Opening Statement



Wednesday 23 October 2013

Final Draft: Reinstate Richard Brock Petition!

Here is the final draft of the petition for you to sign. You can sign it, and include your own comments on why you support it @ REINSTATE RICHARD BROCK PETITION!


Please sign + comment: Who's next if you don't speak out now!

Here is the text of the petition as it now appears on the site:

In recognition of OECTA’s wrongful dismissal of President Richard Brock of Halton, WE, the undersigned Members understand that an injustice has been perpetrated in the name of our Association and request that President James Ryan and the Provincial Executive: 

1. Restore Richard Brock as Halton Elementary Unit President, acknowledging that his “trial” lacked fairnesstransparency, and due process; that the discipline board lacked the authority to try him; that our Association opposes rather than perpetrates unfairness and inequality; that all members have a moral duty both to combat and to right injustices committed in the name of our Association.

2. Undertake to govern in accordance with the constitution and by-laws of our Association, promoting democracy, member rights and following the rule of law within OECTA. 
3. Respect the right to free speech of all members.

4. Commit publicly and unreservedly to treat all members fairly and with due process, undertaking a disciplinary process that exhibits transparency and impartiality; that embodies fairness and justice; that clearly complies with the standards of administrative justice in Ontario and follows all the rules in the OECTA Handbook.

5. Admit in writing that the discipline board which met in February before the 2012 AGM did so without any Provincial Executive having appointed any of its members, and met without the knowledge or approval of the Provincial Executive of that year, and that the report they produced while not a legally constituted board is out of order as is true for any report submitted by any group that is illegally called to meet.

Additional Info:

Scroll down page to read the petition comments @ Bottom of page!

How to get media attention + launch a Phone Call A Day Campaign @ Guide!
 
COMMENTS BELOW:

25 comments:

Kulture Kult Ink said...

Hi Everybody!

What you now see above is the final draft of the Reinstate Richard Brock Petition as it now appears on the change.org site for you to sign. This is the final version that everybody on the committee agreed upon. Pamela + John's supplementary essays follow afterwards as guest blogs for your erudition on the issues at stake. They drafted the original copy, which was then brought to an adhoc committee, including Angelo Ippolito, + the rest of the Metro 7 to be finalized in a consensual form that it is hoped as many OECTA Presidents and members can agree too and share prior to the Nov.4 COP meeting.

To avoid further confusion the original draft has been relocated for now. None of your Comments will be lost.

We gratefully thank Pamela for her feisty shoot from the hip style and action ideas. Also in meeting the original publishing deadline.
John is also to be thanked for his tireless work in making sure everything ended up as planned.

The OECTA teachers have had a pretty tough time with very little concrete, visible support from the Provincial office in organizing their protest movement over the past year. I should think the growing pains of organizing such a monumental task on their own would often have seemed near insurmountable. I applaud their ability to pull together to continue the initiative, despite the quite understandable setbacks that will occur in any such effort.

I would encourage anybody involved in the teacher movement, be they independent members or groups from OECTA or the other Affiliates to continue to avail yourselves of the services I can provide in getting our protest message out to a very large number of us. We will need to improve the logistical method for getting and sharing your information with me so I can best accommodate you, but otherwise, well done!

Many cheers!/
Unending Solidarity!

David C

PS: The introductory post for the new Q+A blog feature "Ask Angelo" will follow. Also a blog on how everybody who is concerned about the Brock case can contribute to his legal fund.

Anonymous said...

"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident."
-Arthur Schopenhauer

Anonymous said...

No matter what position you take on this case, no one can ever argue that the truth, due process, rule of law, and justice are not in the best interest of the association.

Since some have not followed these self-evident interests should they be found to have acted against the interests of the association? If this is not the case then seeking the truth, due process, rule of law, and justice become contrary to the interests of the association. This has occurred and has left OECTA in a state where it has lost any mandate or authority to act on behalf of its members. Without truth, due process, rule of law and justice there can never be trust or authority.

The serious nature of what we are going through leaves us no choice but to totally dismantle an ineffective and unaccountable system and organization. It is time to rebuild from the FLOOR up.

