Nurses livid! Proposal “most regressive in SUN’s history”!

There’s so much going on in this province right now, most of it quite frightening. I’m going to start with the most recent and work my way back as time permits over the course of the weekend. This media advisory, from the Saskatchewan Union of Nurses outlines the attack on nurses in SK. This, at a time when SK is experiencing unprecedented economic growth!

MEDIA ADVISORY
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Friday, April 4, 2008
SAHO CONTRACT PROPOSALS CONSIDERED
“MOST REGRESSIVE IN SUN’S HISTORY”
<<<Regina>>>The Saskatchewan Union of Nurses says that the province’s regional health authorities have tabled the most regressive contract proposals in SUN’s history, and has predicted that hundreds of nurses will either resign or retire early in response.
The union is calling for the Minister of Health to replace the department officials and regional health authority leadership that is responsible for what SUN President Rosalee Longmoore describes as “a destructive and malicious attack on nurses and safe patient care and a crude attempt to tear up the SUN/Government Partnership.”
Longmoore says, “They are refusing to commit to fill current vacancies, because they are using the vacancies to balance their budgets. Instead, they have submitted proposals that would require nurses to work unlimited overtime. That’s not a retention strategy – that’s a detention strategy that will backfire -nurses cannot work more and more overtime. They have a professional obligation to refuse more overtime if they are too tired to provide safe patient care. They will refuse, or they will just quit.”
SUN says that regional health authorities want to muzzle nurses who report instances where safe patient care is being jeopardized. According to Longmoore, “Nurses went on strike in 1988 and 1999 to get the right to report in writing to supervisors when patient care is jeopardized. Nurses are obligated by legislation and professional standards to protect patient safety – we will never give that up.”
“The Minister of Health is going to have to decide – how long is he going to continue to let his own Ministry officials and regional health authorities try to tear up the SUN/Government Partnership and avoid implementing it? How would the worst contract in SUN’s history help the government achieve its retention and recruitment targets? The retention and recruitment proposals from the Partnership must be binding in the collective agreement, or regional health authorities will continue to defy the Minister,” said Longmoore.
The union has advised Conciliator Doug Forseth that they are adjourning contract talks until after their annual meeting on April 23-25.
-30-
To speak to a SUN representative, please call:
Rosalee Longmoore, SUN President (306) 539-6162 (cell)

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by Bernadette Wagner on April 4, 2008  •  Permalink
Posted in Brad Wall, economics, nurses, Saskatchewan, sexism, SUN, women
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Posted by Bernadette Wagner on April 4, 2008

https://thereginamom.com/2008/04/04/nurses-livid-proposal-most-regressive-in-suns-history/

Status of Women in SK

Spring has sprung and the regina mom has been busy offline.

Imagine my surprise, when gathered with a few others, I learned that Premier Wall believes that women in Saskatchewan have equality! I’ve been working for women’s equality for more than twenty years now, so I’m totally amazed!  A brief scan of his Cabinet confirms it, however.  There is no Minister Responsible for the Status of Women.

I mean, really, we should have seen it coming, what with his buddy-buddy-ness with PM Harper.  For some reason, however, I believed that Wall really was going to be different.  But in fact he is more like the NDP than ever.  He is more of the same-old, same-old graduate Saskatchewan Old Boys’ Club in which the Saskatchewan NDP’s old boys held memberships.

And that’s terrible news for the women of Saskatchewan, women who will be even further marginalized by uncaring white men with power.

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by Bernadette Wagner on March 28, 2008  •  Permalink
Posted in Brad Wall, economics, feminism, Saskatchewan, sexism, women

Posted by Bernadette Wagner on March 28, 2008

https://thereginamom.com/2008/03/28/status-of-women-in-sk/

RBE runs with an axe

The Racist Regina Public School Board of Education (RBE) let the axe fly and proceeded with school and program closures outlined in their foolhardy plan of renewal.

It seems that the regina mom’s last post on the racist and classist tones of the 10-year plan for renewal upset a few of the board members.

Garry Schenher saw fit to blather on and on about the great policies the RBE has developed around aboriginal education. What a yawner he is to listen to! You’ll get no argument from me that the policies are good. They are, and that’s great! But policies are entirely useless when they’re implemented in ways that do not serve the best interests of the students for whom they are intended. Herchmer School, for example, offers one of the most “instructionally innovative” – if not the most instructionally innovative – array of programming and delivery in the entire school division, but Mr. Schenher voted to close the school. He entirely misses the point, that the RBE contravenes its own policy by implementing the closure of schools in catchment areas which contain neighbourhoods where the aboriginal population is higher than average. But he surely loved clinging to that policy to to as he spoke. Too bad for the kids at Herchmer that he does not see his own hypocrisy.

