Intimidation, vandalism, blocked schools: teachers on strike in Montreal will no longer be able to stand on school grounds and will have to distance themselves from construction workers who enter, a judge of the Superior Court of Quebec ruled on Monday.
It was following “illicit incidents” that the Montreal school service center (CSSDM) filed a request for an injunction last week. This targets the Alliance of Montreal Teachers and was partly welcomed Monday by Judge Dominique Poulin.
It relates in particular that teachers entered schools and “intimidated” workers “in order to expel them, in particular by banging very loudly on doors and windows”.
In another case, “the strikers also came very close to a worker responsible for installing winter fencing and further intimidated him with their physical proximity. They played the rattle and the flute very close to his ears,” we read in the Superior Court decision.
Workers were photographed and the number plates of a construction contractor’s vehicles were removed “in response to his presence on the premises”.
Damage has also been caused to schools, notably due to adhesive glue affixed to posters which leaves “marks”.
Consequently, the judge orders the teachers “to immediately cease and refrain from any form of picketing on the grounds” of schools belonging to the CSSDM, but also to stop “addressing”, “photographing or filming”, and “intentionally inconveniencing” construction workers.
In a written statement, the president of the Alliance of Montreal Teachers, Catherine Beauvais-St-Pierre, judges that the CSSDM “has chosen to put obstacles in the way of its employees, rather than supporting them in their demands for better teaching conditions.
This union is a member of the Autonomous Education Federation. It brings together more than 9,500 people and has been on an indefinite general strike since November 23.