No decision made to reopen schools to students, says Nunavut’s education minister
Nunavut’s schools won’t reopen to students without the blessing of the territory’s chief public health officer, Education Minister David Joanasie said at a news conference on Wednesday, April 8. He offered the remarks after the territory’s teachers were asked to return to their home communities by April 21. “I want to reassure Nunavummiut that today and going forward, all of our work ahead is on the advice and recommendation of the chief public health officer,” Joanasie said. Right now, 93 teachers are out of the territory, which represents eight per cent of the teachers in Nunavut, Joanasie said. Any teachers currently out of the territory must undergo a 14-day isolation period in one of four hotels in the south under the Government of Nunavut’s mandatory isolation requirements. Michael Patterson, Nunavut’s chief public health officer, will reassess if schools will reopen to students on April 21. Joanasie also said the Nunavut Teachers’ Association and the Coalition of Nunavut District Education Authorities support the decision to bring teachers back. Story to come. (Photo by Emma Tranter)
Mr. Minister, you have a choice in front of you.
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You could do the right thing. This would be to declare schools closed until the fall to allow scientist and medical professionals to get a handle on Covid-19. This would allow the experts time to develop and test plans for keeping Covid-19 out of Nunavut, and for developing programs for handling the new normal such as how to social distance in a school environment. It would also allow time for each community get get more ventilators, masks, and other PPE. Along with this should be the goodwill gesture to release all teachers as soon as possible and for southern teachers assist them in getting to their homes. Paying them their full salaries through until the end of the school term goes without saying.
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You could of course try to force teachers who left the territory for March break to return. Good luck with that. Most teachers have a university degree, they are not idiots. I would be surprised if even one returns.
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Now if you do try to force them to return I’m sure that the GN, the Premier, and you Mr. Minister will be named in a multitude of lawsuits and wrongful dismissal suits.
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You could admit that this was a mistake, say that you reevaluated the facts, and changed your mind. You could do that today, or even tomorrow. Or you could stick with the decision and resign in disgrace once Covid-19 arrives in Nunavut and people, and teachers start getting sick and dying.
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Mr. Minister, it really is a very easy decision.
Stay home they say and the Nunavut government is going to force southerners into hotels and cover their meals for two weeks for unknown reasons as they do not even know if they will reopen the schools. And force people to travel and leave their homes.
This is as STUPID as it gets. We were laughing at the lunatic south of the Canadian border but we have our very own government to look to now.
I fully agree with your criticism of the events at hand.
But GN has always been there for our entertainment. This, by contrast, has to be the wildest show yet. I never thought that Nunavut’s contempt for southerners would ever manifest itself as a life and death game being played with its own people.
“No decision made to reopen schools” …
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You do know, and they aren’t going to open. Anyone who has been following this crisis knows that. If you don’t known that, then I must ask how in the world did you end up in that chair?
I know some were gone for march break, however i understand the majority left after the school shut down and travel was being restricted. why were they even allowed to leave? weren’t they supposed to be working from home? create lesson plans and come up with ideas as to how to provide support for their students, particularly if this last the rest of the school year.
The way i see it they abandoned their job and perhaps instead of being told they need to come back they need to be given 2 weeks to vacate their housing units so that they can be used in this pandemic.
Do we even want them back?
I agree that they abandoned their jobs, and I find it mind-boggling how much support they are getting. Nunavut has NO cases, and is the safest place in Canada. It was irresponsible to hop on a plane and leave, with no intention of returning. The teachers took the gamble that they would get away with staying south, and it’s funny how indignant they are at being called back to work. I say let them stay south, IF they are cut off from their salaries, dating back to the day they left (excluding March break for those who genuinely left for a holiday then, which would be very few due to expense and travel delays).
Nunavut is ticking time bomb just ready to go off once an asymptomatic individual travels to Nunavut.
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May I ask what you don’t understand about the word “PANDEMIC”?
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May I ask if you are aware of 476 deaths in Canada due to this pandemic?
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May I ask if you are aware of the 1.5 million infected and the 89,961 official deaths from Covid-19 to date?
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May I ask if you are aware that these total increase every day? Every hour, and yes every minute.
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The world is not even part of the way through this pandemic. The worst is likely still to come. Get it in your head this is serious. Deadly serious.
Nunavut is the safest place in Canada!
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If you are not exhausted by the complete obliviousness and mind numbing ignorance here in the safest place on earth, you are not paying much attention.
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Just unbelievable
Don’t be stupid. There are a grand total of 7 ventilators in Nunavut(Global News, March 2020). And few Nunavumiut are following the rules to isolate.