Dale West practically shouted his anger that Bernadette Wagner (that’s me, hahaha) had publicly stated that the RBE’s plan was racist and classist. Well, duh. If the shoe fits, Mr. West, it’s yours. I can only surmise that he doesn’t understand the meanings of the words. He used to be a school teacher, but he clearly doesn’t get the gist of my commentary. It is really too bad he doesn’t have a better grasp of those concepts, because it would certainly have benefitted the kids whose schools he voted to close tonight. It’s sad that the kids he taught likely learned nothing about racism and classism from him. It’s worse than sad. It’s shameful. So, I suggest he and any of the students he taught visit dictionary.com and look at the definitions for racism and classism. And then he may want to do a google search for institutional racism in education. One of the documents he will find there contains this nugget:

Institutional racism or systemic racism describes forms of racism which are structured into political and social institutions. It occurs when organisations, institutions or governments discriminate, either deliberately or indirectly, against certain groups of people to limit their rights.

This form of racism reflects the cultural assumptions of the dominant group, so that the practices of that group are seen as the norm to which other cultural practices should conform. It regularly and systematically advantages some ethnic and cultural groups and disadvantages and marginalises others.

Institutional racism is often the most difficult to recognise and counter, particularly when it is perpetrated by institutions and governments who do not view themselves as racist. When present in a range of social contexts, this form of racism reinforces the disadvantage already experienced by some members of the community.

Dr. Barbara Young, for all her fancy education, also knows nothing about institutional racism. But she sure knows how to use false logic. I had to leave the meeting room so that I wouldn’t get kicked out for disrupting it. Oh, she had absolutely nothing but her calm, white privilege to add to the discussion.

Mr. Marchuk, however, appeared to be entirely riled up! Wow! He let out a lot of hot air, most particularly to defend himself as a former teacher and as a former principal of Herchmer School, which makes his vote to close it all the more shameful. His show of righteous indignation was almost convincing! And he was so full of arrogance I again had to leave the room. Apparently, just because he can’t see the classist and racist overtones in the 10-year plan for renewal, they simply aren’t there. It seems poor Mr. Marchuk needs also to study up on a few things, too. (Perhaps he and Mr. West could be study-buddies.) It was clear that he’s all about “sound processes” and keeping the “house in order” and his fear that local school boards may lose their authority if they don’t toe some kind of imaginary line that no one will publicly define. Anyway, it’s entirely too clear that he is not about what is best for the children and the communities in which they live.

And furthermore, why does he think that just because folks oppose this foolish, old-school and backwards plan that folks are all right with the status quo? His black-and-white, dualistic thinking makes me wonder where these privileged white folks find the blinders they wear.

Rhonda Parisian, on the other hand, stole my heart. She was absolutely sick about her decisions to support those closures she did support. And she knew she voted incorrectly on them; her body language gave her away. But the Chamber of Commerce and the Taxpayers Federation must have got to her enough that she sided with their Friedmanesque logic instead of her heart. I hope she finds the courage to stand up for her heart. She has the potential to be an excellent member of the board.

I have to say that Barb Saylor almost impressed me. But she still buys into that ridiculous Friedman mind-set, too, believing that money matters more than kids (or libraries, for that matter) and can cure social ills. She has a long way to go to fully impress me after her escapades on the Library Board a few years ago (when they tried to close inner city libraries). Saskboy reports on the chat he had with her after the meeting.

I introduced myself to Mr. West after the meeting, and assured him that he ensured he would fail the test at the school board elections in the fall of 2009. Those who would like to assist in ensuring the defeat of West, Marchuk, Young and Schenher, please email me. We have work to do!

Oh, and just before I left that room full of very sad people, I thanked Dr. John Conway for his steadfast belief in doing what is best for our kids. We are very fortunate to have a voice for the children serving on our public school board.

Now, before I sign off, can someone please explain to me why the RBE website has a link to the Regina Chamber of Commerce and the Regional Economic Development Authority? Do they provide some kind of guiding principles for the RBE? Are they the culprits drawing that imaginary line that the Chair of the Board believes he must toe? I mean, what on earth do they have to do with the education of our children, except to express support for school closures? Good grief! They’re the types who would probably like to privatize schools so they can make more money!

