Timing, union’s bond with NDP likely mean end is near for teacher-registry bill By: Tom Brodbeck Posted: 7:00 PM CDT Friday, Mar. 17, 2023

Opinion

A bill introduced this week by the Stefanson government to regulate teacher misconduct is a good first step toward making schools safer for children. But the proposed legislation may never see the light of day if the teachers’ union — with the help of its NDP allies — gets its way.

Bill 35, The Education Administration Amendment Act, would establish an independent process to hear allegations of professional misconduct against teachers and make disciplinary decisions public through an online registry. Overall, it’s a good bill that balances due process with the need to protect children from the few bad apples who lurk in our schools.

The move comes after decades of debate about how best to regulate teachers and adjudicate complaints against them. The Manitoba Teachers’ Society union has long opposed the creation of a public registry and an independent body to hear complaints. They claim it would make teachers vulnerable to frivolous allegations and subject them to privacy breaches.

Their concerns are largely self-serving and without merit.

Union says proposed registry would make teachers vulnerable

MTS prefers the status quo, where teacher misconduct is investigated by either the union, the employer (usually a school division) and/or the education minister’s office.

The problem with the current scheme, besides the obvious conflict of interest inherent in a union investigating its own members, is that it’s ineffective and shrouded in secrecy. The public often has no way of knowing about disciplinary action taken against teachers unless the allegations are severe enough to land in court. Most don’t. That means offending teachers can escape public scrutiny, including in sexual harassment cases against students, and go undetected for years.

MTS has come out swinging against Bill 35, calling it “anti-teacher” and claiming the proposed law has multiple flaws that could harm its members. They plan to fight the bill tooth and nail. Lucky for them, they have a secret weapon in the legislative assembly: the Opposition NDP.

Under house rules, the Opposition can hold back five government bills until the fall sitting. Normally, those bills are voted on by the end of the session, typically in October or November.

However, this is not a normal year. There is a provincial election scheduled for Oct. 3. Any bills held over until the fall would die on the order paper once an election is called. Since the Tories are facing almost certain electoral defeat, none of the five designated bills would likely be resurrected by an NDP government. That would leave MTS in the clear.

Why would the NDP be so eager to support the teachers’ union? Because like most trade unions in the province, MTS has strong ties to the NDP, which relies on the grunt work of unions during elections. The Manitoba Federation of Labour, of which MTS is a member, is not just a proud supporter of the NDP, it reminds its members that it has a duty to support the party.

“The MFL encourages unions to be politically engaged, to affiliate to the party (the NDP) and encourages their members to actively participate in its activities at the constituency level by taking out personal memberships.”–Manitoba Federation of Labour policy book

“The MFL encourages unions to be politically engaged, to affiliate to the party (the NDP) and encourages their members to actively participate in its activities at the constituency level by taking out personal memberships,” the federation’s policy book states.

The NDP is in a tough spot. If it sides with MTS on Bill 35 and hold back the bill, (which would effectively kill it), it would be accused of putting its union ties ahead of student safety. The NDP could argue the bill is flawed and promise a new version, or some other regulatory regime, should it form government. That’s doable, but it wouldn’t be an easy sell at the doorstep during an election campaign. The Tories would almost certainly use it as a wedge issue.

If the NDP broke ranks with MTS, which is unlikely, it would undermine its relationship with the teachers’ union and cause unnecessary friction within the union movement. That’s a risk NDP Leader Wab Kinew is probably not willing to take.

A third option for the NDP would be to propose amendments to the bill at committee stage to address some of the union’s concerns. However, it’s unlikely the Tories would allow major amendments to the bill, which means it would pass largely unchanged before the summer.

The NDP has yet to decide what to do with Bill 35. It has until April 17 to designate which bills it plans to hold back.

Given the circumstances, it seems this one is headed for the recycling bin.

tom.brodbeck@freepress.mb.ca

Tom Brodbeck
Columnist

Tom has been covering Manitoba politics since the early 1990s and joined the Winnipeg Free Press news team in 2019.

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