They are part of the ontario commonfront, a group that strives for social justice and the defeat of the Tories. HSFS is the student section. They oppose bill 160-increased class sizes and decreased teacher prep and bill 74which attacked teachers and destroyed extra curiculars for the 2000-2001 school year.
They believe in refuseing standardised testing. anxiety endusing, morale lowering, and a step in the tories plan to privatise education. The Tories believe that if they cut funding, test the hell out of the students who are suffering from lack of funding, make privatised education look good, they could sell the idea of privitaisation..
HSFS informs all students that they have the right to defer! which means you can NOT DO THE TESTS! They talk about the EQOA-Education Quaility and Acountability Office, which writes harris's tests. The EQOA gets paid with education dollars, dollars that could be going into the school for supplies. HSFS strongly encourages the refuseal of doing the test and hurt the tories where it hurts most-in their wallets.
What is OCAP?-HSFS has close ties with ocap, in fact, HSFS's site is on the ocap website (http://www.ocap.ca) under the Students header. OCAP stands for the Ontraio Collition Against Poverty. They are also part of the Ontario Commonfront (OCF), a collection of aboriginals, workers, students, community members and anyone who wants to bring about a social change. OCAP was started in the late 1980's around the Welfare Reform. In the autumn of 1990, the founding conference of OCAP took place. After some debate, it set a course for the organization that committed it to mobilizing poor and homeless people to fight back through militant, direct action and rejected notions of basing the organization on methods of consultation and compromise with those in power. As a militant, anti capitalist organization, they reject the notion that they have any common set of interests with those who hold economic and political power. They also reject the rituals of token protest that confine movements to the level of futile moral arguments. They fight to win and are part of a growing force in society that is ready to organize on just that basis.
Rumors that the HSFS had something to do with the posting of the Grade 10 Literacy Test flew. Here's a recap of what happened:
Karen Silverwomyn, a High School Flying Squad (HSFS) member was arrested under the supposed charge of Mischief Under $5000, for reasons not revealed. She was held overnight at 52 Division for refusing to sign conditions of non-association with OCAP. This was because of the postponement of the grade 10 Literacy Test leak.At a bail hearing the following day, the charges of Mischief Over $5000 and Possession of Stolen Goods During a Crime were laid in relation to the Grade 10 Standardized Test leak. The crown produced little to no evidence, and Karen was released on $5000 surety, and without the common non-association condition. HSFS insists they had nothing to do with the posting of the test on the internet.
HSFS organises many protests. Here is a little snippet about one of the protests organised by a HSFS member:
"...The next day, I waited in the Main hallway in the front of the school with a drum and five rather large signs. People told me that I was going to make an ass of myself. I told them to come out anyways. The second I walked out I was immediately confronted by my Vice Principal. He told me that If I walked out, he would suspend me, and whoever walks out with me will also be suspended. I beat my drum as hard as I could, I blew my whistle as loud as I could and made my way through the VP and a crowd of smokers. I guess that sparked a rebellion because I had 20 people walk out with me. We took over the crosswalk. We stayed there for about fifteen minutes. Cars were honking their horns for us to move. One individual told each car what was going on and how to get around us. The cars didn't move and neither did we. Then one driver who was apparently on our side said, I'll follow you to the next intersection. So we moved. Right in front of police headquarters in Oakville. The cars helped stop traffic until lunch which was 11:00am. Two hours of stopped traffic on the busiest intersection in Oakville.... "