5 Comments
by Bernadette Wagner on March 12, 2008  •  Permalink
Posted in classism, education, racism, regina board of education, Regina Chamber of Commerce

Posted by Bernadette Wagner on March 12, 2008

https://thereginamom.com/2008/03/12/rbe-runs-with-an-axe/

Happy International Women’s Day

In celebration of the IWD, Canadian Dimension magazine featured several feminist articles and art in the current issue.  Happily, the editor has uploaded my article to their website.  An excerpt:

Eco-feminist action in the 21st century

Bernadette L. Wagner

Canadian Dimension magazine, March/April 2008

In early June, 2007, I was one of seven Saskatchewan women who made their way to Boston to record the vocal tracks for an ecofeminist recording project, My Heart Is Moved. In all, 85 women from ten different bio-regions of North America — many of whom had never before met — gathered to sing songs based on the Earth Charter, a global peoples’ document on sustainable living. All who traveled to Boston brought with them the breath and life of their local communities, the voices of all those in their singing circles, the amazing preparation and intention of the local group into the focused work of rehearsals and recording. The experience was profound and continues to shape me, much as the songs continue to take shape in community.

The Roots of Ecofeminism

Attempting to trace the origin of the word “ecofeminism” yields confusion. There are those who consider Francois d’Eaubonne, a French feminist and author of Le Feminisme ou la Mort (Feminism or Death), published in 1974 and translated into English in 1989, the originator. Others credit Susan Griffin’s Women and Nature or Mary Daly’s Gyn/Ecology: The MetaEthics of Radical Feminism, both published in 1978, as laying significant groundwork for ecofeminism, even though neither woman used the term in those works. Still others suggest that it could have been used by indigenous peoples or Black Americans working in their communities. What becomes clear in sorting through the literature is that no one woman can be crowned as originator, especially when the intricacies of oral cultures and realities of class are brought into the discussion.

Still, all ecofeminists can point to the work of Rachel Carson and her studies of birds and lakes as a significant root of ecofeminism. “Chemicals are the sinister and little-recognized partners of radiation in changing the very nature of the world — the very nature of life,” she said in her 1962 book, Silent Spring. That book rocked all of North America and much of the world, resulting in a backlash from the chemical industry and the scientific community.

Read the full article.

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by Bernadette Wagner on March 8, 2008  •  Permalink
Posted in carolyn mcdade, ecofeminism, environment, International Women's Day
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Posted by Bernadette Wagner on March 8, 2008

https://thereginamom.com/2008/03/08/happy-international-womens-day/

Incremental attack on women’s rights

On March 5, Parliament passed the Second Reading of Bill C-484, An Act to amend the Criminal Code (injuring or causing the death of an unborn child while committing an offence) aka the Unborn Victims of Crime Act. Bill C-484 is a very dangerous piece of legislation for women. Should it become law, personhood will be granted to a fetus and that would provide solid groundwork for the re-criminalization of abortion in Canada. And, according to Joyce Arthur of the Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada / Coaltion pour le droit a l’avortement au Canada, “it could also criminalize pregnant women for behaviours perceived to harm their fetuses.”

When Harper and his nationalist Stand Up for Canada campaign landed the Conservatives with only a minority government in the 2006 election many, including me, breathed a sigh of relief. At least they didn’t get a majority, we all said. But Harper had done his homework. He knew he would have to work differently from any minority government in Canada’s history. And he did. His study of Stalin helped him to maintain extreme control over his caucus, to exert some control over the already right-wing bias in the media and to govern by stealth. The attempt to censor film arts confirmed for me that his ideology is what I would call a soft fascism. As a writer, I go to the dictionary to help me decide language use. The American Heritage Dictionary‘s definition of fascism is the one I mean when I say it is a soft fascism that Harper has brought into Canada.

