Union striking to defend college education in Ontario

By Christopher J. Duncanson-Hales

When eight colleagues in my department alone have left in two years, some on stress leave and others transferring out, you know something is fundamentally broken. But the College Employer Council wants you to believe this strike is about the union being unreasonable. Instead of negotiating, they’ve spent the last weeks trying to convince the public that “no layoffs and no closures” is impossible. The reality is far more complex.

I work at Canadore College in North Bay and live in Sudbury. I’ve witnessed the human cost of management overreach firsthand. These weren’t isolated departures. They were the cumulative effect of relentless management pressure that pushed people beyond what was sustainable. As someone who works with international students, I