Lawmakers voted unanimously to repeal Bill 28, requiring just 20 minutes to “deem that the legislation never came into force.” The province had passed the legislation on Nov. 3 in an attempt to prevent a strike by 55,000 workers from the Canadian Union of Public Employees. But thousands of workers, including teaching assistants, librarians and custodians, walked off the job anyway, closing many schools across the province for in-person learning for two days. Last week, Premier Doug Ford offered to withdraw the legislation if CUPE members returned to work, which they did. CUPE members declared victory on Monday. “I feel vindicated,” said Laura Walton, president of CUPE’s Ontario Council of School Board Unions. “I think for education workers, this was a fight, this was a fight for the province of Ontario, and I really hope it serves a message: you can’t take away workers’ rights.” The administration’s law, which used the absentee clause to protect itself from constitutional challenges, had set fines for violating the law at a maximum of $4,000 per worker per day and up to $500,000 per day for the union.
CUPE, government still ‘far away’, union says
The two sides returned to the negotiating table last Tuesday. At a news conference Monday, Walton noted that the two sides are still “far apart” in negotiations. Education Minister Stephen Lecce was not in the legislature when the government scrapped the bill. Earlier in the term, Lecce said the government would remain at the table to complete a deal that “keeps children in class”. “That’s our commitment,” he said. “What we’re driven by is what the people of Ontario sent us here to do.” The government initially offered raises of two percent a year for workers making less than $40,000 and 1.25 percent for everyone else, but the four-year deal mandated by Bill 28 would give workers 2.5 percent annual raises who make less than $43,000 and 1.5 percent raises for everyone else. CUPE members and supporters rallied outside Queen’s Park in Toronto on Nov. 4, the first day of an indefinite strike that closed schools in boards across the province. (Carlos Osorio/CBC) CUPE said the framework is not accurate because the increases actually depend on hourly wages and pay scales, so the majority of workers earning less than $43,000 in a year would not get 2.5 percent. The union said the workers, who make an average of $39,000 a year, are generally the lowest paid at the schools and were asking for annual wage increases of 11.7 percent. CUPE said it more than halved its wage offer in a counter-offer in early November and made “substantial” moves in other areas too.
“This act should never have been introduced”
On Sunday, Ford said he had no regrets about using the notwithstanding clause, which allows a government to override charter rights for a five-year period. “I don’t,” he said. “It’s in the constitution.” Ford said a strike is “more devastating” than using the clause anyway. “Keeping the kids at home, dumping them on the grandparents, employers shouting, ‘We need people,’ I think that’s a little bit more serious in my opinion,” he said. “It affects the whole economy.” After news of the bill’s repeal, Noa Mendelsohn Aviv, the executive director and general counsel of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, asked Ford to commit to never again invoking the invalid clause. “This act should never have been introduced and was an affront to the rights and freedoms of every person in Canada,” Mendelson Aviv said in a statement. He previously noted that Ontario had never used the clause until recently, with the Ford government threatening to use it three times in the past four years. “Every provincial, territorial and federal government needs to understand: the Charter represents our aspiration for a free and fair society — and we will fight to protect it.”
