2014.01.16
CWA Canada has joined the battle against Alberta’s Bill 45, which Director Martin O’Hanlon calls “an assault on free speech,” and the Calgary Herald describes as “Orwellian.”
O’Hanlon notified the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees (AUPE) that CWA Canada will do all it can to support the union’s constitutional challenge of Bill 45, under which anyone could be punished for encouraging a wildcat strike.
"CWA Canada, as the country's only all-media union, strongly supports a constitutional challenge and I look forward to seeing this piece of rubbish thrown into the legislative dustbin,” O’Hanlon said.
“It’s stunning that a democratically elected government could pass such anti-democratic legislation.
"This is an assault on free speech, on free press and on the principles of good democracy. Every Albertan and every Canadian should be deeply troubled about this and, more important, should speak out against it."
AUPE, whose members have been prohibited from striking since 1977, has also filed a lawsuit against Bill 46, which removes its right to seek binding arbitration.
The United Nurses of Alberta filed its own legal challenge to Bill 45, saying the “blanket ban on strikes by large swaths of public employees in the code violate (charter guarantees of) freedom of expression, freedom of association, the right to liberty and security of the person.”
Prominent Edmonton lawyer Fred Kozak, who specializes in constitutional and media law, said Bill 45 is “pretty draconian” in that its limitations on free expression could be applied to any citizen.
Journalists are not exempt, so columnists in particular could be placed in jeopardy, though “it’s hard to imagine a journalist being charged,” he said in an interview with CWA Canada.
Kozak, whose major media clients include the CBC, The Canadian Press, and several daily newspapers, said a columnist would likely get away with being scathingly critical of the government, but urging a union to engage in an illegal strike could lead to charges, especially if the union acted on the advice.
The irony, Kozak said, is that someone “who is taking the government to task for introducing draconian legislation, which on its face is constitutionally suspect, could be punished for exercising the right to free expression.”
A Calgary Herald editorial, decrying this “dark chapter in Alberta history,” noted that, under the “disturbing” Bill 45, “public sector workers, union leaders and even members of the general public can be fined thousands of dollars for just musing about or encouraging a strike. If this sounds Orwellian, it’s because it is.
“This legislation will also impose $250,000 fines per day for any illegal strike and a $1-million fine per day that would go into a liability fund. Fines for illegal strikes are not unusual, though these ones are onerous.
“Needless to say, making it illegal to just talk about striking is the kind of law one might expect in some banana republic or other oppressive totalitarian state.”
Craig Loewen, spokesman for Deputy Premier Dave Hancock, told CBC’s Alberta legislature reporter (and CWA Canada member) John Archer in an email that journalists are not facing potential fines under Bill 45: “The law does not impact casual conversation, news reporting or a blogger posting an opinion. ... (It) is not violated if journalists comment on existing illegal strikes or in support of future illegal strikes. ... There would not be a public interest in prosecuting journalists.”
Canadian Journalists for Free Expression (CJFE) said in a news release that it is “extremely concerned by the Alberta government’s unprecedented and unacceptable attack on freedom of expression.”
Bill 45 “lays out harsh punishments for anyone who counsels government workers to strike or threaten to strike. It sets daily fines of $250,000 for unions, $10,000 for union leaders, a day’s pay for employees and $500 for anyone else. Advocating a slowdown or production disruption is subject to the same penalties.”
CJFE noted that “It could mean financial ruin for a blogger or columnist who opines that government employees in Alberta are getting a raw deal and says they ought to do something about it.”
Bob Barnetson, a labour relations professor at Athabasca University in Edmonton, characterized Bill 45 as fascist.
“Common features of fascist governments include the suppression of trade union liberty, using parliamentary politics to destroy parliamentary democracy, and a police apparatus that prevents, controls and represses dissidence and opposition.”