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'I don’t think they understand the meaning of a dollar if they can afford $750 for a golf game.' - Patty Rout.
Toronto (30 July 2010) - Protesting provincial plans for a public sector pay freeze, dozens of Ontario Public Service Union (OPSEU/NUPGE) members held up well-heeled Liberals on their way to a Liberal Party golf fundraiser Thursday at Bond Head, north of Toronto.
Traffic backed up for three kilometres as the employees milled about the entrance to The Club, where upscale supporters had contributed up to $750 for a game of golf with Liberal party bigwigs, the Toronto Star reports.
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""They didn’t get in for the tee time,” said Patty Rout, OPSEU's provincial treasurer. The union is fighting the proposed freeze on grounds that its members did not cause the province's deficit (estimated at nearly $20 billion) and therefore should not bear a disproportionate burden because of it.
“I don’t think they understand the meaning of a dollar if they can afford $750 for a golf game,” Rout said. “Some came in limos, making a nice comparison to some of our people making $20 an hour.”
Premier Dalton McGuinty was not among the cabinet ministers, party activists and lobbyists whose plans were disrupted by the protest. He did not arrive until later in the day.
McGuinty has been defending the planned freeze since it was first announced in Ontario's spring budget.
The demonstrators, who served breakfast sandwiches at the club entrance, raised about $700 for the Community Living Association, which OPSEU says is suffering from provincial funding cuts harming its ability to help people with developmental disabilities.
Seven officers from the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) arrived to help with traffic. An OPP officer described the demonstrators as quiet, calm and cordial.
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