Unseasonably chilly weather and blowing snow didn't stop close to 60 Sudburians from rallying at Tom Davies Square on Wednesday for what's become known as the May 1st General Strike Against Doug Ford.
Gathering in protest of the Ford government's recent budget announcement that includes cuts to a number of different services in Ontario, were representatives from Unifor, OPSEU, legal aid, Fiérté Sudbury Pride, local educators and more.
With cuts to a wide breadth of services, the overarching goal of Wednesday's rally was to unite those from all sectors affected by cuts and form one unified voice, one of the organizers said.
"When the annoucements about cuts started coming down, I think people were in these isolated silos and were focused on how the cuts impacted them directly," said Sam Pitzel, who organized and led the rally.
"More and more, people are realizing that there are other groups out there in the same fight and I think it's important to stand together in solidarity. There's quite a long list of organizations that are being affected by these cuts."
One such group that has been rallying on their own front are parents concerned about cuts to the Ontario Autism Program. Sean Staddon from the Northern Ontario Autism Alliance spoke to the crowd at Wednesday's rally, echoing Pitzel's comments about standing together as a united front.
"Seeing all of these people out here inspires me. For awhile, as autism parents, I thought we were out here on our own," said Staddon. "There's cuts to our health care, there's cuts to our education, and people are starting to rise up and these are our allies. Whatever happens we're with you, and seeing our allies out here today is amazing. If I had one thing to say to Doug Ford if he was in front of me, it would be to stop picking on the vulnerable."
Similar rallies were held across the province on Wednesday, with thousands on Ontarians calling for a stop to cuts that include slashing $200 million from public health unit funding, cancellation of the 50 Million Trees program, cutting 50 per cent of Ontaio Library Service funding, cutting all legal aid for refugee and immigration cases, and 30 per cent of the general legal aid budget.
Additionally, the Ford government plans to significantly reduce the number of teachers in Ontario, with as many as 1,500 fewer teachers for the 2019-20 school year. In January of this year, the Ontario government announced that it was eliminating free tuition for low-income students.
"(Doug Ford) is just taking debt off the books and putting on families by creating household debt," said Cambrian College professor Jessica Grillanda.
"(He's) created conditions where hospitals and schools have laid off their nurses and their teachers. Almost half of the teachers in the Near North School Board received redundancy notices, this creates debt in the form of unemployment. When you stack our teenagers into classrooms with an average size of 28 students, you rob them of a decent education. If you really want to get rid of debt, you support multi-purpose spaces like libraries where we can innovate and create as societies and create social benefits. You invest in our education system, you invest in innovation that creates jobs that better our planet."
Pitzel says that there doesn't seem to be a clear plan from the Ford government and that they may be fighting a battle on too many fronts.
"They're making cuts here, there, and everywhere and then he experiences push-back on some issues like the Ontario Autism Program and all of a sudden it's like he doesn't realize that this was going to be affecting people and it's as if there wasn't any foresight into what it was going to do to vulnerable families and then he backpedals," said Pitzel.
"I think it's important that we engage on all fronts at once to say that these things were not well thought out and they're impacting families."
