Welcome to friends, colleagues, fellow members of the post-secondary community and
our students, the future workers of our province — thank you for being here today.
My name is Michelle LoGullo and I am the President of the Mount Royal Staff
Association. The MRSA represents approximately 900 non-academic union workers
here at Mount Royal University, and we have proudly signed off on the Common Front
Solidarity Pact.
We come together not as politicians, but as people who care deeply about fairness,
respect, and the rights that protect every working Albertan.
Today, we’re here because something deeply troubling is happening in our province.
The Government of Alberta has chosen to use the notwithstanding clause to override
the constitutional rights of Alberta teachers and their union, the ATA, including the right
of educators to organize, to represent their members, and to be treated with respect
under the law.
This is not just a story about teachers. It’s a story about what kind of province we want
to live in, and whether any of our collective rights — yours, mine, or anyone’s — will
mean anything when a government decides they’re inconvenient.
The government’s decision to override the rights of the Alberta Teachers’ Association is
more than political theatre.
It sets a dangerous precedent.
The notwithstanding clause was meant to be used rarely, in exceptional situations.
But now it’s being used as a tool to crush dissent — to tell working people, “Your rights
matter only when we say they do.”
That’s not leadership. That’s an abuse of power. That’s not democracy. That’s power for
its own sake.
We say this is not acceptable.
We say every worker deserves respect.
Every union deserves to represent its members without fear of political interference and
every Albertan deserves a government that upholds, not undermines, our Charter rights.
Education — whether in a kindergarten classroom or a university lecture hall —
depends on freedom.
Freedom to ask hard questions. Freedom to challenge authority. Freedom to teach, to
learn, and to speak the truth.
When a government overrides the rights of educators, it threatens freedom at its very
root.
Because you can’t have strong education in a weak democracy.
Education isn’t just a classroom – it’s a community.
When one part of that community is silenced, we all lose.
When a government tells teachers they can’t rely on their constitutional rights, every
worker wonders whether their rights will be next.
This is about more than the ATA. It’s about the future of every union — and every
worker — in this province.
Unions are not the enemy. We are the people that keep this province running.
We know that the rights we have today – to bargain collectively, to be represented, to
have safe and fair workplaces – are not gifts.
These rights were won through generations of working people refusing to back down.
When the government attacks one union’s right to represent its members, it sends a
chilling message to all of us:
-that collective strength is a threat, that dissent is something to be silenced.
So today, we stand in solidarity with Alberta’s teachers.
We stand for the right of every worker to have a voice.
We stand for the idea that democracy doesn’t stop when you punch in for work.
We call on this government to reverse its misuse of the notwithstanding clause, to
respect the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and to remember: power is not a license
to silence.
To our colleagues across the province, and to every union, large or small — this is the
time to stand together. Because when one of us loses our rights, we all lose ground.
Thank you.