By Tanya Cronin

Kamloops Teachers’ pleased Supreme Court will hear appeal

Jan 14, 2016 | 3:54 PM

KAMLOOPS — Canada’s highest court has ruled that it will hear an appeal by the BC Teachers’ Federation, on its right to bargain class size and composition.

The Supreme Court of Canada will have the final say in the bitter fight between the province and teachers, that has lasted for more than a decade. The BCTF is looking forward to the opportunity to present their arguments to the court and the Kamloops-Thompson Teachers’ Association is optimistic it will yield a final, definitive answer.    

“It’s not common they hear appeals from groups, I think about 10% are granted by the by the Supreme Court of Canada, what my hope is that they’ve seen some of the issues we’ve identified with the BC Appeals Court decision,” says David Komljenovic, KTTA President.

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The BC Government stripped language around class size and composition from the teachers’ contract in 2002, leading to a series of court decisions and subsequent appeals. The KTTA President is hoping support for students will finally be taken seriously.

“One of the biggest stresses for teachers is meeting the needs of students, every year there’s less funding in the system, and
what we would like is for the courts to recognize that those rights are still there and that government has to re-invest. The other issue is about union rights, and the ability to negotiate. It creates an unlevel field when one party can make all the decisions, what the appeals court said is all government has to do is have a discussion with the union and they can take away all of our rights,  and that’s really a dangerous precedent for all unions,” says Komljenovic.