The Ontario government's move to force school-support staff to stay at work by using the heavy hammer of the notwithstanding clause could have huge repercussions on labour relations, experts say.
Noa Mendelsohn Aviv, the executive director of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, said in a statement Monday that the clause was "never meant to be used in contract negotiations, or as a casual tool to disrupt basic human rights safeguarded in our Charter."
From a legal perspective, Appiah said, the union's only options are political: convincing stakeholders, community members and ultimately voters to join them in protest, as well as walking off the job illegally. "I don't think we can use the circumstances to extrapolate what the government might do in a broader circumstance," he said.
Wildcat strikes usually refer to strikes taken by workers without being officially sanctioned by the union. Like wildcats, they are unpredictable and hard to control. "There hasn't really been a fundamental breakdown in negotiations," he said before it was clear the province would use the notwithstanding clause. "The province hasn't tried to come up with some other way to arbitrate their disputes."
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