back-to-work – mackaycartoons

Friday November 4, 2022

November 4, 2022 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday November 4, 2022

Virus’, a summons, strike, and notwithstanding: A bad week for Doug Ford

August 3, 2022

Some of the largest pediatric hospitals across the country are being overwhelmed by an unprecedented surge in sick children, forcing them to keep families waiting for hours in emergency departments, cancel surgeries and transfer some teens to adult facilities.

An unusually early upswing in respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infections is partly to blame. But other problems – including the inability of many families to find primary care providers and a shortage of over-the-counter fever and pain medication for infants and children – are adding to the crisis.

With emergency rooms seeing far more seriously ill children than normal and pediatric in-patient and intensive-care units at or near capacity, doctors say they are unsure how the health care system will cope when cold and flu season hits its peak in the next few months. (The Globe & Mail)

June 16, 2021

Meanwhile, Ontario has now passed legislation making it illegal for 55,000 education workers represented by the Canadian Union of Public Employees to strike and imposing a contract on them.

The workers are expected to walk off the job Friday after mediation between the Ontario government and the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) failed to reach a deal. There’s no word on when the job action will end. School boards are advising parents to make alternative child-care plans into next week.

Education Minister Stephen Lecce said the government had no choice but to proceed with its legislation, which includes the notwithstanding clause that allows the legislature to override parts of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms for a five-year term.

November 2, 2022

“For the sake of Ontario’s two million students, to keep classrooms open, CUPE has left us with no choice but to pass the Keeping Kids in Class Act,” he said.

“It is my hope and expectation that they will show up tomorrow for our kids,” said Lecce, saying the union would not rescind its intent to strike when the two parties went back to the bargaining table.

Bill 28 will make strike action illegal, though the CUPE has said workers will walk off the job Friday regardless. Early childhood educators, educational assistants and custodians are among those taking part in the strike.

Premier Doug Ford, who was not present during the final vote on Bill 28, said Thursday that the union left him with “no choice” but to introduce Bill 28. He said students have already suffered through two years of pandemic disruptions, and the government will use every tool at its disposal to ensure kids stay in class full-time. (CBC News)

October 27, 2022

Ontario government lawyers argued Tuesday there would be “irreparable harm” to the rule of law if Premier Doug Ford and a top minister were compelled to testify at a federal inquiry after citing parliamentary privilege in trying to avoid doing so.

But lawyers for the Public Order Emergency Commissioner, which is overseeing the inquiry, argued evidence of that harm was “speculative” at best.

The arguments were made in Federal Court as Ford and then-solicitor general Sylvia Jones look to quash a summons for them to appear at the inquiry examining the the federal government’s use of the Emergencies Act to end the so-called Freedom Convoy protests in Ottawa and Windsor, Ont., last winter.

February 16, 2022

Both Ford and Jones have argued through their lawyers that they’re immune to testifying after invoking parliamentary privilege, a centuries-old privilege enshrined in the constitution that is granted to sitting politicians.

Parliamentary privilege is what protects the separation of court, the Crown and the legislature in the proper functioning of a constitutional system, said Susan Keenan, a lawyer for the province.

Justice Simon Fothergill said both Ford and Jones have “relevant” testimony to give and that the harm to them, practically speaking, is “not all that serious, just two people testifying.”

He noted that parliamentary privilege resulting in immunity to being summoned to a criminal or civil court is a long-standing privilege. But Fothergill said this case will turn on whether he finds that privilege applies to public inquiries.

The judge said he’ll have a decision by Nov. 8, two days before Ford and Jones are schedule to testify at the inquiry. (Global News)

From sketch to finish, see the current way Graeme completes an editorial cartoon using an iPencil, the Procreate app, and a couple of cheats on an iPad Pro … These sped up clips are posted to encourage others to be creative, to take advantage of the technology many of us already have and to use it to produce satire. Comfort the afflicted. Afflict the comforted.

Wednesday November 2, 2022

November 2, 2022 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday November 2, 2022

Ontario government’s wrecking ball negotiating tactic not an answer

Prior to the last province-wide crisis in education, Mike Harris government education minister John Snobelen promised to make changes in Ontario’s education policy by “creating a crisis.”

July 29, 2022

Sadly, it looks like Doug Ford and his education minister, Stephen Lecce, are planning to do the same thing. This week, rather than continuing bargaining with Canadian Union of Public Employees education workers, the province passed a back-to-work law before a job action could begin, imposed an non-negotiated contract arbitrarily, and promised to use the notwithstanding clause of Canada’s constitution to fend off any legal challenges.

Why? Lecce says it is in response to CUPE’s having given strike notice that job action could — not would — start as early as this Friday. The sledgehammer approach is needed to guarantee “stability” in education, says Lecce.

That’s a red herring. In the event of job action, Hamilton public schools will remain open. In Halton, schools will move to alternative scheduling to allow for adequate cleaning. And the Hamilton Catholic board has said it would close schools.

October 20, 2021

Clearly, denying collective bargaining to education assistants, custodians, early childhood educators and office staff wasn’t destined to close all schools as Lecce claims. So just what is the government’s agenda? Will it do the same when crunch-time comes while bargaining with teachers? Does the government intend to take away bargaining rights from all education workers?

CUPE education workers, 70 per cent of whom are women, are the lowest paid in the school system. On average, they earn $39,000 a year. With inflation, they have seen real wage reduction of more than 10 per cent. CUPE is seeking 11.7 per cent increases.

We’re not judging whether that increase is justified or not, or whether the province’s offer, closer to 1 per cent, is remotely fair. That’s what negotiations are for, including mediation and ultimately arbitration.

But prematurely neutering the bargaining process by declaring any job action illegal is not fair, ethical or wise.

