Premier Clark laments massive BC Ferries CEO pension but will respect signed contract.
Refreshing to note this past week to hear Premier Clark admit that even though she disagrees with the massive pension hike of the BC Ferries CEO it is a signed contract and legally the government must respect the law.
Too bad that respect for the law only extends to Liberal appointees and not all citizens. Nine years ago then Education Minister Clark had no such respect for the legal contract of BC teachers when in January of 2002 she tabled the contract stripping Bills 27 and 28.
Even though the B.C. Supreme Court has ruled that the premier and her government has violated the rights of 40,000 British Columbians, for nearly a decade she has made no move to apologize for her actions or correct for the legislation. In fact she has done quite the opposite.
Her education minister and his bargainers have put forward a myriad of proposals to further strip the teacher collective agreement to follow up on nine years of illegal stripping.
We can expect the premier to keep her distance from this issue given her personal negative history with the teacher union, but teachers know that her corporate media friends will step up the teacher bashing to distract the public from the real criminals in this dispute.
Matt Pearce
President, Prince George District Teachers' Association
