Ontario Green Party leader MPP Mike Schreiner calls out the Doug Ford government for its precedent-setting use of our Charter's notwithstanding clause in labour negotiations:

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Ontario Green Party leader, MPP Mike Schreiner has released the following statement in response to the Ford’s government’s submission to the Ontario Labour Relations Board to stop the strike by education workers :

Doug Ford’s heavy-handed campaign against education workers continues – and it’s our children who are now paying the price in instability and disruption in their classrooms.

Instead of wasting time and taxpayer dollars fighting CUPE, Ford should get back to the negotiating table with a fair offer for the province’s lowest-paid education workers.

And he must repeal Bill 28, the legislative sledgehammer that imposes an unfair contract on those workers, bans strike action and invokes the notwithstanding clause to take away Charter rights.

Casually stripping away the Charter rights of 55,000 people who care for our students sets a dangerous precedent.

If Ford can so easily punch down and take away the Charter rights of school custodians, teachers’ aides and bus drivers, who’s he coming after next?

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source: media release, Green Party of Ontario

source: media release, The Green Party of Ontario