Anonymous said...

What OECTA Members need is an OECTA BILL OF MEMBERS' RIGHTS enshrined in OECTA's CONSTITUTION.

This OECTA BILL of MEMBERS' RIGHTS needs to provide:

1. One Member One Vote- on tentative contracts and all candidates running for OECTA's Provincial Executive.

2. Ban the use of any ME TOO clause, or similar clause, in all OECTA contract bargaining.

3. Create a new OECTA SUNSHINE List of Provincial Executive members and Provincial Staff members salaries and compensation/benefits packages. Rank and file OECTA members pay 100% of these salaries as shareholders of this union and are entitled to this information.

4. Electronic voting for all OECTA members be enacted immediately. OSSTF and ETFO can do it, why not OECTA? Are OECTA members paying a lower teacher fee? NO. So why don't we have the same service level from our union? This could be used to hold periodic referendums on issues important to the union membership.

5. Reduce political party contributipns to minimal levels. BILL 115 proved that potical parties will do what they want to anyway, so why not reduce political party donations and refund fees back to the teachers who paid them?

6. Any other ideas to return this union back to serving its members who pay all the bills are most welcome.
Open, honest, transparent, and accountable leadership and ACTIONS might just save OECTA!
Pass this on to all OECTA members.

Anonymous said...

OOPS... spelling errors in #5...It should read:

5. Reduce political party contributions by OECTA to minimal levels. BILL 115 proved that political parties will do what they want to anyway, so why not reduce the dollar amount of political party donations and refund saved fees back to the teachers who paid them? Decrease the teacher fee for a change.

Kulture Kult Ink said...

Hello OECTA readers!

Is this petition being shared, and in a timely manner? I understand some readers prefer to share, cut and paste the petition and hope it will be taken around to teachers in person to be signed by enough people to gather hundreds of signatures.

There is a much more efficient manner to do that much more quickly, and you all ready have it all set up here and through change.org. for you. There is a petition link and lots of information articles with ongoing discussions in the Comments section of my blogsite. Also a very easy way to sign the petition online and make a comment at the same time, which is then sent directly to OECTA at change.org.

I would strongly urge you to not waste any more time in sharing these links right away. It is now Oct 24th, and the COP meets November 4th.

There is a Tweet button on the upper left hand column beside this Petition blog. You can click it, write a message and send it out to all your colleagues from my blogsite with my link right now. Or you can simply retweet the link which I have been sending out on Twitter quite regularly.

Another way is to copy and paste the link from the address bar above my blog, if you prefer to use email. Most everybody has an email account these days so that can work very well too.

You will disseminate the petition and information very quickly by any of these three methods. There is also a 4th way. You can go to change.org and try doing the same things from there if for some reason you don't want others to see what is happening here, the articles, discussions and so on. I understand my site might be too radical for some OECTA members [!?] so maybe that might be the way for those of you to go.

I do appreciate when you forward my blog link as it has been a lot of work to get this all set up for you, and quite frankly my many OSSTF + ETFO readers are on hold while we deal with this subject every day. It is of considerably less interest to them, as you might guess. They are concerned too, but much less so, and for how much longer they will keep visiting my site for this, I don't know. So whatever way you choose, please get this out to be signed electronically as soon as you can. I have done my part and I think covered all the bases online.

Too much talk and not enough action is a real killer for any initiative. I sincerely hope for the good of Richard and those OECTA members concerned and involved in the issue that you do not waste the resources and momentum that is all ready in place. You do so at your own peril.

I am retired now. I don't want to see the association I belonged to and worked for so long to help build fall apart from within or sell short it members. However, outside of the pension issue, it doesn't really effect me what you do. I can only wish you well, and urge you to get it together asap, for the common good.

You will look bad and lack credibility if you don't get a lot of signatures very quick. Here is the way to go for volume and speed.
It's how things are done nowadays. Don't miss your chance.