But it is the Dictionary.com Unabridged definition that more clearly spells out the components of fascism. With the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and the North American FTA already in place and the Security and Prosperity Partnership underway, corporatist control of economics is proceeding. Control of the media and the caucus as well as socioeconomic control have been key components in Harper’s soft brand of fascism. The incrementalist nature of his governing has been most evident in his measured and consistent attacks on women’s human rights. Within a few short months in office, Harper radically altered Status of Women Canada (SWC). Prior to the Harper attack, the SWC had played a key role within government and within Canadian society in securing such things as parental benefits and women’s reproductive freedom. But Harper’s removal of the word equality from the SWC mandate and the change to funding guidelines ended that kind of work. His attack meant that even the most broad-based, community-oriented and democratic women’s organization would be ineligible for funding if it engaged in any form of lobbying, whatsoever. Feminist blogger, April Reign, cited Tom Flanagan on the cuts to SWC:

Flanagan calls funding cuts to Status of Women Canada and the elimination of the Court Challenges Program a “nice step,” asserting without equivocation that Conservatives will “defund” all equality-seeking groups – with feminists at the top of the list. He goes further, clarifying that Conservatives also plan to choke-off these groups’ supposedly privileged access to government by, for example, denying “meetings with ministers.” But for strategic reasons, Flanagan notes, this will all happen incrementally. To avoid the perception of mean-spirited retribution, he says, “incrementalism is the way to go.”

Women’s groups such as the National Association of Women and the Law (NAWL) have closed their doors. Others have scaled back their operations to a bare minimum. Harper’s attack has effectively silenced the voices of feminism. With the media and society under control, the Opposition parties out of control, and Harper definitely in control, Bill C-484 found a most welcome environment. It is now much more unlikely that women’s organizations would be able to defeat C-484 if it becomes law.

Few saw it coming. But those who did acted as best they could to sound the trumpets. Before C-484 made it to Second Reading activity increased but it was not enough to stop the legislation from moving forward. Four brave Conservative MPs voted against their government while 27 Liberal MPs and 1 New Democratic MP voted with the government. 10 Liberals, including Stephane Dion and former Prime Minister Paul Martin, were not present for the vote. Nancy Karetak-Lindell was apparently caught in an Arctic storm. Martin was simply MIA. But Dion was at Stornoway for his wife’s International Women’s Day party! Apparently, his support for women’s rights only goes so far. As one wise blogger said, The Liberals failed to stand up against the Conservative agenda they warned us against.

There is still hope that Canadians can defeat this regressive bill. It now moves to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights, where there is an even split of Committee members who voted for and voted against it. Once the Committee is done with it — if they don’t throw it out — it would go back to the House for Third Reading where, by then I would hope, enough Liberals have been brought into the House of Commons and onside to defeat it. Or, in the event that an election is called, C-484 will die on the Order Table.

Many fear that with the Liberals in shambles the Harperites would easily win a majority government. I disagree. I believe that Harper’s brand of fascism will not be tolerated by Canadians.

–

This post would not have been possible without the good work of the women and men at Bread and Roses, Birth Pangs, and the Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada, and dedicated activists too numerous to mention.

7 Comments
by Bernadette Wagner on March 7, 2008  •  Permalink
Posted in abortion, Canada, prochoice, reproductive freedom, Stephen Harper, women

Posted by Bernadette Wagner on March 7, 2008

https://thereginamom.com/2008/03/07/incremental-attack-on-womens-rights/

Classism and Racism at Regina Board of Education (RBE)

Others won’t name it outright. I will.

The Regina Public School Board of Education’s 10-year Renewal Plan is at best, stupid. At its worst, it is racist and classist. It goes against the RBE’s own shared values:

Our Shared Values transcend our differences and provide an equal opportunity to recognize and encourage the unique characteristics and contributions of students, parents/caregivers and staff.

Well, maybe they somewhat did until now. The RBE has chosen to ignore significant data revealed to them by citizens’ groups.

Independent studies have shown that the majority of the schools slated for closure are in areas of the city where the First Nations population is higher than average and where the socio-economic status of the citizens is lower than average. It has furthermore shown, given 2006 numbers and the RBE’s own data on closures, that as many as 45% of the RBE’s student population in K to Grade 8 will be bussed when the new plan takes effect.

So the 10-year plan is not only classist and racist, but it is also devised to create more greenhouse gases in our city!

And I will refrain from commenting on the Campbell Collegiate Community Council’s presentation to the Board except to say that it demonstrated exactly why the south end is deemed to be a place of white power and privilege in Regina. And it sickens me that my kids are enrolled there.

