Supporters of petition to recall education minister gather in Calgary-Bow

Teachers and parents are turning up the pressure on Alberta’s Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides to step down from his role.

Two school buses full of motivated protesters from Edmonton and Red Deer arrived on Saturday afternoon in Nicolaides’ riding of Calgary-Bow.

The canvassing campaign is organized by the non-profit advocacy group Public Interest Alberta (PIA).

“What we’re hoping to do today is to put the pressure on the minister and the premier to get back to the table to negotiate a fair settlement for these teachers,” said PIA executive director Bradley Lafortune. “We’ve been out for three weeks now in support of them.”

The provincewide strike began on Oct. 6 and is affecting about 750,000 students and 51,000 public, Catholic, and francophone school teachers.

“It’s mindboggling that this is the position we’re put in, especially because I went into this career for the students for the kiddos,” said Sandy Kalay, a Edmonton Public Schools teacher. “And now we’re taking a stand, which I wholeheartedly agree with; the UCP government is trying to implement all this stuff and they are just not trying to negotiate.”

Calgary teacher and parent Amrit Rai Nannan says she and her family are especially invested in the cause.

“We’re the trifecta in our household – I’m married to a teacher, my child is in grade 12, I’m a teacher, so when we went into this, we went in eyes open,” she said. “Knowing that we’re a double household, no pay, we’ve got a child in grade 12 — it’s a vital year for her this year — still knowing all of that, we knew that we were on the right side of this one.”

Jenny Yeremiy launched the recall petition for Nicolaides, saying he is unfit to be education minister or represent his Calgary riding.

To be successful, the petition will need just over 16,000 signatures within the electoral division in 90 days.

“There isn’t one area where we’re being listened to; the Alberta pension plan — we didn’t want it. We didn’t want a provincial police force, we’re getting it. We don’t want to give up on the CPP; we don’t want to give our healthcare system away to private investors,” she said. “So, there’s lots of reasons why we cannot let this government continue to govern the way it is.”

Premier Danielle Smith has said her government will table back-to-work legislation on Monday in an attempt to end the strike.