Over 30,000 educators, students and parents gathered at Queen's Park in Toronto this weekend to protest against proposed changes being made to Ontario's education system.
The rally was held on Saturday afternoon at the Ontario Legislature. It was organized by members from five different unions and protesters arrived in over 150 buses from across the province.
Michele LaLonge-Davey is the president of CUPE 1238, which represents education workers in The Lambton Kent District School Board. She said when she first heard the Ford government's plan to cut public education funding, including increasing class sizes, she immediately felt bad for the impact it would have on students.
"We pride ourselves on delivering services to the students in the province of Ontario," she said. "We stress the publically funded, publically delivered system that we work in."
One of the other buses that attended the rally was led by Dave Geroux, president of CUPE 4168, representing education workers in the St. Clair Catholic District School Board. Geroux's bus started in Windsor and travelled to London, picking up local education workers on the way before finally reaching Toronto.
"The way that the government is making cuts to education right now, to the school system, they're cutting a lot of the key services, things that are going to affect students' wellbeing. We're rallying for a change to that, for investments in the school services rather than cuts," he said.
LaLonge-Davey said the energy at the rally was indescribable. She also expressed gratitude to all the people who attended the rally who don't work in the education field but just wanted to show their support.
"Allies for sure, the Ontario Autism Colation spoke, you have families with their children, I saw Unifor there, lots of allies. This is hitting the province, it hits everyone," she said. "Everyone's got a link to a kid someway or another, and it's the kids that are getting hurt."
LaLonge-Davey expressed hope when asked whether she thinks the rally will make a difference in the eyes of the government and believes the amount of people who showed up to take part is a case of power by numbers.
"Could there be change? There always can be, why would we be doing this if we didn't think there could be change," said LaLonge-Davey. "You saw the ministry back down around the proposed changes to autism, so that's already been effected through allies, hard work, pressure rallies, etc. So for sure, I think there could be change."