FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE June 30, 2015
Conservatives Use Machiavellian Ploy to Pass Anti-labour Bill
GLACE BAY, NS – Rodger Cuzner, Liberal Labour critic, expressed deep disappointment that the anti-labour Bill C-377 was passed by the Conservative Senate majority today.
“The Harper Conservatives would make Machiavelli proud. C-377 is just another example of how low this government is willing to go to subvert and disrespect the rules of parliament and principles of fairness on the Harper conviction that the end justifies the means,” said Cuzner.
The Conservative senators used their majority in the Senate today to pass Bill C-377, the union transparency legislation. They were able to force a final vote only after overruling their own Speaker to circumvent the rules to do so. “When the Harper Conservatives can’t win by the rules, they just make their own,” said Cuzner.
The Bill is badly crafted and fundamentally flawed legislation that will make unprecedented and unwarranted disclosure about unions and their members, as well as other organizations that do business with unions. Constitutional experts have said it is unconstitutional; privacy experts believe it will violate the privacy rights of millions of Canadians; and seven provinces oppose it.
The Liberal Party believes C-377 to be purely ideological and highly partisan legislation which serves no demonstrable public good or necessary policy objective - its sole purpose to diminish and weaken the labour movement in Canada.
The Liberal Party is committed to fair and balanced labour laws and has already promised to repeal C-377 as well as C-525, another ant-labour bill, should it form government.
“C-377 exploits the ideals of accountability and transparency to single out and punitively attack the labour movement in Canada; trampling the privacy rights of millions of Canadians in the process,” said Cuzner.