Bill C-377 is a private member’s bill brought forward by Conservative backbencher Russ Hiebert and is thus not a government bill. It ostensibly seeks transparency and accountability for trade unions, but its real goal is to tie unions up in red tape (something that the government usually likes to say it is reducing) and to discourage businesses and individuals from working with, or for, unions.
The debates over this bill in the House of Commons failed to identify a number of critical problems with it. The Senate played its traditional role, taking the time to thoroughly analyze the bill. We found that:
- The bill will be challenged in court. Numerous experts told us it will be found unconstitutional. That is because it deals with labour relations, a matter of provincial, not federal, jurisdiction. This structural flaw in the bill was completely missed by all parties in the House of Commons.
- The bill is opposed by seven provincial governments, representing 80 per cent of the Canadian population. This stunning caution did not emerge until Senators asked the provinces for their input.
- The bill creates an unprecedented invasion of privacy, according to two privacy commissioners of Canada. It requires names, salaries and an accounting of time spent on and off the job to be published on the Internet.
- The bill is so poorly drafted, it reaches far beyond trade unions to doctors in medical associations, screenwriters, the NHL Players Association and the businesses that supply products and services to unions.
- Most shocking, the bill applies to over 9,000 mutual funds. Millions of ordinary Canadians who have no connection to a labour union will have their names and personal information posted on the Internet, just because they invested in a fund, in which someone in a union might also invest.
As the troubling scope of problems became better understood, it seemed likely that this deeply flawed private member’s bill would die, as many do. But the Harper government so badly wanted it in its suite of “achievements,” it broke Senate rules to assure the bill’s passage by using fast-track procedures that are only supposed to be used for government legislation.
If there had been no Senate, this malevolent legislation would have governed our practices for over two years already
When the impartial speaker of the Senate — himself a Harper appointee — ruled that this was not proper Parliamentary practice, the Conservative majority voted to overturn the ruling. Institutional authority was usurped in a wholly unprecedented manner by the government itself.
This marks a dangerous turning point: Parliament is now passing laws that govern Canadians by breaking the laws that govern itself. Rules no longer apply, unless the government wants them to.
Does the Senate matter? If the Senate’s rules had not been broken, Bill C-377 would not be law. If there had been no Senate, this malevolent legislation would have governed our practices for over two years already, though it’s unlikely to survive a court challenge.
Our insistence that Bill C-377 be thoroughly examined, not rubber-stamped, bought Canadians time. Reporting requirements will not come into play until well after October’s federal election. If a new government is elected, this act could be repealed before millions of taxpayers’ dollars are squandered in the courts by the Harper government’s inevitable attempts to defend the indefensible.
Importantly, before Bill C-377 entangles millions of people in unnecessary bureaucracy, Canadians have an opportunity to pass their own judgment about a government so determined to make this its last act, that it broke the rules in order to do so.
That reckoning may make Bill 3-377 well and truly the Harper Government’s last act.
Original ArticleSource: news.nationalpost.com/
Author: James Cowan
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