– by Michael Craig

On Friday, well over 100 education workers, represented by CUPE, the Canadian Union of Public Employees, rallied in front of the office of Rick Byers, Bruce-Grey-Owen Sound MPP, to press their demands for higher wages. As a new trustee of the Bluewater District School Board, I joined them to express my personal solidarity with some of the lowest paid education workers in Ontario; and to protest the government’s use of the Notwithstanding Clause of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms to ban this strike even before it began.It is deeply disturbing that, by exercising their right to strike, CUPE workers may now face fines of up to $4,000 per day – and the union is looking at a fine as high as $500,000 per day. On what planet is this considered just? Are we talking abut the government of Ontario or despotic regimes in China or Iran where human rights are routinely, even violently, denied?

The workers' protest, marking the first day of a strike following the expiration of their labour contract with the government, should simply signify that negotiations with the employer have broken down. We live with this despite the disruption, go back to the negotiating table, and come to a fair compromise. That’s how the system works - but not, it seems, in Doug Ford’s Ontario.

The government of Ontario has unilaterally, in advance, withdrawn the right to strike. And because denying this basic labour right is contrary to provisions in the Charter, the government preemptively passed Bill 28, using the Charter’s Notwithstanding Clause to override this essential freedom.

This is more than outrageous and appalling because it marks the third time the Ford government has applied the Notwithstanding Clause, and Quebec has used it twice. This scares hell out of me!

If more provincial governments, or the feds for that matter, choose to deny rights because they conflict with their agenda, the legitimacy of the Charter will be fatally undermined, it will become irrelevant. This is demagoguery, pure and simple. An attack, in fact, on the basic tenets of our democracy.

Today they deny the right to strike; next month or next year, a provincial government may decide that religious rights conflict with ‘Canadian values’, or same-sex marriage should be banned, or ….

Keep in mind that when it was passed in 1982, the Charter became, in effect, part of the Canadian constitution. It has been cited and applied hundreds of times over the past forty years to demand justice for individuals and groups; and, most importantly, to set limits on our governments’ power to deny basic political, social, economic and human rights. It’s a vital part of the fabric of our society.

The right to form and join labour unions and bargain for “just and favourable remuneration” is also enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. There’s no doubt that strikes are a nuisance and a cost to employers and the public, so the impulse to ban them is understandable. However, if a government takes away the collective right to withdraw one’s labour, workers are left with little or no bargaining power.

I am proud to be pro-union, and I support CUPE workers' demand for higher pay. As Ontario employees they have been held to one percent wage increases since November, 2019, so they lost ground to inflation even before it took off this year. It’s not up to me to decide how much is fair and reasonable, but I know for a fact that our province, our society, will be healthier and more democratic if that conundrum is solved via honest, transparent negotiations.