B.C. won't legislate teachers back to work: education minister

VANCOUVER - British Columbia's education minister says the government has no intention of legislating teachers back to work.

But Peter Fassbender did not immediately commit to or reject a call from the BC Teachers' Federation to bring in a mediator to resolve the dispute.

Fassbender says the province does not want the strike that has shut down public schools to drag on into the summer or fall.

But he said the two parties are not even close to reaching a deal and labelled the latest offer by the teachers' union unrealistic.

Federation president Jim Iker says the union's offer is fair and he accused government of stonewalling the talks.

Teachers have been on picket lines since Tuesday, following three weeks of rotating job action.

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  British Columbia education minister Peter Fassbender speaks about the status of bargaining with the B.C. Teachers' Federation on the first day of a full-scale walkout by B.C. public school teachers in Vancouver, on Tuesday, June 17, 2014. (Darryl Dyck / THE CANADIAN PRESS)

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  Hundreds of B.C. teachers, parents and other union supporters rallied on the lawn of the B.C. Legislature in Victoria, Monday, June 16, 2014. (Chad Hipolito / THE CANADIAN PRESS)