Groups representing more than 420,000 teachers across Canada have come together to denounce the recent use of the notwithstanding clause to force teachers back to work and terminate legal labour disputes.
In a joint statement on Tuesday, Clint Johnston, president of the Canadian Teachers’ Federation (CTF), joined Alberta Teachers’ Association (ATA) president Jason Schilling to call on Prime Minister Mark Carney to annul or repeal future provincial use of the notwithstanding clause to restrict workers’ rights to strike.
In October, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith’s United Conservative government used its majority power to invoke the notwithstanding clause and pass a bill that ended a three-week-long provincial public school teachers’ strike that affected more than 740,000 children.
Before the bill was introduced, Smith told reporters the size of the strike and the need for ongoing labour stability in schools required the clause, which overrides Charter rights and prevents court challenges of the legislation for up to five years.
“This is a very unique situation we find ourselves in. This is a unique strike. We’ve never had 51,000 workers off the job at the same time,” Smith said.
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“We believe invoking the notwithstanding clause was a necessary measure to end the undue hardship caused by the teacher strike,” Alberta Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides said in a statement to Global News on Tuesday.
“The teacher’s strike reached a point where it caused irreparable harm on student learning. Our government will not hesitate to use every available legal tool in defence of students. This was a necessary step and the most responsible decision for kids, teachers and parents. We stand by those statements, and the legislation.”
The joint statement mentioned Alberta’s situation as only the most recent example of the use of the clause to “deny human and democratic rights,” pointing to other legislation, including Saskatchewan’s “Parents Bill of Rights” in 2023 and the “Keeping Students in Class Act” in Ontario in 2022, as well as several others.
It called the use of the notwithstanding clause in labour negotiations “an abuse of legislative power… teachers’ rights to freedom of association, collective bargaining and the right to strike are constitutionally protected and must remain so.”
Johnston says the ground unions like his are standing on is becoming “increasingly unstable.”
“At times like this, we need to be able to depend upon the agreed upon structures baked into our society to uphold and defend the rights of those who would fall prey to the political whims of provincial and territorial government.”
“The erosion of trust, the damage done to a profession, the message sent to workers is that their rights are somehow conditional, temporary, and negotiable when politically convenient,” Schilling said.
“I’ve watched that play out in the classrooms and staff rooms across this province. Once that trust is broken, rebuilding will take years. Morale suffers, relationships fracture.”
Schilling adds the ripple effects are still being felt long after the bargaining table was wiped clean.
“Young people again begin to question whether public service that supports our communities is worth the sacrifice. Experienced professionals begin to leave.”
The Canadian Teachers’ Federation has launched a petition in support of the groups. The petition will be open until July 24, 2026.
Complex problem with no clear solution.
On the one hand we have a porous pseudo-constitution via the notwithstanding clause.
On the other hand, we have a politically activist judiciary that ignores the fundamentals of democracy by grossly intervening in reasonable government action that they just disagree with.
“Canada” where fundamental rights rely on hiw popular you are with the voting majority or elitest out of touch judges.
Disgusting behavior to co-opt moldable minds for their own personal gains like the teachers are.
This headline could have just as easily read:
“Teachers seek higher wages for part time work while showing no respect for parents, taxpayers”
Yet a high percentage of these teachers and their unions voted for this. You were warned for years, and ignored it because Pierre bad.
I find it pretty funny that people just can’t stop blaming Trump for something he has zero attachment nor word spoken of whatever topic, but some how in these people’s little minds they believe is trumps fault.
If you hear someone complain or, as they do, fly off the handle when you mention his name, and ask what they don’t like or how he has affected whichever topic you’re discussing.
It’s weird how the media helped create a boogeyman for everyone to blame, hard time at school? Trumps fault.
It’s funny, trump doesn’t run Canada, the progressive liberals do, and every mistake they made to put Canada into recession is trumps fault, I think carney and the progressive liberals need to explain to Canadians why this is happening, and if they say any of the same rhetoric they have been, they lose their position because clearly they aren’t in it for Canada
I do not think we can really blame the younger teachers completely. After all they got their degree from a university system that is so far to the Left it would make Stalin and friends smile. For a lot of them it takes a few years experience in the real world to finally realize the ‘dogma’ loaded into them in university bares no resemblance to actual normalcy.