Also you can check out the Change.org Guide link for info on how to set up your own Phone Call a Day Campaign. They tell you how to get mainstream media attention too. That's up to you to do though. My role as I see it is to provide info and a well read blog forum to help accommodate whatever our teacher readers got going, be it on this issue or any other, be it OECTA or anybody else.

Hope this helps!

Solidarity!

David C

Kulture Kult Ink said...

Send me your 6 points in a word file and I will post it for more exposure as a blog. There's 2 more before you but meanwhile some folks will read it here too. Up to you.

Kulture Kult Ink said...

Hello A.Non!

I always want to post any + all info that will help us better understand the situations we face as teacher union members so we can best judge for ourselves what we think to make informed choices. As such I would want to include your Comments.

Regretfully, due to the nature of yours, I would also need to you to attach your name as owner of the comments. If you can do so, I will post.

Best wishes!

David C

Anonymous said...

I have known James for over 20 years. I just can't believe he would not stand up for what is clearly the right and just thing to do. The evidence is irrefutable. There is no way that the Discipline Board that met in February was appointed or constituted and any report from a body that is not constituted has absolutely no standing. I know this has been said over and over, but it can't be anything but 100% true. There is no way around it. I am sure James understands this. I have faith in him. Stay tuned. I think something big is going to come down and it is going to spearheaded by James Ryan. James can be trusted. James can bring trust back among us. James will stand for justice, due process, rule of law, and start us towards unity internally and externally. Do you really think that James admitted in writing that the DB met in February was never appointed or constituted, was an accident? If you do, then you don't know James. That was intentional. He told us the truth so we would know that injustice was committed. He knew exactly where that admission would lead.

Signing the petition will just let him know that we support him.

Kulture Kult Ink said...

I still trust James Ryan too but right now I still don't know what to think. I just can't see him rolling over + playing dead what with the implications for OECTA if it goes to court.

I have also been reflecting on why some OECTA members are hesitant to sign the petition. Well over 90% of the Comments here very strongly support Richard on principle over the dismissal by this dubious Discipline Panel and the implication that has for free speech, due process, and democracy at OECTA. The site is very well read by teacher members across the province so why so slow?

I'm wondering if the bullying, especially in regards to the example Richards dismissal sets, means many are afraid to put their name or comments to the petition because they would be identifying themselves to the bullies? Or there is too much infighting between factions and units to get this off the ground? Or members just don't care?

Very scary if any of the above are true. With the petition you stand on truth and principle. There is strength in numbers. Isn't that what we teach our students to do? Isn't that what our Catholic teacher union is supposed to be based upon? Do we talk the talk but not walk the walk? It is hard to do the right thing, but as we know that is what our faith is supposed to be about.

Let's sand tall and do the right thing!

Brave hearts can even write their comments explaining why they signed the petition and it gets sent directly to OECTA so they hear the concerns. You don't have to do that if you don't want, but please sign the petition if you care about the principles of justice and democracy in your teacher union!

Anonymous said...

I used to trust James Ryan-but why does he refuse to get cash payout for the vested sick days of Halton OECTA Elementary members with the OECTA MOU "ME TOO" clause like OSSTF and ETFO did for their members? Do OECTA members deserve LESS SERVICE from their union? WHY JAMES?

Anonymous said...

The members of OECTA can't do anything unless the PE and James Ryan do something. This blog and the petition will have no effect unless the PE actually stands up for us,

A court case is different, OECTA has no case. Richard will win but the strategy from OECTA will be to drag this on so Richard can't afford to pursue it. OECTA can't win on the merits of the case. They can only win by default. If they win by default, then a few powerful people will know that they can disregard the will of the AGM anytime they want and get away with it. As a previous poster identified, the OECTA legal arguments needed to defend what happened to Richard Brock would need to go against and undermine all common understanding of our Handbook and the authority of the AGM. Once this argument is made in a public court all the members and the media will know that OECTA does not care about its members and that it will sacrifice the interests of all members, the AGM, and the PE to protect a very few people at the top. OECTA then might as well give up all hope that the members can ever trust them again. If you defend not following the members rules, you are telling the members that they are INCONSEQUENTIAL and then OECTA has no reason to be.

