Dear editor,It seems that wherever we look we see "BCTF negotiating broken" as the pervasive media narrative being repeated relentlessly.Putting my personal biases aside, I would point out the absence of context in your framing of this issue. Whatever your view of the teachers' bargaining position, only the teachers have agreed to a binding independent mediation and arbitration of their contract.The government has resolutely rejected this path toward a negotiated settlement and compromise.But perhaps the most important context missing in your reportage, is the fact that both the B.C. Supreme Court and the Supreme Court of Canada have ruled the B.C. Liberal government's previously imposed legislated settlements of public sector contracts to be unconstitutional and therefore illegal.This speaks to the very rights of citizens to organize a union for the purposes of collective bargaining. Surely the one thing we might agree on is the rule of law.And in the context of how governments and many news organizations characterize unions, their membership, and individuals who advocate for them, we only have to look to the column you printed by Tom Fletcher to understand what is broken in the debate on these issues, as he characterizes B.C. teachers as "indoctrinating" our children "North Korea style."He further characterizes students who showed solidarity with their teachers as "budding campus radicals."Mr. Fletcher is suggesting that people who support teachers and unions are radicals in our liberal democracy under the rule of law, when a person is supporting the BCTF's constitutionally protected rights. Teachers should use these sorts of comments in their lessons on the meaning of irony.Keith Porteous,Denman Island
