intellectual property to be bought and sold.
00:36:02Research is for the public good.
00:36:05Not for corporations to manipulate into making more profit for themselves.
00:36:11Graduate students are some of the lowest paid people on our campuses.
00:36:15Collecting stipends that don't even meet minimum wage.
00:36:19Shame!
00:36:20No amount of government interference would fix that.
00:36:25The minister's control of research attacks academic independence and puts Ontario's world-class research reputation at risk.
00:36:34The government has overplayed its hand.
00:36:37Our futures are not to be gambled with.
00:36:40Right now, inside Queen's Park, decisions are being made.
00:36:45The very fate of our education system is lying in the hands of every elected official in the province.
00:36:53And the people, students, workers, and communities have already spoken.
00:36:59Students across campuses have just started a province-wide week of action.
00:37:04Thousands are mobilizing in every corner of Ontario to demand that this government keep their heads off our education.
00:37:14Post-secondary campuses are some of the last democratic spaces we have left.
00:37:20Where we mobilize, where we organize, and dream of something bigger.
00:37:25But this bill is coming for all of us.
00:37:28Ontario's public education system does not belong to Queen's Park.
00:37:33It belongs to us.
00:37:35Ontario's public education system doesn't belong to Queen's Park.
00:37:40It belongs to us.
00:37:43We learn from it.
00:37:44We teach in it.
00:37:46And we fight for it.
00:37:47And we will not sit back while the government tears it apart from the inside out.
00:37:52We've seen it before.
00:37:54They say it's about accountability, but it's really about censorship.
00:37:59They say it's about safety, but it's really about more cups and more cuts.
00:38:04They say it's about giving students a voice, but they silence every one of our demands.
00:38:10We refuse to let education become a commodity.
00:38:13We refuse to let politicians who've never walked our halls dictate what learning looks like.
00:38:20The government has spent years gutting public education, but this time we will not be ignored.
00:38:28So to Nolan Quinn, Paul Calandra, Michael Parsa, Doug Ford, and every single MPP inside of Queen's Park, this is your last chance.
00:38:41The government is out of time.
00:38:44Students, workers, and communities are rising, and we will never go down without a fight.
00:38:50We have organized and won before, and we will do it again.
00:38:56No to policing our schools, no to infringement on autonomy, and no to Bill 33.
00:39:03The public sector is not the government's to take.
00:39:11I'm going to end this off with a little chat.
00:39:13I'm going to say, if the students don't get it, and you're going to shut it down.
00:39:18It ain't bullshit, no whoop it!
00:39:20It ain't bullshit, no whoop it!
00:39:21It ain't bullshit, no whoop it!
00:39:22It ain't bullshit, no whoop it!
00:39:23It ain't bullshit, no whoop it!
00:39:24It ain't bullshit, no whoop it!
00:39:25It ain't bullshit, no whoop it!
00:39:26It ain't bullshit, no whoop it!
00:39:27It ain't bullshit, no whoop it!
00:39:28It ain't bullshit, no whoop it!
00:39:29It ain't bullshit, no whoop it!
00:39:30It ain't bullshit, no whoop it!
00:39:31It ain't bullshit, no whoop it!
00:39:32It ain't bullshit, no whoop it!
00:39:33It ain't bullshit, no whoop it!
00:39:34It ain't bullshit, no whoop it!
00:39:35It ain't bullshit, no whoop it!
00:39:36It ain't bullshit, no whoop it!
00:39:37in the Child Youth and Family Services Act again because here we are in
00:39:43solidarity in opposition to the totality of Bill 33 particularly focusing on how
00:39:54it exacerbates systemic harms of the child and family policing systems and
00:39:59does not address what has been demanded for decades.
