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Speeches are expected to start at 10, and rally participants (including public and high school teachers, and people from other universities and colleges) will move off about 10:15 to join the main march along King Street for the 12:30 rally in front of Kitchener city hall.
The Community Action Day was originally organized by the Ontario Federation of Labour, but has been joined by churches, social action groups and others opposed to the "Mike Harris Common Sense Revolution". Opponents in and out of the labour movement have charged that "common sense" chiefly means cuts to social programs, including education. (And somebody with more time than work to do has calculated that among the anagrams of "Common Sense Revolution" is "Momentous inverse colon".)
Traffic is moving normally through the Columbia Street entrance. There were a few picketers there earlier, but they've moved away. Stan Fogel of St. Jerome's College, organizer of the morning rally, says he chased them away so that entrance would be morally pure: "I told them, there are people coming to our rally who won't cross a picket line!"
A small number of picketers are at the entrance to parking lot B, off Phillip Street, but they're not stopping traffic. "They've turned away a few trucks," says Al Lawrence, manager of central stores, who notes that unionized drivers won't cross picket lines, so some deliveries destined for UW may not be arriving today. Canada Post isn't operating in Kitchener-Waterloo today, but Lawrence said central stores will take outgoing UW mail to Guelph this afternoon so it gets on its way before the weekend.
Lawrence joked that the demonstration may not really have anything to do with Mike Harris: "It's probably a protest because it's my last day here and they don't want me to leave!" He's stepping down under the Special Early Retirement Program.
"Very few" unionized staff in the plant operations department asked for the day off, says Rudy Molinary, director of custodial and grounds services. "You'd think it was an ordinary day." (Indeed, I hear that a few plant ops staff were spotted yesterday wearing "I Like Mike" buttons, which would suggest less than whole-hearted support for today's protest.) Canadian Union of Public Employees local 793 also represents staff in the food services department, and food outlets are "up and running as usual", says Michele Grondin in the food services office. (See later in this Bulletin for the current "usual" schedule.)
On the main campus, the Matthews Hall coffee shop and the Festival Room in South Campus Hall have both closed for the summer. Also closed is the Modern Languages coffee shop, where renovations are under way. Closed all next week is Bon Appetit in the Davis Centre; it'll reopen May 1.
That leaves Tim Horton's in the Davis Centre, Pastry Plus in Needles Hall, Double U's in South Campus Hall, and Brubakers in the Student Life Centre open for regular food service over the next few days. (And their hours are mostly weekdays; don't look for any food service on the main campus at all this weekend or next.)
Chris Redmond -- credmond@watserv1.uwaterloo.ca
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