Media releases

• Brock takes next steps in transitioning to Burlington campus

  Thursday, November 03, 2022 | By Brock University

  MEDIA RELEASE: 3 November 2022 – R0123

  Brock University recently made strides in its plans to transition to more modern facilities in the Hamilton-Burlington-Oakville corridor.

  As the University prepares to relocate its Hamilton Campus to Burlington, it will temporarily operate out of the former Lester B. Pearson High School site for the duration of the 2023-24 academic year. This was made possible through an agreement with the Halton District School Board.

  The University will continue operating in Hamilton until the end of the 2022-23 academic year in April.

  Brock has sold its Hamilton Campus site and as previously announced, will relocate to the future City of Burlington community hub on New Street — the former Robert Bateman High School site — once work on the property is completed.

  The City of Burlington announced Nov. 1 that it has completed a purchase agreement and land exchange transaction with the Halton District School Board involving the former Robert Bateman property.

  Work can now begin to ready the site for its new uses, including a Brock campus.

  “With the support of our community partners, Brock University will continue to deliver the exceptional student experience it is known for throughout this transitionary period,” said Ken Chan, Brock’s Vice-President, Administration. “The modern facilities at the new campus will support the success of our students and provide exciting opportunities for Brock to contribute to the growth and vitality of the wider Halton community.”

  For more information or for assistance arranging interviews: 

  * Maryanne St. Denis, Manager, Content and Communications, Brock University mstdenis@brocku.ca or 905-246-0256

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  Categories: Media releases

• Brock experts say current Ontario back-to-work legislation is ‘unprecedented’

  Tuesday, November 01, 2022 | By Brock University

  EXPERT ADVISORY: 1 November 2022 – R0122

  New legislation introduced by the provincial government Monday to prevent a strike by 55,000 CUPE workers in Ontario’s schools is an “attack on workers’ rights” and a “nuclear option,” according to experts in Brock University’s Department of Labour Studies.

  Assistant Professor Paul Gray says the legislation’s proposed wage increase represents a cut to real wages of education workers due to inflation and rising cost-of-living expenses, and calls the use of pre-emptive back-to-work legislation in advance of the strike date “an attack on education workers’ rights to bargain a contract and freedom of association.”

  Gray also believes it is part of an alarming pattern.

  “This continues a strategy of imposing wage caps on sectors in which women predominate, such as education and health care, while exempting male-dominated professions like police and firefighters,” says Gray. “The government budging so little in these negotiations provokes suspicions that they never intended to bargain in good faith at all.”

  Associate Professor Alison Braley-Rattai says that “without the invocation of Section 33, the bill would almost assuredly be unconstitutional.”

  “This bill is unprecedented in that it attaches Section 33 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the so-called notwithstanding clause, to back-to-work legislation,” she says. “Aside from that, the bill prescribes most of the particulars of the collective agreement to be imposed instead of leaving the details to a third-party neutral adjudicator, as is usually the way with back-to-work legislation.”

  Section 33 gives Parliament or provincial legislatures the ability to override certain portions of the charter for a five-year term.

  Calling it a “nuclear option,” Braley-Rattai adds that the use of Section 33 was not necessary to avoid a labour disruption, which was the government’s stated aim.

  “Section 33 has been used so rarely that many observers thought of it as having fallen into disuse or believed its use was tantamount to political suicide,” she says. “I fear that this is the thin edge of the wedge and that right-leaning governments, in particular, will be increasingly inclined to use it.”

  Assistant Professor Paul Gray and Associate Professor Alison Braley-Rattai, both of Brock’s Department of Labour Studies, are available for media interviews on the topic.

  For more information or for assistance arranging interviews:

  * Doug Hunt, Communications and Media Relations Specialist, Brock University dhunt2@brocku.ca or 905-941-6209

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  Categories: Media releases