Then again, maybe they can make a difference…

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by Bernadette Wagner on March 5, 2008  •  Permalink
Posted in education, real renewal, regina board of education
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Posted by Bernadette Wagner on March 5, 2008

https://thereginamom.com/2008/03/05/classism-and-racism-at-regina-board-of-education-rbe/

Retreating and Updating

The Regina Mom is participating in the Saskatchewan Writers Artists Colony at St. Peter’s Abbey in Muenster, SK where the temperature has rarely climbed to the minus single digits in the more than two weeks I’ve been here. Nevertheless, it’s been a beautiful and creative, albeit grueling, time for me. Just yesterday, I finished the first draft of a children’s novel that’s been living in me for almost two years. It feels so good to have it outside of me, even though I know that it needs more work before it makes its way to a publisher’s desk.

As I write this, one of Saskatchewan’s finest writers, David Carpenter, sits on the blue sofa next to the one on which I am seated, checking his email. Across the hall in the St. Pete’s boardroom, the award-winning Saskatchewan poet, Brenda Schmidt, works away on her laptop.  And, if I’m not mistaken, the Victoria, B.C. poet, Rhona McAdam, sits across the table from her.  (Check out her link for some great images and tales of our adventures here.)  Ontario poet and essayist, Maureen Scott Harris, just walked by.

It’s such a wonderful community we’ve created here, a colony of writers and artists who gather for a brief time to focus in on their work, to renew friendships and create now, and then to scatter back to their regular lives. It is a community in which I look forward to participating each year.  This year marks the tenth February I’ve spent time at Colony and I know the children’s novel never would have made it out of me without this time.  To all who have been part of it, including the St. Peter’s community, I extend my gratitude.
Still, while I am here the world carries on. Real Renewal, a citizens’ coalition in Regina has organized a petition drive to ask the Regina Public School Board for a moratorium on school closures. They have also provided some interesting statistics about the aboriginal populations in the areas where schools are targeted for closures.

The provincial government in Saskatchewan continues to attack organized Labour in the province by removing all Labour representatives from Crown Boards. Let’s watch what happens to our Crowns without the voice of Labour to speak for them.

The most destructive project on Earth, the tar sands development in northern Alberta and Saskatchewan, carries on with support from the federal government.

The nuclear industry carries on with its “renaissance” which, if it succeeds, will kill more life on planet Earth.

Carpenter has taken his leave from the blue sofa and now the emerging poet and fiction writer, Shelley Banks, a Sage Hill Writing Experience alumnus and a Masters student in the Creative Writing program at the University of British Columbia has replaced him. It signals that I’ve been here a while and had best get back to my creative work.

2 Comments
by Bernadette Wagner on February 18, 2008  •  Permalink
Posted in Alberta Tar Sands, Labour, Nuclear industry, poets, real renewal, regina board of education, Saskatchewan, writers

Posted by Bernadette Wagner on February 18, 2008

https://thereginamom.com/2008/02/18/retreating-and-updating/

The SPP lacks democratic approval

Last summer, Linda McQuaig (Part I and Part II) spoke of the “sophistication” of the business elite in their soft-peddling of continental integration through the Security and Prosperity Agreement (SPP).  The deal has been kept quite quiet and the work of moving it forward is ongoing via various business leaders, politicians and bureaucrats.

McQuaig’s focus is North American Energy Security which, in essence, is an agreement that Canada guarantee an energy supply to the USA.  The catch is that we must do that before we take what we need!  Why would Canada agree to ensuring the US supply before ensuring our own?  As McQuaig says, there are about 10 years of regular oil supplies left in Canada.  Are we too nice, offering it to the US first?  Or, too stupid?  Yes, there’s the Alberta tar sands, but that über project has garnered a huge outcry from ecological organizations, northern peoples, environmentalists, and even a few politicians, such as former Alberta premier, Peter Lougheed and the Mayor of the Alberta boomtown, Fort McMurray.

Are we, as Canadians, really prepared to give over our own energy security, the ecological integrity of our beautiful north and the well-being of our northern and First Peoples so that the business elite can continue to line their own pockets?  Do we really want to continue fueling the USA’s wars?  Furthermore, are we willing to let this carry on without the due process of our democratic institutions?

In August 2007, Prime Minister Harper refused to accept letters on this matter from 10,000 concerned Canadians.  In the April 2006 Throne Speech, Mr. Harper promised to present “significant international treaties” to a vote in Parliament.  In the last session, he did not do so.  Did he lie to Canadians?  And why, as we learned from US President Bush’s State of the Union Address earlier this week, is our Prime Minister is continuing to forge ahead with the SPP?  He has plans to meet with Presidents Bush and Calderon this April in New Orleans.  But he will do so without the consent of the Canadian people, despite promises — not to mention the obligation — to do so!

