The Charter of Rights and Freedoms was designed to guarantee our human rights.

Earlier this week the Ontario government pre-emptively introduced legislation relying on the Notwithstanding clause of the Canadian Constitution (Section 23) to unilaterally impose a collective agreement on the educational worker unions of CUPE.  

In 2015, a ruling of the Supreme Court of Canada declared that the right to strike is constitutionally protected under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. No government in Canadian history has ever attempted to preempt this right. 

In fact, no other Ontario government has ever used the Notwithstanding clause - for any legislation -  in the 35 years before the current government came to power.  Since assuming power in 2018, the Conservative provincial government under Premier Doug Ford has either used, or prepared to use this 'nuclear option' three times.  In each case, the use of the clause was intended to prevent participation in the political process. 

We are calling on our federal government to protect the rights of all Canadians by invoking the Federal power of Disallowance.  Section 33 of our Constitution was never designed to circumvent collective bargaining, and to allow this egregious abuse of power would create a precedent for governments of all political persuasions to abuse the rights of workers.  

Disallowance is the only means left to restore the democratic process, and respect the intentions of all those who created, signed and ratified our constitution.  Only disallowance will prevent the exercise of Section 33 from becoming a routine manner for provincial legislatures to conduct extra-judicial violations of the Charter-protected  rights of Canadians.

We demand that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Minister of Justice David Lametti employ the powers constitutionally invested in the Federal government to prevent the Ontario government from destroying the rights of workers in our country.