What is happening here is a shame.
There is a pandemic outside and teachers of Nunavut are forced to cross country and in red zones to come back to Nunavut to make homework packets. Packets that can be made remotely. Packets that are to not be collected or graded. Packets of ‘busy work’.
I have given so much and love the children dearly in the communities I have served in. I have stayed late and came in early to prepare breakfast. I have used my own money for activities and food for clubs I organized. I have stayed until the late hours consoling. I have cried many tears for situations I have not been able to change. I have never thought twice about it – yes being a teacher is my ‘job’ but I never viewed it that way. I love the laughs and high fives and even the hard days. I love watching the students grow and all of the things they continue to accomplish in and outside of their communities. I have lied awake at night wondering if so-and-so is eating that night or just one more change to a lesson plan because it might be better for so-and-so. I have been verbally and physically assaulted on more than one occasion, and I’ve also been through ground breaking conversations with the same students. I love them. For their good and bad days. I have missed weddings, birthdays, and even the death of some of my closest family members as I lived and worked thousands of miles away. I have never, ever thought twice about giving every single part of myself for the students and for the GN.
I am not a teacher who came here to cushion my retirement or to make an easy buck. I came because I LOVE teaching. I LOVE the North and I LOVE the wonderful and friendly people I have met. I have traveled all over and have spread nothing but the positive experiences I have had. I have challenged people who made smug remarks and I have brought at least an additional five teachers here. I am a teacher who quite frankly has BUSTED my ass and has appreciated every single day that I have been gifted with these kids. I have drank coffee with their parents, I have been on the land with their cousins. I have eaten seal meat off the banks with my students. I made a genuine effort to learn Inuktitut and I have LEARNED so much from Nunavummit.
But now I have to pause and ask myself – after all this, is this what I am worth? Photo copying of coloring pages? Has all that I have given for the GN been reduced to risking my life and the lives of the people I love in those communities by becoming exposed or passing the virus? Is it worth it for me to be FORCED to return to bring a virus in a community without a doctor and respirators?
Many people in provinces do not realize what is happening in Nunavut right now. The world is shutting down, certainly our country and the Ministry of Education there is saying – well, you have to come here.
A press release today even mentioned FINING teachers for leaving Nunavut to be with their families during a PANDEMIC.
The first in our lifetime. People are dying DAILY.
I shake my head to wonder if this is real, but alas it is.
After watching the sad excuses of a press conference for the last three days and watching my father cry into his respirator at the thought of me leaving. Watching him CRY because as he said, he might not see me again. And who is Joanasie to say he’s not wrong? Can Joanasie promise me my life? Can Joanasie promise me I won’t get sick or DIE because I can not get the aid from an overworked and overloaded health center. Can Joanasie promise me that someone ELSE may die because I am using a respirator?
No. He can not. so I watch my father cry and I realize I can not console him.
So NOW I have to make the decision – do I stay here with a big blotch across my record – potentially get fired or forced during these troubling times to be without money (for something I could easily do from HOME), or do I leave my father, risk my life and the lives of Nunavummit to pay the thousands of dollars to return to photo copy coloring pages.
I know one thing, whatever I choose now. The GN will lose at least one great teacher for next year, because after seeing this sickening sight. I will not be coming back next year.
This is a great synopsis of what Southern teachers sacrifice to be in Nunavut. And the Dept of Ed/GN, sticking with the theme of sacrifice, is mandating that teachers who are not in the territory to return. Absurdity!! You know what else is absurd? Nunavut was created in 1999 and so far it can say that the only curriculum it developed specifically is Aulajaaqtut. All other curricula are borrowed from other provinces and territories. A department that cannot develop curricula, botching and lying about NTEP, and above all are doing nothing to increase retention or recruitment has now begun a new strategy. The new strategy is to antagonize, illustrate the mistreatment of, and blatantly endanger the lifeblood of this territory. Teachers are parents, educators, counsellors, role models, food providers, coaches, mentors, and so much more that the people who are complaining on these news articles or the people who are currently making idiotic decisions on the government level wish they were!
It is truly sad. My heart goes out to you and your family. It is really unfair that this incompetent government is forcing you to make such a hard decision.
I would give anything to be with my late father again. Jobs come and go but family doesn’t. An employer who asks you to make such a sacrifice is just not worth it.
Thank you for teaching our children. Thank you for caring so much about the students and making a difference in their lives.
Here’s hoping your father recovers from this.
Apply for special leave so that you can stay with your father.
There are maybe six or seven ventilators available in Nunavut. That is poor planning since the SARS warning in 2003. That goes for Ottawa, too.