Should you so wish, you can tell the Prime Minister how you feel about this lack of democratic process.  The Council of Canadians have been following the developments on the SPP very closely.  It was the organization that forced some media attention onto the issue last summer.

If we truly treasure democracy then we are obliged, as responsible citizens, to speak out when it is being circumvented or abused.  This, I think, is one of those times.  If you do nothing else, at least inform yourself on this important issue.  It will change your life, one way or the other.

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by Bernadette Wagner on January 31, 2008  •  Permalink
Posted in Alberta Tar Sands, Canada, Council of Canadians, George Bush, Linda McQuaig, Lubicon Cree, Mexico, north american competitiveness council, North American Energy Security, North American Union, spp, Stephen Harper

Posted by Bernadette Wagner on January 31, 2008

https://thereginamom.com/2008/01/31/the-spp-lacks-democratic-approval/

Usher High School Defends Its Existence

Terri Sleeva’s notes from the Regina Public School Board’s “Renewal” meeting at Usher High School document a number of issues which the Regina Board of Education has failed to address in the plan for closing Usher and other Regina schools.

It is essential, I believe, that the valid questions raised here and elsewhere be addressed before any closures go ahead.  What is at stake is the quality of education of Regina’s children.  The RBE has not taken this into account in their plan for renewal.

Here’s Terri’s report:

Usher Closure Meeting with Board of Education Trustees/January 17, 2008

School renewal process

 

Nov, 2007 – Pass recommendation of 3 school closures

Final decision March 11, 2008

 

Cindy Anderson

  • Addressed students mainly because Usher is about their kids
  • 587 students when opened in 1979
  • Is a community and not an institution
  • Any child removed from the school due to economic status is one too many
  • Many concerns as a community
  • As a community we think of the issues of students terrified to go to another school, having problems with participating in extra curricular activities, violence, social rejection, money for gas, teacher rejection, transportation, being able to afford bus passes and lunch money.
  • Thom Collegiate has had no response towards taking in Usher students
  • Top three academically in math and English
  • Putting one or two children in a high school is minor; placing 200 in a high school is a tsunami
  • Children do adapt, teenage adults do not.
  • Money is not being wasted, but being used to increase education
  • 357 students
  • Lowest vandalism
  • Only high school in 25 years to receive a standing ovation from the Mayor of Regina
  • If you have to work to bring the students into another community or school, then you should be able to work to bring children into this community

 

Transportation and Safety – Kim Anderson

How am I going to get to school?

  • Many students walk to school
  • A big obstacle for low income families because bus passes are $42.00 a month.
  • Regina Transit is not very accommodating. Students will have to wait for buses as early as 7:15am and with travel time of up to 68 minutes. Many buses have short arrival times, leaving students with as much as 3 minutes to get to class. To compensate for this, children will have to take a bus 40 minutes earlier.
  • After 6:15pm buses only run once every hour, which makes it impossible to do extra curricular activity
  • Choir programs run early in the morning so students would have to go earlier then normal
  • Transferring buses downtown is a major concern
  • To Thom, with service only in Uplands area with a ride of 15 minutes

 

Safety – Kim Anderson

  • Resource officers states that 5% of the students are considered to be bad apples
  • Comments from other high school students – “Usher students are too gangster and it will cause fights.”

 

Small Schools – Val Dodman

  • Smaller classroom sizes are the best for learning because it gives more one on one time for learning
  • By cramming as many students as you can into one room you are ignoring what the school system is made for – to give the best education possible to students. In actuality the school board’s responsibility is to build more facilities to get the best education possible.

· Why are smaller schools better:

· greater success in smaller schools

· larger graduation rates

· smaller student-teacher ratio means students can get help to understand better

· allow extra curricular activities (all kids who register get to participate, which boosts confidence)

· can identify more emotional and educational problems among children

· less vandalism

· give children a chance to walk or cycle to school and be more active

· allows children to go home right after school or at lunch to look after younger siblings.

 

Real Renewal for the Public School Board – Karen Wilke & Patricia Elliott

Karen Wilke

  • Lead best when we lead by example
  • Seek out office space in schools that are experiencing low enrollment
  • Advantages:

“You will demonstrate all though change is hard, chaotic, and disturbing, that you have not asked young children, staff or families to do anything that you yourselves are not willing to do.”

