Latest News and Updates

2013 OFL Labour Post-Secondary Scholarship
posted on March 12, 20132013 OFL’s LABOUR POST‐SECONDARY SCHOLARSHIPS The OFL is pleased to call for applications for its annual OFL’s Labour Post‐Secondary Scholarships. The OFL will award two scholarships worth $2,000 each to a member or the child of a member of a local union affiliated to the OFL. The scholarships are awarded in honour of distinguished trade [...]
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DOWNLOAD THE CONFERENCE AGENDA: OFL Equity Conference (Nov. 9-11, 2012)
posted on November 7, 2012The Ontario Federation of Labour will be hosting an Equity Conference from November 9 to 11 under the theme: “We Are Ontario: Putting Equity Before Austerity.” The event will be opened up to members who belong to the OFL’s many equity-seeking constituencies. Community groups will also be invited to add their voices and experiences to [...]
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Ontario Common Front report puts inequality in the news
posted on August 30, 2012Yesterday the Ontario Common Front hit the provincial scene in a big way with the launch of a report on Ontario’s growing inequality that dominated the media and put a spotlight on the harsh impact of cuts to jobs and services. Download a full copy of “Falling Behind” Download quick reference fact sheets The report [...]
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Mark Your Calendars! OFL Equity Conference (Nov. 9-11, 2012)
posted on August 12, 2012The Ontario Federation of Labour will be hosting an Equity Conference from November 9 to 11 under the theme: “We Are Ontario: Putting Equity Before Austerity.” The event will be opened up to members who belong to the OFL’s many equity-seeking constituencies. Community groups will also be invited to add their voices and experiences to [...]
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Urgent: Support Needed for Students Occupying Minister Glen Murray’s Office to Drop Tuition Fees
posted on June 22, 2012Post-secondary students from across the GTA are currently occupying the office of Training, Colleges and Universities Minister Glen Murray to drop tuition fees. Please support them by bringing members and flags to join the picket outside of Murray’s Cabbagetown Constituency Office today between now and 4:00 pm and help to spread the word.
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Open Letter to Québec Students:
posted on June 6, 2012On behalf of over one million workers in Ontario, I am writing to you to express our strongest solidarity with your movement to stop tuition fee hikes and maintain a high quality, accessible post-secondary education system in Québec. We salute your movement’s determination to continue in the face of an intransigent government and violent police crack-downs.
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New Anti-Bullying Law Protects LGBTQ Youth
posted on June 5, 2012The Ontario government’s anti-bullying legislation is on its way to becoming law, making it clear that sexual assault, gender-based violence, homophobia and transphobia will not be tolerated in the province’s public schools. While the law comes too late to save the lives of 15-year-old Jamie Hubley and 11-year-old Mitchell Wilson, it is hoped to help [...]
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Sid Ryan: Redirecting our priorities (Guest Column in the Toronto Sun)
posted on June 2, 2012Sid Ryan, Guest Columnist Article Appeared in Print Edition: Saturday, June 2, 2012 Read the article on the Toronto Sun website and share your comments Quebec is currently gripped in a not-so-quiet revolution and, in an ironic twist, it is the children of the ’60s and ’70s who led an era of momentous social upheaval [...]
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Sid Ryan: The case for zero tuition (Opinion Article in the National Post)
posted on June 1, 2012Numerous National Post columnists have argued that striking Quebec students should just accept higher tuition rates. I don’t get that argument. In Ireland, where I’m from, education is free from kindergarten through university. It seems absurd to me that we charge our young people any college or university fees at all, given that their skills and knowledge will propel our economy.
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Letter to the Toronto Sun: Draconian Legislation
posted on May 24, 2012Megan Harris appears blind to her own double standard. She complains about the efforts of students to bring accessible post-secondary education to Ontario, then she admits to moving from Toronto in 1990 to study at a much more affordable Montreal university where she escaped Ontario’s punishingly high tuition fees. For 14 weeks, more than 150,000 striking college and university students have been joined by thousands of citizens of all ages and backgrounds in overwhelmingly peaceful protests against the plan of Quebec Premier Jean Charest to double tuition fees.
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OFL’s Sid Ryan calls on the Ontario student movement to take to the streets to stop punishingly high tuition fees: OFL Officers to join mass protest in Montréal
posted on May 22, 2012(Montréal, Québec) — Ontario Federation of Labour (OFL) President Sid Ryan is today calling on the Ontario student movement to follow the lead of Québec students in taking to the streets to stop punishingly high tuition fees. All three OFL officers, including OFL Secretary-Treasurer Nancy Hutchison and Executive Vice-President Irwin Nanda, will be joining a mass rally in Montréal today to protest skyrocketing tuition fees and draconian laws to suppress civil rights.
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