SCC Constitutionalizes The Right To Strike For Unionized Employees

On the heels of its labour friendly decision in Mounted Police Association of Ontario v. Canada ("MPAO") which granted RCMP officers the right to unionize (and which our colleagues in Vancouver wrote about here), the Supreme Court of Canada ("SCC") released its highly anticipated decision in Saskatchewan Federation of Labour v. Saskatchewan, 2015 SCC 4 ("SFL"). In SFL, the SCC was tasked with determining whether the prohibition on the right to strike for public sector employees the Government deemed "essential service employees" was a violation of section 2(d) of Charter of Rights and Freedoms ("Charter"), which protects the right of freedom of association. This case presented the SCC with the opportunity to revisit whether there is constitutional protection for the right to strike. An issue it decided in the negative almost 30 years ago.