It began with a questionnaire sent from CBC to the public email addresses of approximately 22,000 school staffers in eastern Ontario and Atlantic Canada.
It ended with a series of CBC News stories based on the responses of more than 2,000 teachers, many of whom expressed concerns about returning to schools during a pandemic.
But in between, it sparked correspondence — and consternation — among education officials in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland and Labrador.
Some of them appear to have been suspicious of CBC’s effort.
Using access to information requests, CBC News obtained more than 300 pages of emails generated by top education and school board officials across Atlantic Canada in the days after CBC journalists sent the questionnaire out.
The documents reveal a flurry of internal consultations and information-sharing among the four provincial governments on how to handle the situation.
There was displeasure expressed by some that CBC reporters had contacted teachers directly, without getting permission from them first.
There were concerns about whether this constituted a privacy breach. Lawyers were consulted. One senior government official somewhat ominously mentioned “other legal options.”
Back-to-school looked a lot different amid a pandemic, and teacher responses to the CBC questionnaire highlighted stress and uncertainty. (Rachael Blakey)
The resulting stories, which ran in late October, provided a window into the thoughts of teachers in the time of COVID-19. Those teachers had been contacted by email, through addresses found on public school websites. They shared feelings of being overwhelmed, stressed or exhausted.
Emails written by education officials as the CBC’s questionnaire was circulated reveal unease that the questions were even being asked.
‘Harmful to intergovernmental relations’
One province initially didn’t want correspondence with other colleagues across the region revealed to CBC at all.
The Newfoundland and Labrador English School District (NLESD) and the province’s Department of Education both invoked sections of transparency laws designed to stop the disclosure of information “harmful to intergovernmental relations or negotiations.”
However, snippets of that correspondence were revealed by other provinces.
No state secrets appeared to have been involved.
The Newfoundland and Labrador English School District and the Newfoundland and Labrador government initially declined to release emails because they could be “harmful to intergovernmental relations or negotiations.” (CBC)
After CBC News raised questions about the redactions, officials in Newfoundland and Labrador ultimately reversed their initial decision to black out the correspondence.
Here are excerpts from some of the emails that had at first been deemed too harmful to release:
“There has been a mass distribution to our teachers.”
“We are working to get screenshots of the questionnaire.”
“Here are the screenshots!”
For some reason, an email from the New Brunswick Teachers Federation to its members cautioning them about talking to the media was also redacted as harmful to intergovernmental affairs in Newfoundland and Labrador.
In an email, the school district said those redactions were done in consultation with the provincial government, and steered inquiries to them. The Newfoundland and Labrador Department of Education did not provide a response before deadline.
Potential legal issues
As news of the questionnaire travelled, education officials across the region zeroed in on two issues: how did the CBC get all of those email addresses in the first place, and what questions were being asked?
“We are looking at potential privacy breaches or other legal options,” George Daley, the deputy minister for anglophone schools in New Brunswick, wrote to his counterparts in the other three Atlantic provinces.
It is not clear what those “other legal options” were, and the New Brunswick government did not directly address that in response to inquiries from CBC News.
New Brunswick government officials worked into a weekend to deduce how CBC obtained teachers emails. They were listed on public school websites. (Rachael Blakey)
Nevertheless, efforts appear to have continued to figure out how the CBC managed to send out all of those emails.
The work in New Brunswick went into a Saturday, two days after the questionnaire first went out. Finally, an answer — nothing nefarious had occurred.
“The majority of our schools have … contact info on their website so easy enough to do if you are willing to take the time,” an internal email noted.
Another email added: “Not much we could do on the IT side to prevent that from happening.”
Asked about those efforts, the New Brunswick Department of Education stressed that information is a “valuable asset that is critical to the delivery of government programs and services,” and teachers are “expected to follow best practice” when it comes to information security.
“This includes not to click links or open attachments unless they come from a trusted source. Similar comprehensive policies are in place at private companies and media outlets for employees to follow,” spokeswoman Tara Chislett said in an email to CBC News.
“It is always suspicious any time a system wide, mass distributed email from outside government is received. They raise concern of a potential breach of the system and the possibility of a breach in privacy of employees.”
Chislett also noted the low response rate to the questionnaire among New Brunswick teachers.
‘Nothing unusual about this practice’
Further east, the English school board in Newfoundland and Labrador was provided legal advice from internal counsel, although that email is entirely blacked out and it’s not clear exactly what the lawyer had weighed in on.
Board officials indicated in earlier correspondence that they believed the CBC emails contravened their policies.
School district brass in Newfoundland and Labrador and the province’s teachers union appeared to be on the same page about the questionnaire — they shared their draft messages to teachers with each other before sending them out.
In a statement, the NLESD said it “routinely consults with the organization’s executive members, relevant public bodies and its educational partners on a variety of matters of mutual interest. There is nothing unusual about this practice.
“Similarly, our in-house legal counsel provides a wide range of advice on matters related to the application of provincial legislation, collective agreements, policy implementation and more.”
The CBC News questionnaire was sent to the public email addresses of approximately 22,000 school staffers in eastern Ontario and Atlantic Canada. (Garrett Barry/CBC)
Meanwhile, civil servants in Prince Edward Island were able to crack the mystery of exactly what questions were being asked.
According to internal emails, a government official logged into the questionnaire and posed as a teacher, so they could complete it — then took screenshots of all the questions and passed them along.
The verdict from P.E.I was split.
One communications official wrote: “Questions seem fair. I think we will come out near the top really.” But those views weren’t shared universally. “Some ‘loaded’ questions for sure,” was the verdict from the deputy minister, Bethany MacLeod.
1 of 4 ministers respond
The documents obtained by CBC News show officials discussing how to coordinate their responses to the questionnaire.
“If it is bigger than one province, it may be good if all [provinces/territories] had the same messaging,” Newfoundland and Labrador’s then-deputy minister of education, Bob Gardiner, wrote to his three Atlantic colleagues.
CBC News obtained 300 pages of emails from education officials in all four Atlantic provinces via access to information requests. (Shane Fowler/CBC)
Cardy’s deputy minister, meanwhile, had a simple solution for his three counterparts in the other Atlantic provinces, as to how they could handle all of this.
“Here you go,” George Daley wrote. “Just go take the survey. Write in the DM [deputy minister] is awesome for the end comments!”
The spokesperson in New Brunswick had this to say about that: “As for the deputy minister, he went to the site to determine if it was a closed site controlled by email credential or a survey that was open to anyone. He found that anyone could access the site and submit a response whether they were a teacher or not, which could call into question validity of the survey.”
After receiving that email, CBC News reviewed the questionnaire responses it received from New Brunswick.
No one replied that the deputy minister is awesome.
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.
