HALIFAX -- Government plans to force a resolution to the ongoing contract dispute with Nova Scotia's 9,300 teachers were temporarily blown aside Monday by a powerful blizzard that prevented the opening of the provincial legislature.
The Liberal government was to convene an emergency sitting Monday evening, but the massive storm forced Premier Stephen McNeil to delay proceedings until Tuesday.
"We have closely monitored the storm and it is clear now that conditions will not improve before this evening's sitting of the legislature," McNeil said in a statement released just after 2 p.m.
"Tomorrow we will proceed with our plans so the lives of students and their parents can return to normal as soon as possible."
The government wants to introduce a bill that will "bring an end" to a dispute that has seen teachers reject three contract offers and launch a work-to-rule campaign. Pushing the legislation through the legislature is expected to take a week or more to complete.
The Nova Scotia Teachers Union and both opposition parties have condemned the use of legislation, saying it takes away teacher's rights.
The union is demanding its members be allowed to speak when the opportunity comes to propose amendments to whatever bill the government brings forward.
But at least one union member wasn't waiting for the formal process for her voice to be heard.
Rachel Creasor, a teacher from Glooscap Elementary School in Canning, N.S., braved the brutal elements Monday to protest the government's impending legislation.
Creasor said she came to Halifax Sunday afternoon and had been protesting outside the legislature intermittently ever since.
"I think that forcing this kind of legislation through in this dodgy way, at this timing, is an action against the working people of Nova Scotia and the democratic rights of the people of Nova Scotia," she said. "I think we should all be outraged about this."
The resource and behaviour intervention teacher said that she deals daily with kids that aren't getting what they need despite teachers' efforts. Creasor said more classroom supports are needed in the form of money to hire more education assistants and "real class caps."
She said she was close to voting "yes" on the third contract because she is tired. But her friends convinced her to stand and fight.
"They kind of woke me up again, and now Premier McNeil has made me angry," Creasor said.
Her defiant actions in the face of the storm had social media abuzz as she live streamed her fight on Facebook, garnering more than 10,000 views in just a few hours.
Elsewhere, the union asked teachers to register their displeasure on Twitter using the .underappreciated hashtag. It said the move was in recognition of Teacher Staff Appreciation Week, which runs from Feb. 12 to 18.
"Teachers are already feeling devalued by the treatment they have received from this government," a union statement said.
"They are tired of being threatened with legislation that erodes their right to a fair collective bargaining process. They are upset about having their calls for urgent reforms in their classrooms ignored."
McNeil has said that the latest deal contained fair wage increases and made investments in classrooms while demonstrating that the government wanted to work with teachers to make classrooms stronger.
He said with negotiations at a clear impasse, it was time for the government to act.
-- With files from Aly Thomson in Halifax.