00:40:02Tyler Dixon gender pronouns they she is a mixed black queer artist and child
00:40:08welfare survivor and the executive lead of the collective of child welfare
00:40:12survivors. With over a decade of systemic advocacy and community organizing Tyler
00:40:19works to create survivor-led trauma-informed healing centered networks
00:40:23rooted in transformative justice and black liberation. Tyler and good morning to
00:40:35everyone here. I appreciate all those who are able to attend today's rally. A big
00:40:40shout out to our comrades policing free schools who have been diligent in
00:40:43protecting our children and youth and community members in fighting and
00:40:47advocating for safer school environments. I come to you today wearing many hats. A
00:40:52representative of the collective child welfare survivors, a survivor of the
00:40:56child welfare and family policing system, a person who has navigated forced
00:41:01criminality and as a former student who experienced policing within the schools
00:41:05and systemic neglect of my safety and education. I speak not only from first-hand
00:41:10experience of how these systems fail to care for the students they claim to serve
00:41:14but also as someone working within community to respond to the needs of black
00:41:17child welfare survivors and their families who are deeply impacted by
00:41:21policing systems. To be clear I share my personal experience because it
00:41:27legitimizes my place in this work not as a performance piece for actors within
00:41:31these systems. I'm here to let my people my community know that we can take up
00:41:36space. I use my voice to give power to my kin who cannot stand here those
00:41:41facing carcerality housing and financial precarity and as is too often the case those
00:41:46who are no longer with us but who have shaped my politics and continue to fuel
00:41:51and inspire me. I also speak for the children and youth who continue to be
00:41:55ignored despite their bravery and advocating for themselves and speaking
00:41:58their truth only to be dismissed or silenced by the very systems that claim to
00:42:03protect them. Despite the deep grief I carry I know that a better world is
00:42:07possible if we would only truly begin to hear if they would truly begin to hear us I
00:42:11hope to continue honoring them through my messaging and through this work. As I
00:42:18stand here today there are black youth in schools who are navigating the weight
00:42:21of an anti-black carceral and colonial education system. Black youth and child
00:42:26welfare survivors in our community continue to share their experiences of
00:42:29anti-black bullying within systems where administrations often legitimize this
00:42:33harm dismissing minimizing or gaslighting students who speak up. When black
00:42:38youth engage in self-advocacy or respond to defense of themselves they are often
00:42:42that they are too often met with harsh consequences from suspensions to police
00:42:47involvement. These experiences reveal how anti-blackness in schools extends beyond
00:42:52peer interactions it is embedded in the very institutions meant to protect
00:42:56students. School administrations frequently weaponize their authority
00:43:00drawing on carceral systems like family policing and the judicial system to
00:43:05punish rather than to support black students. This is what we mean when we
00:43:09speak of the school prison nexus. The way schools reproduce and reinforce
00:43:13carceral logics instead of fostering safety care and accountability. Shame.
00:43:19Anecdotally having been in a school with a police officer present I did not feel
00:43:24safer. In fact it contributed to a constant sense of surveillance. At the time I was
00:43:29living in a group home that replicated jail and prison structures and that
00:43:32frequently deployed police as a form of behavioral management. This normalized
00:43:37policing as a response to everyday challenges and transitioned me into
00:43:40criminalization that would follow me for many years. Rather than serving as a
00:43:45sanctuary from the conditions I was living in the school reinforced them. There
00:43:49was no escape, no space for me to engage in learning in meaningful capacity which
00:43:53ultimately led to my disengagement from education for many years. A shared
00:43:57experience among many other black child welfare survivors. There are brilliant
00:44:02children and youth today living in similarly precarious circumstances who
00:44:06are not being mentored, supported, or guided to build on their strengths. Our
00:44:10institutions continue to create conditions where young people are trapped in
00:44:13cycles of survival. Learning cannot happen when our bodies know we are not safe.
