PLEASE HELP WITH OUR LOBBY TO MAINTAIN OUR STAFFING:

Please allow a few seconds for the following two links to open.  

Open Letter to Parents    Why TSS needs to maintain its Current Staffing

Dear Parent, TSS Student, Alumni or Supporter

Below is a list of who to contact with letters or calls of concern about the planned reduction of a teacher at THESTUDENTSCHOOL.  We are requesting that you send a letter to every trustee and TDSB contact on the list.

Trustees will be more likely to pay attention to a personally directed letter.  Here is an example of  how a student’s letter could begin:

Hello Trustee _________:  my name is _________ and I am a constituent of yours.  I live at _________ and my designated secondary school is _________.  Unfortunately, I did not thrive at that school and have been fortunate enough to get accepted at The Student School. 

If you haven’t enough time to personally direct every email, please write to the trustee in your ward and cc every trustee and TDSB contact listed below.  For your convenience, we’ve provided all the emails including ours in an easy-to-copy list at the bottom of this post.  Just copy the entire paragraph and paste it into the ‘cc’ field of your email program. 

Please cc us at thestudentschool@tdsb.on.ca with any emails you send.

Thank you from Staff and Students of THESTUDENTSCHOOL. 

FIND YOUR TDSB TRUSTEE

Dr. Chris Spence, Director of Education, Toronto District School Board

Chris.Spence@tdsb.on.ca  416 397-3000

Mr. Curtis Ennis, Education Superintendent

Curtis.Ennis@tdsb.on.ca  416 394-2044

Ms. Karen Grose, Superintendent of Alternative Schools

karen.grose@tdsb.on.ca  416 397-3205

Mr. Lou Vavougios, Chief Employee Services Officer, TDSB

Lou.Vavougios@tdsb.on.ca  416 397-3721

Mr. Andrew Gold, Senior Manager, Toronto District School Board

Andrew.Gold@tdsb.on.ca  416 397-3238

Ms. Lorraine Linton, Principal, The Student School & WTCS

Lorraine.Linton@tdsb.on.ca  416 393-0500 ext. 20010

Copy and paste the following paragraph to email the entire list above:

john.hastings@tdsb.on.ca; chris.glover@tdsb.on.ca; pamela.gough@tdsb.on.ca; stephnie.payne@tdsb.on.ca; howard.kaplan@tdsb.on.ca; chris.tonks@tdsb.on.ca; irene.atkinson@tdsb.on.ca; howard.goodman@tdsb.on.ca; maria.rodrigues@tdsb.on.ca; chris@chrisbolton.ca; shelley.laskin@tdsb.on.ca; mari.rutka@tdsb.on.ca; gerri.gershon@tdsb.on.ca; sheila.ward@tdsb.on.ca; cathy.dandy@tdsb.on.ca; Sheila.Cary-Meagher@tdsb.on.ca; Harout.Manougian@tdsb.on.ca; elizabeth.moyer@tdsb.on.ca; david.smith4@tdsb.on.ca; Sam.Sotiropoulos@tdsb.on.ca; shaun.chen@tdsb.on.ca; jerry.chadwick@tdsb.on.ca; hirad.zafari@tdsb.on.ca; Jenny.Williams@tdsb.on.ca; curtis.ennis@tdsb.on.ca; lorraine.linton@tdsb.on.ca; chris.spence@tdsb.on.ca; Curtis.Ennis@tdsb.on.ca; karen.grose@tdsb.on.ca; Lou.Vavougios@tdsb.on.ca; Andrew.Gold@tdsb.on.ca; thestudentschool@tdsb.on.ca

CANADIAN PENSION FUNDS RAPE AND MURDER

Kate and Forbes hold Shelby Martindale’s sign at Barrick Annual General Meeting on May 2, 2012 at Metro Convention Centre in Toronto. 

photo by John Bonnar in rabble.ca

Andre Lopez presenting his artwork at Barrick AGM

photo by Saul Chernos in NOW magazine

MURDER + GANG RAPE + ENVIRONMENTAL DESTRUCTION = YOUR HIGH RISK INVESTMENT      CANADIANS DIVEST FROM BARRICK TODAY!!!

Wilson and Kate holding Savannah Dares’ sign at Barrick AGM

photo by Saul Chernos in NOW magazine

Here’s the petition for Bill C-323, the NDP private member’s bill tabled in February 2012; it will enable anyone to bring civil action against any company, person or entity for international human rights abuses.  This could put scary Peter Munk between a rock and a hard place.  That picture today was scary like a horror movie. 

To end on a happy note, Andre’s doodle is all over the news!

MESSAGE TO INVESTORS

Andre Lopez doodle, Barrick Gold Annual General Meeting, May 2, 2012

Unfortunately, investors include anyone who works and pays taxes in Canada.  Canadian mining company Barrick Gold is funded by the Canadian Pension Plan and the Ontario Teachers’ Pension which is co-funded by the Ministry of Education.  So the message is for the majority of Canadians.

Bill C-300 would have made Canadian mining companies operating outside of Canada comply with international human rights and environmental standards.   It was voted down in the House of Commons by 6 votes, 140-134, in 2010.  Liberal John McKay tabled it.  139 Conservative MPs voted against it.  

