Wednesday 6 February 2008

SFL asks Government to refer Bills to Court of Appeal

Today, (February 6, 2008) the Saskatchewan Federation of Labour wrote to Sask. Party Premier Brad Wall asking that the Government refer two controversial labour bills to the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal to determine their constitutionality. The following media advisory was issued by the SFL.

Media Advisory

"For Immediate Release February 6th, 2008

Today the Saskatchewan Federation of Labour (SFL) asked Premier Brad Wall to refer Bills 5 and 6 to the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal for a determination as to the constitutionality of the Bills. The request was made pursuant to The Constitutional Questions Act of Saskatchewan.

If the government agrees to refer these Bills, the Court would be asked to determine whether or not the Bills violate workers’ rights under the freedom of association and the freedom of expression provisions of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Bill 5 is titled
An Act respecting Essential Public Services and Bill 6 is An Act to amend The Trade Union Act.

In order to explain this request, the SFL will hold a news conference:

February 7th at 9:30 a.m.
at the Saskatchewan Federation of Labour office
#220-2445 13th Avenue, Regina

The SFL represents about 95,000 unionized workers across the province in 37 affiliated unions."

4 comments:

lance said...

Larry, why the Appeals court?

Larry Hubich said...

Lance,

According to our legal team, the Court of Appeal is the appropriate Court prescribed by the Saskatchewan Constitutional Questions Act for the purposes of determination of these types of matters.

lance said...

Heh, I was just about to come back here and say, "Never mind, I read the Act."

The Act explicitly states that the LG can forward questions to the Appeals Court.

Cheers,
lance

Larry Hubich said...

Yes! We interpret it the same way.