The Ministry of Education canceled In extremis a large Christmas party planned for Friday, which caused internal unrest in connection with the strike, questions followed Newspaper about it on Wednesday.
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A few weeks ago, 1,100 Ministry of Education officials were invited to a Christmas party on December 15 at the Quebec City Convention Center. The invitation was given by Deputy Minister Carole Arav.
Employees were scheduled to partake in a three-course meal, followed by an evening with a musical group, which cost $79 per person, including tax and gratuity. The event was not part of a long-standing tradition of the ministry, quite the opposite.
“Organizing such a festive event to celebrate the end of the year is a first and therefore a great opportunity to come together and celebrate in a friendly and relaxed atmosphere,” we read in an email at the end of November.
Inner discomfort
However, the organization of this event caused unrest internally because, according to our information, employees found the context of the strike to be completely inappropriate.
The Autonomous Education Federation launched an indefinite general strike on November 23, resulting in the closure of 40% of schools in the province.
Without strike pay, 66,500 teachers have been without pay for three weeks.
“It makes so little sense,” a source at the Education Department told the Journal on Wednesday, when the event was still scheduled to take place.
Canceled with two days notice
But at the end of the day, after being asked by Le Journal on the subject, the Ministry of Education finally decided to cancel the event “in view of the ongoing strike in the school network”.
A message was sent to ministry employees on this issue late in the afternoon, it said.
“The evening was organized in September before the strike began and was intended to be an event to highlight the work of all department staff. However, in the current context it was considered preferable to cancel it,” said his spokesman Bryan St-Louis.
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