Thousands of teachers, students, parents, and supporters gathered at the McDougall Centre in Calgary on Sunday afternoon in a show of support for Alberta’s teachers ahead of a province-wide strike set to begin on Monday.The rally — one of two held on Sunday, with the other in Edmonton attracting over 20,000 supporters earlier in the day — comes as the Alberta Teachers’ Association (ATA) and Premier Danielle Smith’s government remain deadlocked in contract negotiations..Calgary police closed part of 4 Ave. S.W. between 4 St. and 7 St. around 3:45 p.m. due to the size of the rally.“We can’t do this alone,” said Stephani Clements, president of ATA Calgary Public Local No. 38.“We need parents and students and the public to call out the bullies in the box seats. We won’t be dissuaded by payoffs or political games. Stand strong so they fear you. We are in this for the right reasons.”Medeana Moussa, executive director of Support Our Students Alberta, accused the United Conservative Party (UCP) government of deliberately undermining public education through years of underfunding and policy changes.“For the last six years, they’ve been waging war on public education,” Moussa told attendees..“We are the least-funded province in Canada on purpose. They stopped tracking class sizes, changed funding models to hide the data, and diverted public funds to private schools charging $30,000 a year. That is unconscionable.“It is unconscionable to take from those of us with less to give to those with more. It's shameful. Public funds belong in public schools, and this strategy goes beyond underfunding education in order to undermine it. They are importing culture wars from the US that attack trans kids' human rights, sexist policies that increase barriers for girls in sport, and introducing censorship and book banning. These are targeted attacks intended to break the trust between the public and teachers.”.Another speaker was 17-year-old Evan Li, a Grade 12 student who recently made headlines after his microphone was cut during an Alberta Next youth panel, followed by a controversial remark from panel moderator Bruce McAllister.Li drew loud cheers from the crowd as he spoke about overcrowded classrooms and the declining quality of public education.“We students will continue to advocate and eventually vote for the issues that impact us most — and right now, that issue is education,” Li said.“Alberta has the lowest per-student funding in Canada while handing out the most to private schools. Our education is under attack.”Li spoke about classroom sizes, describing life for students in rooms of up to 50 or 60 students.“Imagine what that means for kids with special needs who need extra help,” he said.“We support our teachers because they are standing up for us.”.ATA president Jason Schilling said teachers are demanding “real, concrete solutions” to classroom issues, including excessive class sizes and inadequate supports for complex learning needs.“Teachers are looking for a fair, competitive wage that makes up for lost inflation and helps attract and retain teachers,” Schilling said.“We have the highest teacher-to-student ratio in all of Canada, and we’re also the least-funded. The government isn’t hiring enough teachers, and there’s not enough space — both problems exist. Teachers are burning out and leaving the profession.”At a recent press conference, Premier Danielle Smith argued that the province’s school challenges stemmed from a lack of physical space rather than staffing shortages, a claim Schilling disputed.“It's interesting how they've conflated this announcement they made to build these new schools into the contract talks with teachers, because they've underfunded public education for so long that we know there is not enough space,” Schilling said.“There's also not enough teachers. We have the highest ratio of teachers per students in all of Canada. We're also the least-funded. So we have two distinctions in front of us.”.Alberta braces for massive teachers’ strike affecting hundreds of thousands.He discussed contract talks, referencing the ATA’s rejections of the government’s offers.“When you see two rejected deals, that’s not confusion — that’s clarity,” he said.“Teachers aren’t looking for hand-me-down solutions. The underfunding we’ve seen has led us to this mess. The government created this mess, and it’s up to them to fix it.”When asked whether he believes a deal can be reached, Schilling said: “We'd love to negotiate something that we can agree on, but we need to make sure we're having serious conversations about addressing the issues that everybody who came here today is talking about,” he said.“You can't ignore 20,000-plus people in Edmonton and the thousands of people who showed up here today and say, ‘Well, we don't know what's happening in our schools.’ Maybe get out and get into some of those schools and start finding out what is actually going on.”Roughly 51,000 teachers across Alberta are members of the ATA and are expected to participate in the strike, which would mark one of the largest education strikes ever seen in the province.
