I'm not too surprised. A year ago, the Ontario College of Teachers (a licensing body) was sending letters to retired teachers and teachers with lapsed licenses

I'm not too surprised. A year ago, the Ontario College of Teachers (a licensing body) was sending letters to retired teachers and teachers with lapsed licenses to encourage them to renew and apply for work in the province. It was clearly done out of desperation: in the bulk of cases they were asking people who were retired, exited the profession in far better times, or who moved to jurisdictions that were handling the pandemic far better (likely pre-pandemic, but still) to return to a system that was in turmoil. Yet it was the easiest way to reach out to qualified people.