TORONTO, ON - Jun 11 2010 - Ken Coran, the president of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation (OSSTF/FEESO), has come out clearly stating that OSSTF/FEESO has neither considered nor given direction to its members to engage in a boycott of involvement with the Nipissing University’s teacher education program and its students.
After becoming aware that the university planned to honour former Ontario Premier Mike Harris with an honourary degree, the president of the Ontario Teachers’ Federation (OTF) wrote a letter condemning the action and alluding to a possible boycott of future teacher candidates from Nipissing.
“Our members, both active and retired, still hold strong memories of the bitter legacy left behind by Mr. Harris,” said Coran. “However, they respect the right of an institution to confer an honourary degree on anyone they wish. OSSTF/FEESO would never penalize any students for the decision made by the board of governors of their university.”
The decision to become an associate teacher and act as a mentor for a teacher candidate has always been a voluntary one. In doing so, teachers give back to a program in which they themselves have been trained. In this role, members of OSSTF/FEESO have always acted as professionals, mentors, and role models.
“OSSTF/FEESO is proud of both its members who volunteer as teacher associates and the teacher candidates that have chosen teaching as a career,” said Coran. “Although we vehemently oppose Nipissing University’s decision, we would not compromise the essential training of new teachers in order to register our dissent.”
OSSTF/FEESO, founded in 1919, has 60,000 members across Ontario. They include public high school teachers, occasional teachers, educational assistants, continuing education teachers and instructors, psychologists, secretaries, speech-language pathologists, social workers, plant support personnel, attendance counsellors, and many others in education.
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