Justin Trudeau says Doug Ford is ‘wrong' to use legislation that would suspend school workers' rights
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Loading... - Adam Kelly
- 02 Nov 2022
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Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and members of his cabinet railed against the Ontario government’s pledge to use the notwithstanding clause to stave off legal challenges to a bill that would impact the rights of tens of thousands of education workers.
“Using the notwithstanding clause to suspend workers’ rights is wrong. I know that collective bargaining negotiations are sometimes difficult, but it has to happen. It has to be done in a respectful, thoughtful way at the bargaining table,” Trudeau said Tuesday.
“The suspension of people’s rights is something that you should only do in the most exceptional circumstances, and I really hope that all politicians call out the overuse of the notwithstanding clause to suspend people’s rights and freedoms.”
The prime minister’s comments came one day after Ontario Education Minister Stephen Lecce tabled the “Keeping Students in Class Act,” legislation designed to prevent a strike while imposing a four-year contract on 55,000 school support workers represented by the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE).
The notwithstanding clause in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms allows governments to temporarily override some constitutionally guaranteed rights for five years. It was used in the Ontario bill to “protect against legal challenges, which may create destabilizing uncertainty for students and families,” the provincial government has argued. Read More...