The MOU was ratified by a 5 to 3 vote. James Ryan, Julie Pauletig, and Sonia DiPetta voted against ratification. Since that vote, Chris Karuhanga has stated that he would have voted against it if he could do it over.

At the last AGM, Marcie Tombari and Elaine McMahon were elected promising change and voicing serious concerns about what we went through during the MOU process.

That AGM also changed all the rules we would have to follow in any type of provincial discussions to reach a provincial agreement.

Kevin O'Dwyer has now left the PE and the effects of his own MOU.

So we have 5 PE's now that promised change and are not happy with the last MOU process. We have three who were happy.

All eight of them can't say they are against rule of law, justice, and truth.

Then why the problem and hesitation to fix this? Has the PE already lost all power and control? We need to support Richard in any way we can if we actually care about ourselves as members of OECTA and labour in general.

27 October 2013 09:06

Anonymous said...

I am absolutely appalled that this was not resolved on the spot when the wildly excessive penalty was imposed on Richard. Why is it taking the provincial executive so long to do what is right?

Anonymous said...

The Provincial Executive is doing NOTHING because they answer to NO ONE.
Not only did this union not allow its members to vote on the OECTA MOU worst contract ever but individual OECTA members are kept powerless by the Provincial Executive who don't let them cast an individual vote on anyone running for Provincial Executive. They could change that overnight if they truly wanted OECTA members' input into how to run this union.
Also, do you see any Unit Presidents rushing to give unit members a vote on everything? They continue to make way more than the average max pay unit teacher.
Start complaining and demand your right to an individual vote on everything OECTA members, or this union will continue to destroy itself and you in the process.
Complain to your Unit Executives!
Demand ONE MEMBER ONE VOTE NOW!

Anonymous said...

Except for a very few, unit presidents are afraid to speak up for what is right. The top rulers have succeeded in silencing them. We need to get rid of them and elect unit presidents that are NOT afraid of the truth, justice, due process and NOT afraid to SPEAK the truth.

Anonymous said...

Why aren't the Unit Presidents all over Provincial about how this union has been run these last two years? Are they serving OECTA members by being silent and letting Chaos rule this union? Everybody just waits as if this mess will clean itself up.

Kulture Kult Ink said...

Worth noting: A reader has informed me they had a chance to chat with President James Ryan recently and he has read the petition and your comments.

Anonymous said...

And WHAT is James Ryan going to DO about it?

Anonymous said...

President James Ryan certainly has his work cut out for him in straightening out Richard Brock's situation and the handbook chaos! Let us hope that the unit presidents will have the courage to contribute to solutions on behalf of the members that they serve!

Anonymous said...

James, who called the Discipline Board participants to the February meeting? You already said in writing that there are no appointment motions for these participants. So the question really is who called them to this meeting without any authority to do so? Do you have copies of the correspondence sent to these non-appointed persons telling them they were on this non-existent board and informing them of a meeting that was contrary to all understandings of our rules and OUT OF ORDER?

Why did our in-house legal counsel advise a non-constituted group at this same meeting? Why was the General Secretary there when he is supposed to be arms length from the board? Why was there another staff person there when staff should have absolutely nothing to do with this board at their meetings?

Why was a report from a non-existent group allowed to appear at a PE meeting? That report was 100% out of order. Who put this invalid report on the agenda for the PE?

James what are going to do about this? Are you being muzzled from answering these questions? By whom? Why?

David, can you ask James these questions if you get a chance to talk to him?

Kulture Kult Ink said...

James + I have been playing telephone tag with each other for the past few weeks. Bottom line though is as official spokesman for OECTA he has to be very carefully what he says, so I sense he's been playing his cards very close to his chest on these matters. Like I said before I can't see him just rolling over and playing dead. Net weeks COP meeting should be real interesting if the presidents take him up on his offer to answer their questions there!

Anonymous said...

James does not have to be careful if he just tells the truth. Moving away from the truth is where a lot of planning and strategy needs to take place. I am sure that these strategies are being developed right now. It sounds like Stephen Harper and his handling of the senate housing scandal. If James tells the truth and only the truth he will be freed from any accusations of wrong doing.

