TORONTO —
While Canadian families wait to hear plans on returning to school in all provinces across the country, some parents are looking into the idea of ‘pandemic pods’ instead of having their children go back to the classroom.
Toronto-based educational strategist Dwayne Matthews told CTV’s Your Morning that some parents are creating their own private classrooms run by one of the parents, a tutor or a school teacher with a small number of elementary-aged children, establishing their own schooling bubble.
Matthews said Thursday that a pandemic pod “could look like a lot of different things” but creating one requires some planning.
“What some of the folks are talking about is looking at joining Facebook groups and finding out is there a suitable home? How would they put together about 10 students in a pandemic pod and who teaches the pandemic pod? What’s the structure and what [are] the values around social distancing and the like,” Matthews said.
“I was actually on the phone late last night speaking to a mom from a mom’s group… and they were talking about pandemic pods outside. Creating something outside that could be temporary and eventually moved to someone’s home.”
He added that the pods may also gather in private rooms rented out of a commercial space.
Matthews said the subjects taught in these pods and the person teaching them can vary.
“Sometimes you may find that it may be a parent that steps up but uses some form of homeschooling program or a collection of programs online,” Matthews said. “Or sometimes it may be teachers that are just coming out of teachers college that actually don’t have any chances of jobs in September, and now this creates a great opportunity for them.”
He also said that some wealthy families may offer substantial sums to lure teachers away from public schools.
While the concept may seem strange to some, Matthews said teaching through a pandemic pod is an opportunity for innovation in education.
For Matthews, one of the main benefits of a pandemic pod is consistency not just for students, but also for parents and teachers. He said more pandemic pods are being organized as provinces reveal their back-to-school plans, with some parents not keen on online learning or part-time classes.
“A lot of parents that I’ve spoken to, their concern is how do we deal with the consistency of having to work and take care of a child at the same time. That’s very hard,” Matthews said. He added that he has heard from parents who have had to stay up into the early hours of the morning amid the pandemic, trying to manage work, taking care of the family and teaching their children under one roof.
For teachers worried about being forced back into crowded classrooms, the chance to earn the same or more income at a lower risk of exposure by working in a pod can be enticing.
Matthews said the other benefit is consistency of education, with parents concerned that a second wave of infections may disrupt their children’s schooling yet again.
“We know that typically — anybody in education knows — that around the end of September beginning of October, a lot of students get very sick from the flu and the flu symptoms are very similar, at least in a parent’s [view], to COVID-19 symptoms. A lot of people are very concerned about what that will do for psyche for teachers, psyche for students,” Matthews explained.
However, pandemic pods can come with a high price tag, creating concerns among school administrators that these pods will widen gaps between high and low-income families.
Matthews said this is “a really big issue,” adding that the pandemic created issues with equity early on when schools switched to online learning.
“We saw equity sort of really unveil its ugly head in the last six months around education [with] who has a device, who doesn’t have a device, how many devices are there in a house, how much time do parents have, who has a parent that is at home,” Matthews said.
Matthews said pandemic pods are not cheap and can cost upwards of $500 per student each month.
“It can be between $500 and $1,000 for people willing to pay so that may be a lot for a lot of people in the city, particularly after they’ve gone through the pandemic and they may not necessarily even have jobs,” he said.
To combat the inequalities, Matthews said he has heard of some pandemic pods including families that can’t afford this new type of education at no cost.
“A lot of different dimensions to it and this creates a new dimension as well… Although that being said, there is also an opportunity to reshuffle,” Matthews said. “It all depends.”
VANCOUVER – Contract negotiations resume today in Vancouver in a labour dispute that has paralyzed container cargo shipping at British Columbia’s ports since Monday.
The BC Maritime Employers Association and International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514 are scheduled to meet for the next three days in mediated talks to try to break a deadlock in negotiations.
The union, which represents more than 700 longshore supervisors at ports, including Vancouver, Prince Rupert and Nanaimo, has been without a contract since March last year.
The latest talks come after employers locked out workers in response to what it said was “strike activity” by union members.
