What is the CTF?
The Canadian Teachers’ Federation (CTF), much like the BCTF, is a federation that brings together affiliates who are autonomous but have decided to work collectively for shared goals. Like locals that are a part of the BCTF, each affiliate organization of the CTF makes its own decisions, engages in its own collective bargaining, and does its own advocacy. For issues that affect members from across affiliate organizations, troubleshooting together and leveraging the power of solidarity can help support all our shared goals.
National advocacy
The CTF advocates at a national level for issues in education that affect students and teachers across the country. Many of the issues the CTF addresses through advocacy are brought forward by affiliate organizations after their members have made decisions at their own annual general meetings. As such, the process is democratic, with voices represented from across the country.
One example is the National School Food Program. The CTF’s work and advocacy was instrumental in securing a commitment of $1 billion from the government for food programs in schools.
Solidarity isn’t short term: it’s something you invest in, so when the struggle comes you have a great team.” – Clint Johnston, BCTF President
Another example of the CTF’s advocacy that directly affects BCTF members is their work surrounding fair use legislation in Canada. Thanks to a provision in Canada’s Copyright Act, teachers can copy and use short excerpts of copyright-protected materials, such as books, movies, and artistic works, for use in the classroom. Education publishers have been lobbying the government to remove education as a protected provision to the Copyright Act. Changes to this legislation could have affected teachers’ ability to photocopy and use pages from books or resources without additional payment. However, thanks to the CTF’s advocacy for clear differentiation between K–12 fair use and post-secondary fair use, teachers are still able to freely use excerpts from copyright-protected materials without paying copyright royalties.
Currently, the CTF is pushing for meaningful change to address the national teacher shortage. Provincial organizations recognize that we can’t compete against each other to recruit teachers from other provinces or from other countries. Instead, we need to focus on improving the working conditions of teachers across Canada as a recruitment and retention strategy. The CTF is working to ensure this is recognized as a national issue.
Our involvement in the CTF is an important part of our solidarity with other provincial teachers’ federations. We share resources, ideas, and advocacy, and know that our colleagues from other provinces will do the same when we need it. We also work together to tackle some of the struggles we share from coast to coast to coast.
The CTF also dedicates time and resources to fight the rise of the far right and the privatization of education. This issue extends beyond Canada’s borders: our colleagues around the world face very similar challenges because of the rise of the far right. For issues like this, the CTF works in collaboration with Education International (EI)—the global federation that brings together member organizations from 178 countries and territories.
EI World Congress
Education International advocates for free, quality, publicly funded education for every student in every country. Since it brings together national teachers’ associations, the BCTF participates in EI through the CTF.
Every five years, EI hosts a world congress where it brings together all the member federations to uplift public education, strategize against the far right, and share stories of success and struggle from around the world.
The latest world congress took place last summer in Buenos Aires, Argentina. BCTF delegates attended with CTF partners.
The world congress dealt with themes affecting public education, including teacher shortages, climate emergencies, the rise of 2SLGBTQIA+ hate, peace education, Indigenous education, oppression, and inequitable access to digital devices for learning.
Coming together with other teachers’ federations is an opportunity to learn about how other countries are addressing many of the same challenges we are facing here in Canada. We learn from our colleagues around the world about how disaster capitalism can exacerbate privatization, hear about the initiatives to improve pension programs, and listen to approaches for decolonizing education.
EI shows us that we all want the same things for public education, no matter what obstacles stand in the way. For some of the countries represented at EI World Congress, the risks to teachers and union leaders who advocate for strong public education systems are profound, but they continue the fight knowing they have the support of all teacher unions across the world.
Our participation in EI is an important part of BCTF International Solidarity work. Solidarity is founded on principles of equity, not equality. Every participating organization contributes differently to EI to support and share in the collective struggle. Events like the EI World Congress allow us to see that we are part of a much bigger fight for quality public education for every student.
