YOUR FEDER A TION: 2019 ANNUAL MEETING ANNUAL MEETING SPEAKERS
teachers. “Our federation mirrors who we are as a union,” she said, “a grand mosaic of our identities and perspectives.” ETFO is a strong and respected voice at the CTF, she continued. The realities educators face in the classroom are common across the country and internationally. “We must work to help every Canadian believe in the work that we do and why it is so important for us to fight. Together we are one orga- nization and one voice. You are the leaders this country needs,” she concluded.
Diane Dewing OTF President
Baratunde Thurston Social Justice Speaker
American writer, commentator and cultural critic Baratunde Thurston talked about stories and the power they have to tell us who we are and who we can be. He spoke specifically about the stories of Black people in the U.S. as they are represented on social media and in popular culture. Thurston began collecting and diagramming these stories looking for the common elements. This allowed him to criticize the ways in which white supremacy – as a system that includes many factors including gentrifica- tion – is enacted, reflected and weaponized in popular culture and in communities. He spoke specifically about how in the pattern he discovered, he identified the potential to shift the narrative by recognizing the structure and shifting the outcomes. There is a structure to white supremacy, he said. Structure is what makes it systemic. “What I am asking all of us to do is see that structure and to see the humanity of those who are made targets,” he said. “There is an invisible but tangible tax that some of us are made to pay for our existence. It comes with having to bear the weight of other people’s fears and short-sightedness. How do we change this? We change the action, which changes the story, which ultimately changes the system.”
40 ETFO VOICE | FALL 2019
Diane Dewing brought greetings on behalf of the Ontario Federation of Teachers and spoke to OTF’s commitment to maintaining what educators have built in the public education system and what they are fighting to protect. “There is much to be done to improve our public education system and we will not stand for its erosion. We will stand strong for your profession and your pension,” she concluded. Dewing reported on the health of the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan and talked about its investment strategy. Dewing reflected on the importance of the pension protecting our integrity as teachers and ensuring that it invests in a way that reflects ETFO and other teacher unions’ values.
Jessica Lyons West End Parents for Public Education
Shelley Morse CTF President
Shelley Morse brought greetings on behalf of the Canadian Teachers’ Federation. She spoke about the responsibility CTF has in Ottawa to speak in a united voice for all
“My message today is simple,” Jessica Lyons began, “Parents are with you. Across the province, parents are standing with educators and pledge solidarity with you in organizing and job action. We can protect public education by fighting together,” she said. “We are not in normal times. We need to rise to the occasion together. We are preparing to launch a province-wide parent coalition. We need you to be speaking to the parents of the children that you teach. Raise their awareness, talk about organizing together to win. We know that your working conditions are our children’s learning con- ditions. We will win this fight together.”
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