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editorial

Mediator Vince Ready is pictured before meetings with the B.C.T.F and the B.C Government in Richmond, British Columbia on August 28 2014. (BEN NELMS for The Globe and Mail)Ben Nelms/The Globe and Mail

If the tentative agreement between the schoolteachers and the school boards of British Columbia holds and is ratified, it will be only the third time in 27 years that such a contract was negotiated by the parties, rather than being imposed by legislation. The history is so acrimonious that reaching a deal, any deal, is progress. Tuesday's agreement is not exactly peace in our time, but it is at least a highly desirable truce. As for the 40-year-old struggle between the provincial government and the boards, on the one hand, and the B.C. Teachers' Federation, on the other, it may go on and on.

It began when the Social Credit premier Bill Bennett was in power. But the BCTF has long been thought of as the most militant teachers' union in Canada. Which came first, the chicken or the egg? Hard to say, and in the end, it doesn't really matter. It's more important to try to break the vicious cycle. Unfortunately, few would dare to predict that the perennial pattern will be broken any time soon.

The latest deal was reached slowly and painfully, in the middle of the night. After such a protracted conflict, affecting a huge number of families, it seems probable that the teachers will vote in favour of the agreement on Thursday. The reported six-year contract is mercifully and untypically long, though Premier Christy Clark unrealistically wanted a 10-year contract.

And even as this deal is being reached, the constitutional litigation between the provincial government and the BCTF is set to resume at the B.C. Court of Appeal in October, as scheduled. The dispute is about whether previous legislation breached the Charter right of freedom of association by removing some issues around classroom size from collective bargaining. It's a legitimate question, but it shouldn't upset the agreement arrived at in the early hours of Tuesday.

Does Tuesday's agreement include any steps to address that issue? Let that dispute wait until the next contract comes up.

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