Thousands protest outside Ontario Liberal leadership convention

The AppId is over the quota
Sonja Puzic, CTVNews. ca
Published on Saturday, Jan. 26, 2013 1: 07PM EST
Last Updated on Saturday, Jan. 26, 2013 10: 22PM EST

TORONTO--the Liberals elected Ontario's As their new leader on Saturday, a massive labor rally took the spotlight outside, where thousands gathered to send a message to the future premier.

Unions representing teachers, public service employees and others lined the police barricades outside the former Maple Leaf Gardens, chanting "Down with the Liberals."

Many of them booed Liberal delegates and other attendees as they entered and exited the building on Carlton Street.

Toronto police estimated that 15,000 protesters flooded the streets at one point, marching down Gerrard, Yonge and Carlton streets. The Ontario Federation of Labour had said that 25,000 people from across the province were expected to attend.

Demonstrators arrived by the busload to the downtown core. Dozens of buses, the bearing of the pick-up location signs like "Kitchener-Waterloo," "Hamilton" and "in the London area," Jarvis Street and nearby roads lined as the OFL kicked off the protest with a rally at Allen Gardens.

OFL president Sid Ryan urged the crowd to send a strong message to the Liberal leadership candidates by from flooding their social media streams with messages about collective bargaining and labour rights.

Unions say the Liberal Government's policies and austerity measures have destroyed well-paying jobs, benefits and employment security.

Many of those in the crowd were teachers, angry about Bill 115, the recently repealed a piece of legislation that imposed contracts is teachers who did not negotiate agreements with the province.

Education Minister Laurel Broten said the government had to act to protect students from a teachers ' strikes, but later acknowledged that 115 of the Bill had become a "lighting rod."

Teachers ' unions, however, said that repealing the bill was a "meaningless" move that didn't address the rift between them and the Queen's Park.

"We just want our right to collective bargaining of the fair," said Doug Reeves, a teacher who arrived from London, Ont., to take part in Saturday's protest.

Reeves, who has been teaching for 24 years, said he was pleased to see a boisterous, "aggressive" in the crowd outside the Liberal leadership convention.

"They can't ignore us now," he said.

After Kathleen Wynne's victory was any indication of Saturday night, the Elementary Teachers ' Federation of Ontario issued a statement saying it hopes that "respectful discussions can begin to help end the chaos in the schools created by Bill 115."

"We hope that the Premier Wynne will govern in the best interests of working people in Ontario and restore the democratic values that have shaped this province," ETFO President Sam Hammond said in a news release.