In this week’s episode of The Line: Alberta Podcast, Rob Breakenridge takes a closer look at the debate around the notwithstanding clause and Alberta’s decision to invoke Section 33 of the Charter as part of their back-to-work legislation to end the teachers’ strike.
First of all, we’ll hear a defence of the notwithstanding clause and Alberta’s decision to apply it in this situation. We’ll hear from Geoffrey Sigalet, director of the UBC Research Group for Constitutional Law, an assistant professor of political science at UBC Okanagan, and senior fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute. He argues that Alberta is on solid legal and constitutional ground with its BIll 2.
On the other side, however, the Alberta Federation of Labour is quite outraged over BIll 2, and the use of the notwithstanding clause specifically. They’re describing it as an attack on organized labour and labour rights in the province. The AFL has even raised the spectre of a general strike in response to the government’s actions. We’ll hear from AFL president Gil McGowan.
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The Line: Alberta is a provincial bureau of The Line, edited by Jen Gerson and Matt Gurney. Email us at alberta@readtheline.ca.