August 20, 2012

The last government that tried imposing a contract on education workers was the McGuinty Liberal government. In 2016, Justice Thomas Lederer of the Ontario Superior Court said of that imposition: “When reviewed in the context of the Charter and the rights it provides, it becomes apparent that the process engaged in was fundamentally flawed. It could not, by its design, provide meaningful collective bargaining.”

The Ford government clearly anticipated a similar finding, and is already prepared to use the notwithstanding clause — the constitution’s nuclear option — to ignore any legal ruling. That is an abuse of the intention of the clause.

Consider the words of federal Justice Minister David Lametti, who is looking at how Ottawa could challenge the province’s use of the notwithstanding clause.

June 11, 2021

“It de facto means that people’s rights are being infringed and it’s being justified using the notwithstanding clause,” he said. “Using it pre-emptively is exceedingly problematic. It cuts off both political debate and judicial scrutiny.”

The fact that the province has already decided to use the nuclear option also suggests it knows full well it is violating the constitutional rights of education workers. Otherwise it wouldn’t need to rely on the notwithstanding clause prior to any adjudication. We should be concerned that our government is knowingly violating the rights of 55,000 Ontarians, including thousands in Hamilton and Halton.

No one wants schools closed. No one wants an education strike. But are we willing to accept accomplishing those objectives by force, taking a wrecking ball to the collective bargaining process?

If we are, we would be wise to ask ourselves: Who, and what, is next? (Hamilton Spectator Editorial)

Tuesday May 26, 2015

May 25, 2015 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday May 26, 2015

Wynne Government imposes back-to-work legislation on striking teachers

The Ontario government will be tabling back-to-work legislation today for striking secondary school teachers, but since New Democrats won’t be supporting it, students will be kept from class a few more days.

NDP Leader Andrea Horwath says her party won’t support the Liberals’ motion for unanimous consent to get it passed today, but the government could use its majority to pass it by Thursday.

That would mean more than 70,000 students in the Sudbury-area Rainbow District, Peel Region and Durham Region, who have been kept from class for up to five weeks, would return to school on Friday at the earliest.

The back-to-work legislation is being introduced after the Education Relations Commission ruled that strikes by high school teachers in three boards are putting students’ school years in jeopardy.

Education Minister Liz Sandals says she respects the collective bargaining process, but it’s important to get kids back to class to complete their school years.

While the striking secondary teachers in three boards are set to be legislated back to work, their central union said this weekend that talks with the provincial government have reached an impasse.

The Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation plans to apply to the provincial labour ministry for conciliation — the teachers must first use the government third-party assistance to try to reach a contract before they can take provincewide strike action.

The Ontario Labour Relations Board had also been set to rule on whether the three local strikes were illegal.

This is the first round of negotiations under a new bargaining system the Liberal government introduced last year, separating the process into local and central talks. The school boards argued that the three local strikes were really on central issues such as class sizes. (Source: Hamilton Spectator)

Monday September 3, 2012

September 3, 2012 by Graeme MacKay

By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator, Monday September 3, 2012

Thousands take to Toronto streets

It may look like your typical parade — marchers marching, flags flying and pipers piping — but Toronto’s annual Labour Day parade is a unique blend of celebration and protest.

“These people have come out to show pride in their movement and the contributions it has made,” said John Cartwright, president of the Toronto and York Region Labour Council, which helped organize the event.

Cartwright estimated that up to 22,000 Ontario workers took to the Queen St. W. route Monday morning, including federal NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair. From teachers and nurses to firefighters and actors, union groups from across GTA were well represented.

As usual, the march mixed steel drum bands, dancing and cheering with banners demanding more rights for workers.

Cartwright said this year’s parade was especially important in light of recent labour conflicts, particularly between the Ontario government and the teacher’s union — which Cartwright called “an unprecedented attack” on teachers’ rights — and the Canadian economy’s sluggish recovery.

Gerard O’Neill, president of the Durham local of the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario, said teachers want the public to understand what they’re facing.

Ontario teachers have not made any move to strike, but remain at loggerheads with the Dalton McGuinty government, which first demanded and failed to get most boards to settle deals with their teachers by Sept. 1, their first day without a contract, then introduced Bill 115, which imposes a freeze on wages, cuts sick days and bans strikes and lockouts for two years. Many members from other unions expressed their support for teachers and their right to collective bargaining at the parade Monday. (Source: Toronto Star)

Wednesday June 22, 2011

June 22, 2011 by Graeme MacKay

By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday June 22, 2011

Back-to-work Legislation in the making

Canada Post workers are gathering in the heart of Toronto’s downtown to rally against the federal government’s attempt to force them to go back to work if a contract agreement can’t be struck.

John Cartwright, the president of Toronto and York region labour council, said he expects hundreds to gather at the rally Wednesday morning at the intersection of Yonge and Dundas streets.

In addition to postal workers, workers from every sector of the economy are expected to attend the rush-hour rally at one of the busiest corners in the city.

Those people, Cartwright said, are standing up for the next generation of Canadian workers who deserve the same wages and benefits his generation received. As of about 8:30 a.m., more than 100 workers had assembled at Yonge and Dundas, surrounded by loudspeakers and carrying placards emblazoned with slogans like “negotiate not legislate.”

The rally comes two days after the Conservative government in Ottawa tabled back-to-work legislation. Parliament spent much of the day Tuesday debating the legislation, which would force workers to go back to work should the union, CUPW, and management fail to reach a deal on a new contract.

The government hopes to vote on the legislation Thursday.

Canada Post locked out workers on June 14, after 12 days of rotating strikes launched by the union. The two sides met for talks on Tuesday (Source: CBC News)