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The Alberta Teachers’ Association (ATA) is taking the provincial government to court, challenging its use of the notwithstanding clause in legislation that forced striking teachers back to work.
Alberta experienced its first provincewide teachers strike last month. About 51,000 public, separate and francophone teachers were off the job for more than three weeks, until Bill 2 — the Back to School Act —ordered teachers back to their classrooms on Oct. 29.
“This legal action is not symbolic; it is necessary,” ATA president Jason Schilling said during a news conference Thursday afternoon.
“We’re standing up for the [Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms] itself, for the rule of law and for the limits that protect citizens from arbitrary government decisions.”
The union filed an originating application — a court procedure used to start a legal action, especially when there’s no existing action or defendant — to the Court of King’s Bench Thursday, seeking an interlocutory injunction to pause the operation of Bill 2 while the court case is heard, Schilling said.
The union, he said, also filed a broader constitutional challenge Thursday, through which it wants the court to make several declarations: that the use of the notwithstanding clause was “improper and invalid,” that Section 14 of Bill 2, which pertains to court challenges, was unconstitutional and that the legislation violates the Charter freedoms of association and expression.
While speaking with reporters before the ATA’s announcement, Justice Minister Mickey Amery said the government would assess the situation after its announcement “and respond accordingly.”
“It’s difficult for me to speculate because of the use of the notwithstanding clause, but we’ll wait and see what that announcement includes,” Amery said.
The notwithstanding clause, Section 33 of the Charter, allows a government to override certain protected rights in a piece of legislation for up to five years. Although, a government could renew those provisions.
The Alberta government invoked the clause in Bill 2 to end the weeks-long strike. On Thursday, Amery reiterated the government’s stance that the strike was causing irreparable harm to students, particularly those preparing for post-secondary education, and it had to act.
A government memo, obtained by The Canadian Press in September, indicated its plans to use the clause in three separate pieces of legislation related to gender-diverse people.
If the injunction is granted, the union would be in a strike position again, Schilling said, but the union would weigh its options at that time.
“We will make sure that we do what is necessary to ensure that the stand that teachers have taken … around funding and class sizes and classroom conditions will still move forward,” he said.
If the court denies the injunction, the union will still proceed with its larger constitutional challenge, he said.
