Workers demonstrate in front of Premier's Ottawa Constituency Office

OTTAWA - Corrections Officers from across Canada joined striking workers from the Syl Apps Youth Centre to picket Premier Dalton McGuinty's constituency office September 24.

The workers have been involved in a bitter 5-month strike in which the government has continued to pay the private contractor their full contract fee despite scaling back the 80-bed facility to serve just 23 youth. Represented by the Ontario Public Service Employees Union, the workers say the government is prolonging the strike by bankrolling the private contractor through the dispute.

Syl Apps Youth Centre is a maximum security facility in Oakville which houses psychiatrically disturbed youth and violent young offenders, including those who have committed murder, armed robbery and rape.

- Photos by Len Bush, NUPGE.