Ontario Superior Court gives victory for workers' rights | What's Left

The Liberal government of Ontario passed Bill 115 in 2013 which stripped workers in the education sector of their rights to bargain collectively. In response, unions launched a Charter challenge against the law.

This week, Justice Lederer of the Ontario Superior Court handed workers a victory in their fight for the right to bargain and against the Liberal government. In his decisions, he wrote that Bill 115 was a flawed piece of legislation and “not just on the economic circumstances of education workers but on their associational rights and the dignity, autonomy and equality that comes with the exercise of that fundamental freedom.”

In particularly strong language against the government the court stated the following:

“Arbitrary” is an adjective. It can describe a thing which is based on change or is unfair. Cambridge Dictionaries Online explains the latter as follows: “using unlimited personal power without considering other people’s wishes”. In this vein, “arbitrary” can also mean “despotic”. The putting in place of the means by which Ontario’s goals were to be met was arbitrary.

• CUPE heralds major court victory in Bill 115 charter challenge