I was about to toss out a month of unread local newspapers when guilt got the better of me. I did a quick traipse through the pile. It became a profitable five minutes when I found an editorial written by Mischa Popoff, described as a"Freelance political writer". It was published in the BURNABY NOW on April 13th, 2012 and since 99% of the copies have been recycled by now it deserves to live a little longer on the Internet. It's a gutsy piece.
Popoff describes the demands and tactics of the B.C. teacher's union as "organized crime, plain and simple". More, he discusses at length the intimidation process which renders taxpayers and parents helpless in the face of teacher power over their children, a chilling process he says is "a quite effective form of totalitarianism". In case any reader assume that he is just employing hyperbole for effect, he returns to his characterization "Mafia" in the concluding sentence. It's his thesis, and he sticks to it.
Now you have to live in Burnaby to understand what a sea change this guest editorial represents. The Burnaby Now is a union shop and when I arrived in the 1990s "editorial" was firmly in control of NDP flacks who learned their strategy and tactics while starting out on the organ of the provincial NDP. The NOW in the 90s didn't even pretend to be interested in free speech. The paper had "a mission". It is quite clear that attitudes have changed. Staff at the NOW actually work for their pay and have little sympathy for the greedy pigs of the BCTF who have become blood ticks sucking on the ass of the helpless BC taxpayer.
What next? How about starting a discussion on finally getting rid of "Big Box Schools" and an archaic system that was created to provide workers for a ballooning industrial economy? This is post-industrial Canada and frankly, soon to be post-literate Canada, and we need to transform the school system by investing in electronic delivery of instruction in multiple languages and skill levels. The only obstacle preventing progress in B.C. Education is, as Popoff says, "organized crime".
