Chinese parents clash with striking Canadian teachers as school year fails to start
Websites linked to masked protesters disappear in wake of ugly scenes in Vancouver, as school year in British Columbia enters third week without classes
Members of a parents’ group forged within Vancouver’s Chinese community to oppose an ongoing school strike have gone to ground after they gatecrashed a rival teachers’ union rally and were involved in angry scuffles.
Members of the British Columbia Parents’ Federation (BCPF), some wearing surgical masks, unfurled a large vinyl banner carrying their group’s name in English and Chinese as they attempted to march on a larger rally outside the Vancouver Art Gallery in support of the industrial action on Sunday.
The dispute has lasted three months and has seen pupils in British Columbia go more than two weeks without classes since the new school year was due to have started.
There were shoving and shouting matches between BCPF members and union supporters, before they were separated by police. In the hours after the ugly incident was shown on CBC news, websites associated with the BCPF went offline.
The BCPF did not respond to multiple e-mailed requests for an interview. However, in a statement posted on Sunday on Chinese web portal Lahoo.ca, the group urged the teachers’ union to immediately end the strike.
“Under the BC School Act, students’ entitlement to education is a right. Today, this right has been blatantly violated,” the statement said.