Ontario Public Service: Save our Jails!! Build a Strong Community
(TORONTO) – More than 75 correctional officers and their supporters are expected to descend on Queen’s Park May 31 in a bid to convince MPPs to rally behind their campaign to keep jails open in Owen Sound and Walkerton.
Owen Sound Mayor Deb Haswell and Brocton Town Councilor Chris Peabody will join dozens of correctional officers in the Legislative building during Question Period when Opposition MPPs are expected to ask why the McGuinty government is moving ahead with its plans to shut the two jails without holding public consultations on the proposed closures.
“We’re taking our message directly to the Premier and the Minister of Community Safety and Correctional Services inside the Legislature,” said OPSEU Local 224 President Paul Johnstone, who represents correctional officers at Owen Sound jail. “We want them to see the human face of their reckless decision to go ahead with something that will disrupt the lives of hundreds of families and damage our local criminal justice system.
“It will be a forceful reminder that they’re destroying good jobs in our communities.”
Haswell and Peabody will join OPSEU Vice President-Treasurer Eduardo (Eddy) Almeida and New Democrat MPP Peter Kormos (Welland-Thorold) and Conservative MPP Bill Murdoch (Grey-Bruce-Owen Sound) at a 12 noon press conference at the Legislature.
Afterwards, they will join the demonstrators from Walkerton and Owen Sound on an information picket line outside the offices of Community Safety and Correctional Services Minister Jim Bradley at 25 Grosvenor Street, in Toronto.
Paul Johnstone
OPSEU Local 224
519-375-5946
[email protected]
OPSEU Campaigns & Communications
647-238-9933 cell
Gerry Hope
OPSEU Local 225
519-881-0307
[email protected]