In 2009, the Government Pension Fund of Norway withdrew investments from Barrick.  Norway’s Pension follows Ethical Guidelines that prohibit investments in companies that abuse human rights and cause severe environmental damage.  Their Council on Ethics concluded that Barrick was causing severe environmental damage so they divested 1 274 million krones (200 million Canadian dollars) worth of shares from the company.  Norway’s economy remains strong compared to most countries.  They seem to know what they’re doing.   

Investment experts here claim it’s their “fiduciary duty” to invest in companies like Barrick because they can make huge profits.  It’s their responsibility to avoid high risk investments.  But dumping cyanide and mercury in people’s drinking water, burning down their homes, destroying self sustaining natural ecosystems and making people dependent on your jobs; people who didn’t need your jobs before you came in and ruined their way of living is a high risk investment.   

The message is to get out with what’s left of our human dignity intact.  We need to remove ourselves from this terrible mess we’re making.  Tell your MP and pass it on.  

THE STUDENT SCHOOL WATER CONFERENCE     April 26, 2012

Installation by Shelby Martindale, Savannah Dares, and Erin Forbes

Once Julian described the sensation in his body the first day he went out painting after the winter.  That is precisely how I feel looking at this installation.  Not only have these artists created a “ridiculously epic” piece that spans the hallway, but they have confronted us with a sense of urgency around the topic of water.  We need to stop the corporate theft of it.  Water bottling companies and mines are depleting our natural water sources at rates too quickly to sustain, turning our access to clean drinking water, a human right, into another private commodity.  Letting corporations deplete our water supplies only to sell it back to us is yet another aspect of neoliberalism… what the Occupy movement was and still is fighting against. 

One of our guests on Thursday, Patrick Cieslar, said that Nestle is in the process of renewing its permit for another ten years to remove 1.1 million litres of water daily from Hillsburgh’s local aquifier.  It’s scary because no one knows how much water is even there.  Once Nestle sucks it up there’ll be nothing left for the community and farmers.  Hillsburgh people can stop them, with our support. 

Another guest, Sakura Saunders, works with activists in countries where Barrick Gold operates.  This Toronto based gold mining company displaces communities by burning their homes and depleting and polluting local water sources with dangerous chemicals like cyanide.  50% of their mining projects are on native land without consent from indigenous communities.  Barrick security guards are guilty of gang raping and murdering citizens.  Sakura compiles hundreds of articles attesting to all this and more check it out.  Barrick Gold’s AGM is at the Metro Convention Centre on Wednesday.  I think some type of message is in order. We need to send a message to investors.  

PLEASE HELP WITH OUR LOBBY TO MAINTAIN OUR STAFFING:

Please allow a few seconds for the following two links to open.  

Open Letter to Parents    Why TSS needs to maintain its Current Staffing

Please cc us at thestudentschool@tdsb.on.ca with any emails you send.

Thank you from Staff and Students of THESTUDENTSCHOOL. 

FIND YOUR TDSB TRUSTEE

Dr. Chris Spence, Director of Education, Toronto District School Board

Chris.Spence@tdsb.on.ca  416 397-3000

Mr. Curtis Ennis, Education Superintendent

Curtis.Ennis@tdsb.on.ca  416 394-2044

Ms. Karen Grose, Superintendent of Alternative Schools

karen.grose@tdsb.on.ca  416 397-3205

Mr. Lou Vavougios, Chief Employee Services Officer, TDSB

Lou.Vavougios@tdsb.on.ca  416 397-3721

 Mr. Andrew Gold, Senior Manager, Toronto District School Board

Andrew.Gold@tdsb.on.ca  416 397-3238

 Ms. Lorraine Linton, Principal, The Student School & WTCS

Lorraine.Linton@tdsb.on.ca  416 393-0500 ext. 20010

Copy and paste the following paragraph to email the entire list above:

john.hastings@tdsb.on.ca; chris.glover@tdsb.on.ca; pamela.gough@tdsb.on.ca; stephnie.payne@tdsb.on.ca; howard.kaplan@tdsb.on.ca; chris.tonks@tdsb.on.ca; irene.atkinson@tdsb.on.ca; howard.goodman@tdsb.on.ca; maria.rodrigues@tdsb.on.ca; chris@chrisbolton.ca; shelley.laskin@tdsb.on.ca; mari.rutka@tdsb.on.ca; gerri.gershon@tdsb.on.ca; sheila.ward@tdsb.on.ca; cathy.dandy@tdsb.on.ca; Sheila.Cary-Meagher@tdsb.on.ca; Harout.Manougian@tdsb.on.ca; elizabeth.moyer@tdsb.on.ca; david.smith4@tdsb.on.ca; Sam.Sotiropoulos@tdsb.on.ca; shaun.chen@tdsb.on.ca; jerry.chadwick@tdsb.on.ca; hirad.zafari@tdsb.on.ca; Jenny.Williams@tdsb.on.ca; curtis.ennis@tdsb.on.ca; lorraine.linton@tdsb.on.ca; chris.spence@tdsb.on.ca; Curtis.Ennis@tdsb.on.ca; karen.grose@tdsb.on.ca; Lou.Vavougios@tdsb.on.ca; Andrew.Gold@tdsb.on.ca; thestudentschool@tdsb.on.ca