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OSSTF District 11- Thames Valley
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District 11 Office |
District President's Memo
December 19, 2005
President's Message
Time is flying quickly. Before we know it, we'll be on the holiday break
and then hurtling headlong into 2006.
I would like to thank all of you for all of the hard work that you do in
your jobs. The strength of OSSTF is in its membership and so we thank you
for your support and, if you haven't already become involved in some aspect
of your bargaining unit or the district, we encourage you to think about
doing so in the new year. We have many active committees and we would
welcome increased participation from among the members. Meetings are
generally held "after school" at the District Office and include
refreshments, and committee members may claim "out of the way" mileage when
they attend the meetings.
I would like to take a moment to point out a couple of new features on the
provincial website just in case they hadn't already been drawn to your
attention. There is a new "hot button" on the front page called "News from
the Provincial Executive" and clicking on it will bring you to the most
recent report of discussion items at provincial executive meetings.
Likewise, there is a hot button for "Queen's Park Highlights" which will
take you to regular reports about what is happening in the provincial
legislature.
The Federation Services Officers, our Administrative Assistant Laurie
Lafraniere and I would all like to extend our best wishes to you for this
holiday season. We hope that you will have a relaxing break.
College of Teachers Mailing
(From the Provincial Executive)
OCT members recently received a letter from the Registrar of the College
of Teachers inviting them to register on line at the College. On line access
will be the only way members can vote in the 2006 Governing Council
elections or download their income tax receipts.
Many members are upset that they will have to enter their social insurance
number to register. Unfortunately, while this may seem to be an intrusion
into privacy, legally the College is on firm ground. The main identifier of
each OCT member is your College membership number, which can be found in the
public register and thus is not private. The only way that the College can
identify you with certainty on line, and therefore protect your privacy in a
secure section of their website, is to use the cross-check of the SIN number
(which they already have) to set up your password-protected account. The
Ontario College of Teachers Act , section 47, specifically gives them the
right to obtain personal information within the meaning of Ontario’s Freedom
of Information and Protection of Privacy legislation.
OSSTF has had no success in asking the College to change its policy, which
seems to be intended to create a massive email list-serve for the College to
send out propaganda. On the “Create Members’ Area Account” page, the College
has already used its version of negative billing to check off the box for
members to receive a regular electronic “newsletter” with the College’s
version of “information on issues that affect you as a teacher”. Frustrated
members should be advised to un-check this box.
The only option for members who refuse to register this way is to write a
letter to the College requesting that their income tax receipt be mailed.
The College says that this letter must be sent each year as they won’t
honour such a request for more than one year at a time. You will of course
note the irony of the College sending each member a hard copy letter to tell
them they will no longer send hard copy tax receipts.