  • By moving to different buildings you will be prolonging the building use, and helping the school to stay open.
  • Opportunity to work with school and staff
  • You will experience the lives of the students

Patricia Elliott

  • Parents are not just nostalgic and emotional.
  • They care because educational standards are about to be lowered.
  • This plan is a replay of similar plans developed in the U.S. in the past 20 years that have since proven to be disastrous for students and communities. U.S. school districts are not trying to rebuild their small neighbourhood schools.
  • The School Board has done little or no research into the potential impacts of school closures, relying on a single literature review done hastily in Toronto.
  • The Board should not be so worried about whether their decision will be unpopular – of course it will be – but should rather be worried about whether their decision will be deeply flawed. It seems you are planning to spend a lot of money to make things worse.

 

Community – Donna Dubasov

· Not enough time for students to show other schools how great they really are

 

Economics – Karen Zibreski

· Average house amount in area of school is $119,000

· Average house amount surrounding Thom is $166,000

· Average house amount surrounding Winston Knoll $232,000

· Can all of the community afford to send their children to a school out of the community?

 

Government Issues and Interaction of Usher students with Elementary – Bill Trenaman

  • Elementary schools always use Usher for their grade 8 graduations and for other big functions

 

 Vocational Education – Rick Knibbs & Tyler Stewart

  • Easy to make friends at Robert Usher
  • What will happen to all of the stuff inside of the school if it is closed (trophies etc.)?
  • Usher has so much to offer and so much to give
  • If we lose one because of drops outs and drugs, it’s one too many

 

Seniors’ Presentation – Cel Shtuka, Agnes Moldenhauer, Elfrieda Wolfe & Joyce Anderson

  • On a limited budget, I am able to enjoy the school’s functions and productions for a small price
  • Study at a large school in Toronto found that:

57% carry knives

42% carry hand guns

12% sexually assaulted in school

  • Results showing that small schools are more safer

 

Student Representative Council

  • Many school achievements in both academics and athletics

 

Questions that are voiced by students:

  • Will a plan be developed to transport students to other schools?
  • This building is in good shape, why close it?
  • Have they thought about how to keep Usher sustainable rather then close it?
  • Have they considered the effects that closing will have on the community?
  • Why were we only giving 4 months when other schools have 3 to 4 years?
  • Why is only school size being considered?
  • What will they do with the building, will they sell it? Where will the money go if the property is sold?
  • What will happen to the local businesses?
  • Will I be safe at a new school? Will I be accepted?
  • How will we be sure that students are comfortable?
  • What will be done to prevent violence at a new school?
  • What if we can not afford to take the city bus?
  • Fear of rejection from other students?
  • What happens to Usher’s banners, graduation pictures etc. that we have taken so much pride in?
  • How do we deal with the negative image that other students have of Usher students?
  • Are we not going to have the opportunity to be the SRC president, Valedictorian, or team captain?
  • What are our chances of getting scholarships at a large school?
  • If you participate in after school activities, how will you get home if you rely on the bus?

 

What does Usher mean to you? (students)

  • Like my second home, I am here more then my own home
  • Everyone I know is here
  • Opportunities for scholarships in a small school
  • Chance for opportunities in music program, yearbook club, sports teams, etc.
  • Family
  • Friendly people
  • Get along with anybody (no little cliques)
  • Welcomed with open arms
  • Love going to school, knowing that you are going to have a great day
  • It means going to school and seeing happy faces
  • Know everyone and have many close friends
  • Lots of fun while learning
  • Sense of security and safety

 

Necessity

  • The very big size that the other schools may become
  • Solutions:

Distance education

Tutorial program

Fine arts programs

Adult campus that runs (you give them a second chance, so give our children one chance)

3 Comments
by Bernadette Wagner on January 28, 2008  •  Permalink
Posted in education, real renewal, regina board of education

Posted by Bernadette Wagner on January 28, 2008

https://thereginamom.com/2008/01/28/usher-high-school-defends-its-existence/

Twenty Years of Freedom!

