Really, what's the problem with Bill 45 and Bill 46?
Recently, the PC government decided that binding arbitration was a right our pubic service should no longer have. So it introduced Bill 46 (the Public Services Salary Restraint Act), which results in the government having the exclusive right to impose a settlement on our public service. Arbitration, which seems like a reasonable thing when there's disagreement, is no longer available to public servants. What this really means is that the government can make a ridiculously bad proposal to its civil service, negotiate with arbitrary intent, and then impose a settlement that completely disregards anything the other side has to say.
Bill 45 (the Public Service Continuation Act) is even more draconian. Under Alison Redford's leadership, the PC government has decided that no one can even talk about a strike. They've decided that would be illegal and punishable under the law. Yes, you can't even talk about it.
Let's be clear: I do not support unions. They are from a different century. They are counter-productive. They encourage lessened productivity and stifle independent thinking. They develop more followers than leaders. But, these are not the issues here.
I fully support their right to exist, their right to negotiate, their right to express themselves, their right to assembly peacefully, and their right to represent their members. In my Canada, I completely support these principles as fundamental to our Charter of Rights and Freedoms ... because, if I do not, then I can not have the same rights myself. Selfish of me, isn't it?
These rights are essentially taken away with Bills 45 and 46. These Bills are not legislation to level the playing field, nor to undo a wrong from the past. These Bills take away fundamental rights that we all should have, even if we're not particularly fond of unions.
In Canada, we have claimed fundamental human rights through mostly the political process, and without violence, over many years of effort. Slavery was eliminated by different laws between 1793 and 1833. Adult women got the right to vote, through different laws, between 1884-1919. In our Canadian democracy, these fundamental human rights were achieved mostly without violence long before the same was achieved in many other countries, including our American neighbours and our friends, the Swiss. These human rights were achieved because we fought hard (mostly at the ballot box) for the right to be free, to vote, to protest; for the right to assemble, to disagree, to marry anyone we loved, and the right to speak out, publicly, without fear of government; even to form unions and professional associations and clubs and groups.
There are some, today ... provincially and federally ... who want to take away some of those rights, through the bullying of a majority government that came to power with a minority of votes. But these draconian acts have no place in my Alberta or my Canada.
I like our rights and freedoms in our non-violent, peaceful, safe, quiet Canada. In our quite atmosphere, sometimes civil, I can protest, I can speak, I can write, I can vote and I can influence. I can congregate with those of like mind, and even with those I don't care for very much. Without fear. Everyone else should have these rights too.
We can bring about positive change, but only if we have the right to speak up and congregate. It has always been, in Canada, that we bring about improvements together. We alter the course of the future. And we accomplish positive change, every minute of every day, simply by speaking out and being heard. Bills 45 and 46 remove many of those rights. The slope introduced by the Alberta government of Alison Redford is very slippery indeed.
I reject the notion that our governments can take away the right of anyone to speak freely.
