In early November, Doug Ford’s Conservatives faced a long-simmering crisis. At the height of the pandemic, Ontario’s schools had been closed for months longer than those in any other Canadian jurisdiction. Now, the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), representing 55,000 education support workers, was threatening a strike that would shutter many schools once again.
Ford’s Conservatives responded with the Keeping Students in Class Act, which imposed a new collective agreement backed by section 33 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms—the so-called notwithstanding clause that allows legislatures to temporarily override certain Charter rights, including the right to strike.