Governor smith, undercover seperatists operative of the 51 state is using the trump playbook. The anti Canadian governor is a narcissist dictator just like trump. Carney should have her locked up.
Teachers we can all admit are an essential service in today’s society for one. Second, public service unions should not have the ability to strike
Teachers, we still don’t care. Signed: most Albertans
It’s simple. “Essential service” or not. So teachers make your arguments that you are not vital to society shall we say. All your whining all around the periphery is at best specious. As to the courts involvement, they have gone so far past what their role should be. We are a democracy. The people have the say in how their lives should go. Not some unelected few with their superiority complex going on. It’s has a very Wizard of Oz feel. Don’t look behind the curtain.
I would prefer they stop whining and start focusing on the academic education of their students
In response to ‘Try This’:
Although never one to be sanguine about strike action and participating in them only reluctantly, as a retired teacher it annoys me when people go on about teachers having cushy jobs. Although I can understand it, because I used to think the same until I became a teacher myself.
First of all, professional development days are not “days off.” They are a change of pace, but they are still a full day of work, albeit work focused on School Board or Province-mandated learning and restricted to the student day.
Second, the 8:30 AM -3:30 PM day you cited is the student day, not the teacher day. Teachers are contractually obligated to arrive at LEAST 15 minutes before the students and stay at LEAST 15 minutes after they leave. But what they actually do aside from that minimum obligation varies depending on the teacher and their family responsibilities. Some teachers work at the school only for those hours, but take work home with them to do when their family responsibilities are finished, before going to bed. Others arrive as early as 7:00 AM to get ready for the day, while others trickle in depending on their home responsibilities. Some work after school for as long as they are able before going home to family responsibilities. But still they take work home to do at night, lugging bags or boxes of paperwork home. This is necessary because teaching involves planning, preparation, and paperwork. I myself, not a morning person and often too exhausted to force myself to do the work I took home, used to stay working for long hours after the children left, to get it done. When I was doing Special Education, I had even more paperwork than regular class teachers had to do and used to end my day anywhere between 10:00 and 11:30 PM. But later, as a Kindergarten teacher, I still used to work until anywhere between 7:00 and 10:00, depending on how much I had to do and how exhausted I was. Teaching is rewarding, but you obviously have no idea how much children can take it out of one, especially these days when many more children are hard to manage behaviourally than was once the case! In some schools, things are so bad that teachers have Kindies and elementary school kids actually throw chairs at them! Not to mention having to program not only for regular students, but Special Ed students as well, which adds to not only the workload, but the daily challenges that occur and exhaust the teacher!
You obviously begrudge teachers their Christmas and March Breaks, and their summer vacations. Well, teachers need these rest breaks for the sake of their health! Many often get sick just as the break begins, because they are so depleted. It certainly happened to me often enough and if I didn’t get sick, I was so exhausted that I had to sleep most of my breaks away, so that I could return from them refreshed!
The American poet Mary T. Lathrap wrote a poem, “Judge Softly” that I think critics of teachers should give a thought to before lambasting them. In it she wrote, “Before you judge a man, walk a mile in his moccasins.”
try this is stupid.
Dee the russkie pimp is here. lol
Why are they striking?
what a bunch of snow flakes now , they signed up for that when they became a teacher. always rally rally rally,, !!!
The clowns are still stuck on their failure to overthrow the Provincial government.
Just focus on teaching kids a balanced education (not a progressive socialist dogma one)
Cry me a river. If one wants to work in a job that requires no strikes – teachers, police, ambulance drivers, then one has to accept the fact that one can have collective bargaining, but no right to strike. – Teaching is a great job, 8:30am – 3pm hours. At least 1 day off a month for ‘professional development’. 2 days a year for convention. Christmas break, Easter break, Spring break, over 2 months off in the summer. Many people work 2 jobs to get the same paycheck.
The same teachers who want to strike, make the claim they are there 100% for the students. What a joke.
Time to threaten to disband the Teacher’s Union until they wise up.
Teachers not happy that they are the highest paid in western Canada, they want to be the highest paid in the world.