by Kyle Hoskin
Garbageman, CUPE Local 1287
What a meeting! This past Friday in Niagara, the Ontario Federation of Labour met with the community and labour to discuss how we plan to rally against Doug Ford’s Regressive Conservatives convention on February 21-22 at the Scotiabank Centre in Niagara Falls. The room had 46 participants with a very healthy mix between labour and the community.
Niagara will be the place the Ontario PC party decides major policy decisions and decides direction. It’s important to have everyone out demonstrating. This event may see tens of thousands of concerned Ontario citizens rally in one place to express their opposition to the direction this government is going in.
So for the past week I’ve reached out to everyone I can. We had local politicians like St Catharines city councillor Karrie Porter and MPP Wayne Gates in the room. Both spoke about the need of addressing inequality in our region. We had showings from Indigenous and union leaders, Ontario Public Interest Research Group, Green New Deal and Extinction Rebellion, and NDP members. The meeting included discussions on who wasn’t in the room.
For the next two weeks I will continue to reach out to as many local leaders as possible. If you’re reading this, we have a meeting this Saturday (February 15th, 2-4pm) and I would love to have you out. Check the OFL page for details, or reach out to me on Facebook.
This upcoming event is going to be the biggest event I’ve ever participated in. I’m so proud to see my community come together like this. We often feel like our fights are isolated, and it’s opportunities like this that enable us to break those barriers down and fight together. That to me is truly the best outcome of this event. We are stronger together when we stand next to each other. No more silos, no more barriers. Your fight is my own. Together we will change our community for the benefit of all.
You should talk to the teacher union leaders. They should be mobilizing busloads of teachers to come and picket.
We are!