Angelo and Kent, can you ask these two questions at COP?

1. James, since there were no appointment motions who selected and called the participants to the February Discipline Board meeting and can you provide a copy to COP, by the end of the day, of the correspondence informing the six participants that were on the Discipline Board and calling them to meet?

After you get an answer, if you are not cut off from the microphone, you may want to consider this comment.

Comment: At least two by-laws were then broken. That group was not legally allowed to exist so anything they did or produced is always out of order. Past practice can only be referred to if it was well known, consistent, and public. Illegal past practice can never be used to discipline someone. Since no notification was sent out to all the members that the by-laws were being disregarded there is no past practice. By the way, that notification if it had occurred would have been out of order. You cannot give notification to not follow the by-laws. You do not have that authority, See by-law 2.1. Richard was dismissed without due process by a board that did not and could not exist.

2, Since a group that was not duly constituted wrote a report, that report was out of order, How did a report from a non-existent group end up at a Provincial Executive meeting?

After you get an answer, if you are not cut off from the microphone, you may want to consider this comment.

Comment: So it is now our understanding that a group that could not exist produced a report. If the group did not exist it can't produce a report. To rely on that report would mean that you agree that the will of the AGM as written in our Handbook can be disregarded and superseded by a non-existent group. That being the case our by-laws are meaningless and the PE can do anything they want. So to say that the PE can't do anything when a procedure is enacted in direct contravention of by-laws is not only incorrect but misleading. As many have stated by-laws always have to be followed. Procedures can only be followed if they are implemented in accordance with the by-laws. In this case they were not and someone was fired without any semblance of due process.

James, you can still just tell the truth and address this posting here and now. No need to be careful. Just give us all the facts and stand up for the members by defending the AGM and the rules that body wrote. Truth and justice are all you need to defend and achieve. You can't be against that or afraid of it, I hope/

I trust the two of you and would not presume that you may not have better questions bit these two need to be asked by someone. The answers will start us off on the road to the truth, justice, and due process.

Anonymous said...

Kent Standtheguy wrote the following on the petition page:

He got what he deserves. Sorry Halton friends, but when YOUR president comes and pokes his nose into the business of MY unit, and offers to SUPPORT THE SCHOOL BOARD in front of the Labour Board... is that what you pay him for? To stir up trouble in other units? And his witnesses didn't get to speak because HE DIDN'T SUBMIT HIS WITNESS LIST IN ADVANCE AS WAS REQUIRED.

Well Kent Standtheguy, Richard asked for the rules he had to follow and they were denied to him by the discipline board. Not only did the board know who his witnesses were, but thos witnesses were in the same building for the whole day. The witnesses for Richard's defense included James Ryan. Julie Pauletig, Sonia DiPetta. Liz Stuart. Kent MacNeil, Angelo Ippolito. Mario Bernardo, Elaine McMahon, Beth Dowe plus more. They were not allowed to testify because Richard was denied a copy of the rules under which he be eventually convicted.

The support for your unit, making it a position and therefore an interest of the Association, came by motion at the May 2013 PE meeting. Before that there was no OECTA position from the PE. Immediately after the PE passed that motion Richard withdrew his unit's intervenor status.

That board that fired Richard did not even exist in accordance with any reasonable application of our rules.

Kent Standtheguy what would you expect from OECTA and your fellow members if you were denied knowledge of the rules under which you would be tried, your witnesses denied the ability to testify because of rules you were denied access to, then tried and fired by a discipline board that did not exist no matter how you look at it.

Kent Standtheguy, you either have truth, justice, and due process or you do not. You are supporting the denial of all three of these.

Kulture Kult Ink said...

Good news! The petition site is getting lots of hits now! We still need about 200 more last check. I hear that the sign ups are going well at the school, so I stand corrected. The more the better for COP on Monday. Send a message! Let's see if we can hit 500 names online!

Anonymous said...

Richard doesn't just need your signature. His legal defence fund needs your financial support.

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