Supreme Court cites Lavigne and Rand to rule in favour of union access to member information #cdnpoli #canlab

The Supreme Court seems to continue to agree with the Lavigne (and Rand) decision. Here is an excerpt from the decision supporting unions right to have access to their own member’s home contact information.

[38] In Lavigne, the Court concluded that the payment by Rand Formula employees of union dues for the purposes of collective bargaining did not amount to unjustified “compelled association” under s. 2(d). Even though s. 2(d) protected freedom from association as well as freedom of association, the majority concluded that s. 2(d) does not provide protection from all forms of involuntary association, and was not intended to protect against association with others that is a necessary and inevitable part of membership in a modern democratic community.

In other words, s. 2(d) is not a constitutional right to isolation: Lavigne, at pp. 320-21. While in Advance Cutting & Coring three different approaches to the right not to associate emerged, on none of them would Ms. Bernard have a plausible s. 2(d) claim.