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By Jesse Gill, Curtis Cruickshank

IN THE COMMUNITY

Video: Medicine Hat parents and grandparents react to kids being back at school

Oct 29, 2025 | 11:04 AM

Students across Alberta returned to classes on Wednesday for the first time in over three weeks.

On Monday, Premier Danielle Smith’s government invoked the Charter’s notwithstanding clause to order 51,000 teachers back to work, ending the provincewide teachers’ strike.

Smith said the strike caused irreparable harm, and her government had no choice but to invoke the Charter’s notwithstanding clause.

Parents and grandparents in Medicine Hat were busy dropping off kids at school for the first time since Friday, Oct. 3.

Relief was expressed by several, with the return of kids to school, and hope that a resolution is reached between the Alberta Teachers’ Association and the Alberta government.

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A coalition of Alberta unions is expected to announce steps to fight the use of the notwithstanding clause, saying they have no bargaining power if governments use the clause to solve labour disputes.

The Alberta Teachers’ Association has called the use of the notwithstanding clause a gross violation of rights.

– With files from The Canadian Press