Newsstand: March 2, 2015

It's a new month, and it's nearly spring, and also it's Monday. Two out of three isn't bad, though. In the news this near-spring morning: labour action at U of T, a likely strike at York, and doctors who hide malpractice by way of backroom deals.

By Tannara Yelland • Illustration by Matthew Daley

All three of the University of Toronto’s campuses are expected to see picket lines starting today, as the school’s teaching assistants voted late Friday to reject a deal and go on strike. University administration says that it expects most classes to continue, but transit may be affected if bus drivers opt not to cross the picket line in solidarity with striking workers. The administration also expects students to fulfill their course requirements even if they don’t want to cross the picket line, and professors to continue to teach. “We are poor, precarious, and we need an increase in our standard of living,” CUPE 3902 president Erin Black said. University of Toronto Faculty Association president Scott Prudham wrote in a statement, “It is important for those who may wish to honour labour solidarity to understand that, as faculty and librarians, we are not in a position to withdraw our own labour in the context of a CUPE work stoppage.” He added that he hoped U of T administrators would allow off-campus lectures at professors’ discretion so they wouldn’t need to cross the picket line, but the administration has said off-campus lectures are “not officially sanctioned.”

York University might also see labour action: CUPE 3903, which represents about 3,700 teaching assistants and contract faculty, may strike if no deal is reached by Tuesday. Unlike U of T, however, a strike at York will cancel most classes. York faculty will not be required to cross the picket line, and the school’s academic senate posted a message online that says “all academic activities, classes and examinations will be suspended at the University, except for a minimal number with distinct characteristics.” One issue for teaching assistants is a funding package that they say would mean the difference between living above or below the poverty line.

A Toronto Star investigation reveals many Ontario physicians are benefitting from backroom deals that allow them to avoid public scrutiny for allegations of wrongdoing, including for such serious misconduct as “botching surgeries, injuring mothers and babies during childbirth, sexually abusing patients, and abusing and improperly prescribing narcotics.” The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario officially refers to these deals as “undertakings,” and there is no publicly available information on the process of “undertakings” on CPSO’s website.