00:44:18This bill fails to address the deep underlying issues that these youth are
00:44:22facing. Instead it reinforces them through colonial, capitalistic, and carceral
00:44:26tactics that will continue to cause them harm. At its best, Bill 33 is an indication of an
00:44:32administration that is deeply out of touch with the needs of our communities. And at
00:44:37worse, and more accurately, it is an intentional act of diverting resources away from what would
00:44:43actually create safer learning environments in order to reinforce a system of anti-black violence
00:44:49that keeps marginalized communities trapped within this nexus. What our elected officials should be
00:44:54prioritizing is meeting the needs outlined by students and caregivers, approaches rooted in
00:44:59trauma-informed practices, transformative processes, and the allocation of resources towards adequately trained
00:45:05staff and smaller classrooms. We need increased mental health supports for students, particularly services
00:45:11that are culturally responsive to the needs and lack of marginalized communities, as well as robust
00:45:17accessibility supports. We need to recognize that this is a broader societal issue. People in our
00:45:23communities are experiencing financial and housing precarity because basic needs have been commodified to
00:45:30grow the wealth of large corporations and individuals only interested in profit. Shame!
00:45:38Allowing for the privatization of school systems will only further ostracize vulnerable communities,
00:45:43perpetuating cycles of disenfranchisement. We must maintain structures that allow
00:45:47communities to hold educational institutions accountable. As the bill relates to child welfare,
00:45:53or what we call family policing, there is nothing that feels truly meaningful in this legislative change.
00:45:59The Fort government dismantled one of the only independent bodies advocating for the rights of
00:46:03children and youth in care, the Provincial Child Advocates Office. Shame!
00:46:09Its removal was strongly opposed not only by service providers, but also children and youth,
00:46:14former crown wards, and child welfare survivors, including my organization which was founded in
00:46:19direct response to that decision. Investing in additional bureaucratic oversights or limited
00:46:25information sharing mechanisms only further adultifies children while stripping away their sense of agency and
00:46:30autonomy. These changes also fail to acknowledge that when children age out of care they become adults who
00:46:36remain under-resourced and under-supported. Many must now navigate trauma from institutionalization and abuse
00:46:43while facing an inadequate and inaccessible society that does not meet their needs.
00:46:48The Ombudsman's office, while positioned as an accountability mechanism, is often inaccessible to
00:46:54young people. Its complaint process can create bureaucratic disillusionment by placing the labor and
00:46:59the emotional weight to those who are already in crisis. A complaint does not prevent harm, it only documents it.
00:47:06These processes do not address immediate needs like hunger, housing insecurity, or substance use rooted in
00:47:12over-medication within the care system. For years, youth have done the work of calling for legislative
00:47:18changes that would actually support children and youth in care. Many of them are no longer here with us today.
00:47:23Because of the lack of care in this society. Their lives inform policy and their absence is a testament to the urgency of this fight.
00:47:32Again, what we need is more resources to community-rooted, driven support, one that is informed by the needs of the people who are impacted. Thank you.
00:47:41Fund our schools, fund our communities, not policing in schools.
00:47:56Again, Bill 33 is a proposed wide-sweeping legislation, which impacts multiple pieces of legislation.
00:48:05And we are here, in solidarity, in opposition to the whole totality of Bill 33.
00:48:16Our next speaker will be delving into the totality of Bill 33.
00:48:22Harini Sivalengam, gender pronoun she, her, is a lawyer, academic, and community organizer.
00:48:28She is currently the director of the Equality Program at the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, CCLA,
00:48:37and oversees and executes advocacy strategies around equality issues that impact marginalized
00:48:43individuals and groups across Canada.
00:48:46Harini?
