Unity in the face of hate and greed

People power always wins

I wanted to start this piece celebrating the 50th volume of Education Forum, but considering the recent increase in hate-based activism, including direct attacks on our 2SLGBTQI+ communities, I want instead to ask us all to remember our past, to embrace how far we have come as a society, and to pull on our collective strengths to heal and work through challenging times. Organized labour has a proud history of supporting human rights activism, including advocacy fighting anti-Black racism, racism, homophobia, transphobia, and other forms of oppression. Looking back at past issues of Education Forum, we see just how embedded equity work is in all we do as a union. But it can’t just stop with advocacy, it must continue as a united move towards inclusion, belonging, and understanding.

Similarly, the labour movement has also used its power to fight privatization of public services, to insist governments prioritize people over profits, and to protect the social safety net. As the Ford government faces some of its deepest and widest criticisms, including public outcry over their attempted sell-off of the Greenbelt, we see the true impact of the people united against putting profits in the hands of the few at the cost of the many. In the fall of 2022, Doug Ford and Minister of Education Stephen Lecce provoked an ill-conceived standoff with the Canadian Union of Public Employees’ (CUPE) educational workers, dramatically misjudging the public’s gullibility. And in the process of invoking the notwithstanding clause through Bill 28 to trample labour rights, the Ford government picked a fight they couldn’t win with the entire labour movement. Then, Bill 124 was struck down by the courts, and the floodgates opened for remedies to be won for workers across the public sector. It was another win for workers and a blow to Ford Nation—the power of the people continues to win out over greed.

These successes are thanks in part to our individual actions—hundreds of thousands of people in the province took action, contacted their MPPs, attended rallies, and engaged in debate with their friends and family. Every one of these actions added to the pressure that led to Ford’s full reversal of the sell-off of public lands to a small number of wealthy contractors and builders. This is the pressure that will allow us to elect a labour, community, education, and equity-friendly Ontario government in June 2026.

The threat of privatization is real. The rise of hate is real. The trampling of workers’ rights is real. But so is our power as communities and labour organizations. I thank each of you for the ongoing work you do as part of this resistance. We can’t give up and we can’t allow hate, oppression, and greed to rule the day. As this 50th volume of Education Forum showcases, the public good will always win over private interests.

Congratulations to all who have contributed to Education Forum’s continued success.