The start of the lockout was then followed by several days of no engagement between the two parties, prompting federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon to speak with leaders on both sides, asking them to restart talks.
MacKinnon had said that the talks were “progressing at an insufficient pace, indicating a concerning absence of urgency from the parties involved” — a sentiment echoed by several business groups across Canada.
In a joint letter, more than 100 organizations, including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Business Council of Canada and associations representing industries from automotive and fertilizer to retail and mining, urged the government to do whatever it takes to end the work stoppage.
“While we acknowledge efforts to continue with mediation, parties have not been able to come to a negotiated agreement,” the letter says. “So, the federal government must take decisive action, using every tool at its disposal to resolve this dispute and limit the damage caused by this disruption.
“We simply cannot afford to once again put Canadian businesses at risk, which in turn puts Canadian livelihoods at risk.”
In the meantime, the union says it has filed a complaint to the Canada Industrial Relations Board against the employers, alleging the association threatened to pull existing conditions out of the last contract in direct contact with its members.
“The BCMEA is trying to undermine the union by attempting to turn members against its democratically elected leadership and bargaining committee — despite the fact that the BCMEA knows full well we received a 96 per cent mandate to take job action if needed,” union president Frank Morena said in a statement.
The employers have responded by calling the complaint “another meritless claim,” adding the final offer to the union that includes a 19.2 per cent wage increase over a four-year term remains on the table.
“The final offer has been on the table for over a week and represents a fair and balanced proposal for employees, and if accepted would end this dispute,” the employers’ statement says. “The offer does not require any concessions from the union.”
The union says the offer does not address the key issue of staffing requirement at the terminals as the port introduces more automation to cargo loading and unloading, which could potentially require fewer workers to operate than older systems.
The Port of Vancouver is the largest in Canada and has seen a number of labour disruptions, including two instances involving the rail and grain storage sectors earlier this year.
A 13-day strike by another group of workers at the port last year resulted in the disruption of a significant amount of shipping and trade.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
The Royal Canadian Legion says a new partnership with e-commerce giant Amazon is helping boost its veterans’ fund, and will hopefully expand its donor base in the digital world.
Since the Oct. 25 launch of its Amazon.ca storefront, the legion says it has received nearly 10,000 orders for poppies.
Online shoppers can order lapel poppies on Amazon in exchange for donations or buy items such as “We Remember” lawn signs, Remembrance Day pins and other accessories, with all proceeds going to the legion’s Poppy Trust Fund for Canadian veterans and their families.
Nujma Bond, the legion’s national spokesperson, said the organization sees this move as keeping up with modern purchasing habits.
“As the world around us evolves we have been looking at different ways to distribute poppies and to make it easier for people to access them,” she said in an interview.
“This is definitely a way to reach a wider number of Canadians of all ages. And certainly younger Canadians are much more active on the web, on social media in general, so we’re also engaging in that way.”
Al Plume, a member of a legion branch in Trenton, Ont., said the online store can also help with outreach to veterans who are far from home.
“For veterans that are overseas and are away, (or) can’t get to a store they can order them online, it’s Amazon.” Plume said.
Plume spent 35 years in the military with the Royal Engineers, and retired eight years ago. He said making sure veterans are looked after is his passion.
“I’ve seen the struggles that our veterans have had with Veterans Affairs … and that’s why I got involved, with making sure that the people get to them and help the veterans with their paperwork.”
But the message about the Amazon storefront didn’t appear to reach all of the legion’s locations, with volunteers at Branch 179 on Vancouver’s Commercial Drive saying they hadn’t heard about the online push.
Holly Paddon, the branch’s poppy campaign co-ordinator and bartender, said the Amazon partnership never came up in meetings with other legion volunteers and officials.
“I work at the legion, I work with the Vancouver poppy office and I go to the meetings for the Vancouver poppy campaign — which includes all the legions in Vancouver — and not once has this been mentioned,” she said.
Paddon said the initiative is a great idea, but she would like to have known more about it.
The legion also sells a larger collection of items at poppystore.ca.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