00:48:47Harini Sivalengam, gender pronoun she, her, and I am the director of the Equality Program at the
00:49:06Canadian Civil Liberties Association. For over 60 years, the CCLA has been defending rights and freedoms
00:49:14for all of us across Canada. Today, I want to speak about Bill 33 and the serious civil liberties
00:49:23implications of this bill. Bill 33 threatens to make our schools places where civil liberties are put at
00:49:31risk in three deeply concerning ways. First, when considering admissions in a post-secondary
00:49:39institution, Bill 33 imposes a restrictive, one-size-all-fits approach to admissions that
00:49:47infringes the autonomy of post-secondary institutions to choose students, undermines equal access to
00:49:55post-secondary education, and risks violating Ontario's own human rights laws. The proposed restrictions
00:50:03undermine holistic, equity-based admissions approaches that consider a wide range of applicant qualities
00:50:12and diminishes opportunities for historically underrepresented and marginalized groups. Such an
00:50:20admissions process does nothing to improve the life chances of those who come from marginalized communities,
00:50:28while at the same time privileging students from wealthier backgrounds or those who have access to
00:50:35additional social supports. The outcome will be further entrenching systemic inequalities in our
00:50:43public post-secondary institutions. Admissions to publicly funded advanced education should be a pathway that's
00:50:51open to all students and not an unfair contest that privileges some while excluding others.
00:51:02Second, the bill mandates police presence in schools, a move that raises serious concerns around privacy,
00:51:10community agency, and deepening social inequalities. Schools should be spaces of learning and support.
00:51:17The best chances for student success should not be compromised by perceived benefits of increased
00:51:25surveillance and superstitious intelligence gathering that can disproportionately impact and target
00:51:32racialized and marginalized students. By making police involvement in schools mandatory, the bill strips school
00:51:41boards and communities to make decisions based on evidence-based safety strategies. This top-down approach
00:51:49prioritizes enforcement over inclusion, care and student well-being. This alarming measure is also a lack of
00:52:00of adequate engagement of students, parents, educators, and community organizations.
00:52:14Particularly, um, sorry.
00:52:16Let me just start over. Schools should be spaces of learning and support. The best chances for student success should not be compromised by the
00:52:30perceived benefit of increased surveillance and superstitious intelligence gathering. This top-down approach
00:52:38prioritizes enforcement over inclusion, care and student well-being. This alarming measure is also a lack of
00:52:46a lack of adequate engagement of students, parents, educators, and community organizations. Particularly in those
00:52:54from racialized and marginalized communities, who are most affected.
00:52:58You've heard already from many of those voices and this afternoon you will hear from many more. And ignoring
00:53:09these voices undermines public trust and ignores the well-documented harm and disproportionate impacts of law
00:53:17enforcement on Black, Indigenous, and other marginalized youth. Finally, the overly broad provisions of Bill 33
00:53:27allows the removal of locally elected school trustees, eroding accountability and democratic oversight. The bill
00:53:36proves the province, um, provides the province with sweeping powers to take over locally elected school
00:53:44boards under vaguely defined matters of public interest.
00:53:48Local trustees serve as a crucial bridge between communities and schools, representing local values and needs.
00:53:59Centralizing power in this way diminishes transparency and takes away communities' voices in decisions that affect
00:54:09students' education. Together, these measures in Bill 33 raise serious concerns about fairness, equality,
00:54:19privacy, democratic accountability, and government overreach. Ontario students, parents,
00:54:27communities deserve better policies that respect these values.
00:54:34Bill 33 does the opposite. It risks turning schools into areas of exclusion, surveillance,
00:54:42and top-down control by government. Civil liberties of students are not optional. They are fundamental on the
00:54:50foundation of a just and inclusive society. And to that we say no to Bill 33 in its totality. Thank you.
00:54:59Bill 33. Fund our schools. Fund our communities. Not policing in schools.
00:55:12So we're going to be moving over to some artistic expressions because art is political.
00:55:19And this time around, it's going to be with Spinal Poeta, who's going to be grounding us, really looking at the broader and interconnected social political landscape,
00:55:32highlighting the manufactured poly crisis and impact on each individual student.
00:55:39And with the support of the League of Canadian Poets and Canada Council for the Arts,
00:55:44I want to introduce Spinal Poeta, gender pronouns he, him, is an award-winning
00:55:49Guatemalan spoken word artist and slam poetry champ on national, provincial, and municipal levels.