20 years of choiceIn the mid- to late-80’s I was a student representative to the Regina Reproductive Rights Coalition which worked to find ways around, over, and through the restrictive abortion law of the day. We networked with women across the country to put an end to the discriminatory law, known as Section 251. That law required any woman who wanted to terminate a pregnancy to not only find a doctor who would perform the procedure but also to have the procedure approved by a hospital’s Therapeutic Abortion Committee (TAC). In Saskatchewan an invisible line divided the province into north and south. Women who lived south of Davidson dealt with Regina’s TAC; women to the north, with Saskatoon’s.

By 1986, there was one doctor in Regina who would perform an abortion, but he would do so according to his interpretation of the law. Basically, he decided which circumstances were the right ones. Needless to say, most women sought other options. The Regina Women’s Community Centre counseled women to go elsewhere for the procedure. Many drove to clinics in the USA or traveled to Ontario. Those with no financial wherewithal went to Saskatoon, where a doctor at the Saskatoon Community Clinic, Dr. John Bury, courageously provided the procedure with very few questions asked. It meant two trips to Saskatoon and a false address if a woman lived south of Davidson. And, it meant waiting days or weeks for the phone call to find out whether or not the TAC had approved the procedure. But for a lot of women, that wait was worth it and Dr. Bury was a lifesaver!

On January 28, 1988, after Dr. Henry Morgentaller’s 8 years legal battle, the Supreme Court of Canada struck down the law saying it infringed on women’s personal security:

State interference with bodily integrity and serious state-imposed psychological stress, at least in the criminal law context, constitutes a breach of security of the person. Section 251 clearly interferes with a woman’s physical and bodily integrity. Forcing a woman, by threat of criminal sanction, to carry a fetus to term unless she meets certain criteria unrelated to her own priorities and aspirations, is a profound interference with a woman’s body and thus an infringement of security of the person.

When we heard the news on campus, we were elated! We knew it meant freedom of choice for women on the matter of their own reproductivity for as long as there was no law. I do not know, however, if we really understood the great significance of Justice Bertha Wilson’s Minority Report and her consideration of women’s Charter rights. From p. 171:

…I would conclude, therefore, that the right to liberty contained in s. 7 guarantees to every individual a degree of personal autonomy over important decisions intimately affecting their private lives.

The question then becomes whether the decision of a woman to terminate her pregnancy falls within this class of protected decisions. I have no doubt that it does. This decision is one that will have profound psychological, economic and social consequences for the pregnant woman. The circumstances giving rise to it can be complex and varied and there may be, and usually are, powerful considerations militating in opposite directions. It is a decision that deeply reflects the way the woman thinks about herself and her relationship to others and to society at large. It is not just a medical decision; it is a profound social and ethical one as well. Her response to it will be the response of the whole person.

.

Wilson went further, providing a feminist-based interpretation and questioning a man’s capacity to so much as understand what a decision such as this is to a woman:

It is probably impossible for a man to respond, even imaginatively, to such a dilemma not just because it is outside the realm of his personal experience … but because he can relate to it only by objectifying it, thereby eliminating the subjective elements of the female psyche which are at the heart of the dilemma.

She cited an important essay, “International Law and Human Rights: the Case of Women’s Rights,” by Noreen Burrows from the University of Glasgow, who pointed out that

the history of the struggle for human rights from the eighteenth century on has been the history of men struggling to assert their dignity and common humanity against an overbearing state apparatus. The more recent struggle for women’s rights has been a struggle to eliminate discrimination, to achieve a place for women in a man’s world, to develop a set of legislative reforms in order to place women in the same position as men (pp. 81-82). It has not been a struggle to define the rights of women in relation to their special place in the societal structure and in relation to the biological distinction between the two sexes. Thus, women’s needs and aspirations are only now being translated into protected rights. The right to reproduce or not to reproduce which is in issue in this case is one such right and is properly perceived as an integral part of modern woman’s struggle to assert her dignity and worth as a human being.

I believe it is because of Justice Bertha Wilson’s statements that we are able, today, to celebrate 20 years of reproductive freedom in Canada. I extend a great thank you to the late Justice Bertha Wilson, to Dr. Henry Morgentaler, and to the thousands of women and supportive men who worked together to gain this fundamental freedom for Canadian women.

Happy anniversary!

7 Comments
by Bernadette Wagner on January 28, 2008  •  Permalink
Posted in abortion, prochoice, reproductive freedom, Supreme Court of Canada, women

Posted by Bernadette Wagner on January 28, 2008

https://thereginamom.com/2008/01/28/twenty-years-of-freedom/

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