EDMONTON — Premier Danielle Smith’s government has passed a bill using the Charter’s notwithstanding clause to order 51,000 striking teachers back to work to end the largest walkout in Alberta history.
Members of Smith’s caucus, using their majority in the legislature and passing procedural rules to curtail debate, voted and passed the bill through three debate stages in six and a half hours late last night and into the early hours this morning.
Smith herself was not in the house for the introduction or the passage of the bill, having left earlier in the evening on a trade mission to Saudi Arabia and other destinations in the Middle East.
The Opposition NDP voted against the bill at all three stages, calling the use of the notwithstanding clause an authoritarian abuse of power from a government that professes to honour freedom and liberty.
Smith has said the clause, which shields the bill from court challenges, was regrettably necessary to avoid students falling further behind in their studies in the three-week strike.
The Alberta Teachers’ Association and other unions say they are considering their options on how to respond, saying that governments invoking the notwithstanding clause in labour disputes is an existential threat to workers’ ability to bargain.
More coming.
Lisa Johnson and Jack Farrell, The Canadian Press
