Alrighty then. Apparently McGuinty’s fears of a Charter challenge have given ways to a fear of the wrath of York students and parents. The Globe and Mail reports that the government will attempt to legislate an end to the strike today with an “emergency” recall of the Legislature. Not sure if the NDP will support this, nor is it clear when this legislation will actually make it into law, and therefore when classes will begin.
I’ll post the Bill when I see it. We’ll have to wait and see if the union challenges the legislation under Section 2(d) of the Charter. From my perspective, I don’t think this is the ideal “test” case for making the argument that the courts should expand “freedom of association” to include a right to strike. But CUPE might not care about that. In any event, the more pressing question is what will an interest arbitrator do here given the fact that neither side has given much in months of bargaining and the union members overwhelmingly rejected the employers’ “best offer”. We’ll keep you posted.
