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Carney Wants the Power to Break Strikes. Unions Vow to Defy Him

Ottawa’s push to keep the economy moving is setting up a showdown with organized labour

Canada is heading for chaos—and the federal government is to blame.

The Carney administration aims to pass Bill C-39, an omnibus bill addressing changes in various sectors

An amendment to Section 107 proposed by the bill would effectively kill the right to strike for federally regulated workers

Canadian union leaders warn that this could lead to abuses of power and infringement on workers’ rights

The cause of the bedlam is a new bill, C-39, the Building Canada Strong Act. It’s a behemoth that the Mark Carney ministry hopes will speed up projects and reduce what it sees as impediments to getting things done. At 246 pages, the omnibus bill addresses infrastructure, transportation, environmental regulation, and labour relations. Rather than a traditional committee review, it will go through a special committee designed to dig into the bill exclusively. The government will work hard to get it through Parliament, and soon, and will treat opposition as worse than an inconvenience: a threat to sovereignty, prosperity, and the national interest.

There are any number of choke points that could—and will—hold up or disrupt the bill and its implementation, from the Commons to the Senate to social movements and onwards to the courts and to the streets and beyond. The government has decided, in its haste to redefine peace, order, and good government, and its zeal to build, baby, build, to pick several fights at once. It’s a particular sort of wisdom to read history and figure that a multi-front war can’t fail, but the Liberals see a chance.

Behind it, however, is a long-term, no-holds-barred struggle with environmentalists, First Nations, and labour, who won’t be universally prepared to welcome government expediting its agenda and rolling over to the free market in the name of urgency.

That haste has manifested itself in fatal arrogance—and one risky bet in particular. Exhibit A: Bill C-39 would entrench and expand a provision, section 107 of the Labour Code, that would all but kill the right to strike for federally regulated workers. It’s a measure the Canadian Labour Congress says would grant the feds the “broadest strike intervention powers” among G7 nations. Specifically, the bill amends Section 107 to give a federal minister entrenched powers to make a final, arbitrary........

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