00:55:56He is a long-time youth advocate, arts educator, former refugee, and proprietor of the One Mic Educators
00:56:04Arts Enterprise and co-founder of the One Mic Educators Open Mic Collective.
00:56:09Spin.
00:56:19Strong round of applause, please, for all the youth that are here today.
00:56:22If, like me, you've come to protest all the 50,000 different things going around in this country,
00:56:30we don't always see the youth that we have out there. So I love all you that are here.
00:56:35A round of applause for all the Kofiyas that are here as well, please.
00:56:39Free Palestine.
00:56:42As mentioned in my introduction, I actually am an arts educator.
00:56:46I also work with youth that are incarcerated or in conflict with the law to provide them community service hours,
00:56:51working on reducing the recidivism.
00:56:54Part of it involves also immigrant-indigenous friendship and getting them out to indigenous
00:56:58territory to support elders and get their hours in the process while also respecting the original
00:57:03caretakers of this land. So it is an honor to be here. And I have a poem called One R.I.P.
00:57:09is one too many because everything is interconnected.
00:57:11Second, society saw him as a thug with tattoos and criminal charges.
00:57:19To me, he was a king down by a slug, tired of living on minimal margins.
00:57:23Brilliant mind, family-oriented now,
00:57:25just a ticker at the bottom of the news screen, not even worth the main story.
00:57:29you see to the media he was just another kid in the hood lost to the violence of drugs and poverty
00:57:34the most malignant form of cancer gun violence is a social determinant of health that must be woven
00:57:40into policy and resourced accordingly but people only seek answers when this hits the news society's
00:57:46confused a black and brown life is worth less than a white one when the media say so they show news
00:57:51clips are repeat from the few places they go quick to get out the way though if the story's about
00:57:55success in the hood quick to get out the way though of the stories about redemption in the hood
00:58:00quick to get out the way though of the stories about anything good in the hood and half of these
00:58:04active groups activist groups talking about the proletariat ain't doing a damn thing in the hood
00:58:09i constantly worry i constantly worry for the youth that i serve even young queens far removed from a
00:58:15life of crime i've had to swerve out of the way of the path of a bullet expelled from a gun with a
00:58:20trigger pulled by a finger connected to the hand of the shooter that pulled it a shooter with a story
00:58:25all of his own some shooters i worry are youth that i've known grown into the politics of hoods where
00:58:30the older heads are in their mid-20s the kids are out of control and i mean it just as i said it
00:58:35streets got them hustling at 10 years old where are the funders to resource their mentors who's there
00:58:41for them and their underpaid mentors when their mother's at work you think police can solve this
00:58:46problem our whole city's heart has gotten them that mother was working paying market rent over
00:58:51fifteen hundred dollars a month living in social housing how does this work she's trapped in that
00:58:55housing hollering when her son's life is cut short but our society does is blame the mother of the
00:59:00victim so sickening how quick people are to emit an uninformed opinion about this and spit venom towards
00:59:06the mother now flip the script what would you do for the more that you work the more rent you have to
00:59:12fork up to a housing provider that doesn't maintain your unit what would you do for in spite of the violence
00:59:18this neighborhood is all that you knew what would you do you're desperate to leave but don't have
00:59:22the money to go what would you do you think everyone trapped in poverty wants to dance with the devil
00:59:27i've seen so many people suffering in silence doing the best that they can to cope with the violence
00:59:32and that brother that society saw as a thug with criminal charges he's gone i can't even lie to you
00:59:39more will follow it's hard to take the stick out of a youth's hand when his heart's gone hollow and that's
00:59:43the only source of protection he has what's he gonna do call the cops that mentor might be the
00:59:49only hope he has left so never give up on our youth not even in death and don't ever forget
00:59:54one of the world's greatest leaders found his calling in prison so when these youth get locked
00:59:58locked up walk with this wisdom
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