My last pay cheque came
with a 10% fine,
because I belong to a union,
and somewhere in the province
someone else striking.
Not me.
I’m at work today,
my strike day was yesterday,
but I am fined today anyway.
A government that has twice
been told by the courts that
its actions are illegal,
that it bargains in bad faith,
that it tries to provoke problems,
simply ignores the judiciary’s order that it owes teachers
ten million dollars it took from them illegally.
Nope. This government
continues to bully its educated citizens,
labelling scape goats and whiners.
Setting its propaganda machine in motion.
Sure that no one will believe what it is really doing.
Why is the public not up in arms?
Why are they not concerned
to see a government stripping rights
from its citizens?
Perhaps people are distrustful
of the well-educated,
so it’s easy to manipulate them?
Truth: 10% is off my pay cheque,
because someone else is demanding the justice today
that I marched for yesterday.
Sixty years ago,
our boys were fighting against
injustices like this.
They are likely turning in their graves
at the new chancellor
of British Columbia
and the apathetic
citizenry
who avert their eyes,
pretending not to see,
and mutter, “At least she’s not after me.”
Shawn L. Bird 