What To Know For October 20…

What to know for today;

• Catholic school teachers give strike mandate: Members of the Ontario English Catholic Teachers Association gave a strike mandate on Thursday. Votes were held on October 18 and 19, and 97 per cent of the members voted in favour of hitting the picket lines if a deal could not be reached. The 45,000 members are ready to strike for an agreement that will support students, teachers and families. The Ontario Secondary School Teacher Federation is ratifying a deal with the government that should close on October 27. Any outstanding issues will be sent to a third party arbitrator. All the while 95 per cent of members from the Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario voted in favour of strike action on Wednesday. Education Minister Stephen Lecce says deals offered to both the ETFO and the OECTA have been fair.

• 2024 Home County festival cancelled: London may have seen the last of the Home County Music & Arts festival. On Thursday, organizers announced that it will not be making a return to Victoria Park in the summer of 2024. They are even unsure if they will bring back the festival at all. The Home County Folk League, which hosts the festival, expressed its sadness and compassion about the difficult decision to cancel future events. The festival has been a London tradition, taking place every year since 1974. Attracting over 50,000 people and over 200 volunteers, Home County featured performances, arts and crafts, food vendors and multiple stages with admission just being a donation. COVID-19 forced the festival to try different measures for the past two years as crowds were not permitted. Now with increased costs and lack of funding, organizers made the decision to cancel the event. Directors of the Home County Folk League will have a meeting next month to discuss the future of the festival.

• LHSC looking for 100 new employees: Over the next several months, the London Health Science Center is looking to fill over 100 new job openings. With competitive wages, benefits and a pension, most of the jobs will be permanent/full-time with remote and hybrid options available. Clinical experience is an asset, but most of the jobs will be having IT incorporated into them. Non-clinical positions would be mostly project management rolls, support analysts etc. The hiring spree is a result of the LHSC and 11 other hospitals across the province switching from paper to fully digitizing their systems. The switch was a priority of the LHSC’s 2023-20237 Strategic Plan. Anyone interested in applying can find information if they search ‘OneChart’ on the LHSC website.

• A $1.7M investment into London cancer research: Philanthropist Kirk Baines, son of Gerald C. Baines donated $1.7 million to Gerald C. Baines Centre for Translational Cancer Research on Wednesday. This is the first step the LHSC has taken towards its $5.6 million expansion plan. The money will be used for existing research, personnel, and clinical trials. It will also be used to develop computational theranostics cancer diagnostics. Established in 2012 the research centre gives spaces to work closely with patients improving care. The Gerald C. Baines Foundation has launched a matching campaign to help raise the remaining $3.9 million needed for the expansion plan. Londoner’s are asked to help and can donate at lhsf.ca/baines.

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This post was written by gring