At a meeting of the Standing Committee on Public Accounts, committee members Susan Leblanc and Lisa Lachance of the Nova Scotia New Democratic Party showed their support for school support workers across the province by using their time to ask questions on behalf of CUPE, whose representatives have been excluded from testifying at the meeting.
Committee members discussed the recently released report from Auditor General Kim Adair, “Preventing and Addressing Violence in Nova Scotia Public Schools”. Representatives from the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development, Nova Scotia Teachers Union, and the Public School Administrators Association of Nova Scotia also testified at the meeting.
Despite attempts to share data on the subject, and requests to participate in conversations addressing it, as well as the fact that CUPE members are facing the brunt of the crisis of violence in public schools, CUPE has been excluded from testifying in today’s meeting.
In an important gesture of support and solidarity with thousands of school support workers across Nova Scotia, the NDP committee members raised questions and concerns for CUPE members whose voices have been silenced and recognize CUPE representatives and members of the Nova Scotia School Board Council of Union, who will attend the meeting as members of the public.