Flight attendants defying Carney’s illegal back to word order

By Tom Parkin

August 19th, 2025

BURLINGTON, ON

The right to bargain and strike is Charter-protected in Canada. But when Air Canada wanted Mark Carney to break the law for them, he did.

Almost 20 years ago the Supreme Court confirmed the Charter’s guarantee of freedom of association protects collective bargaining. And 10 years ago, the court agreed collective bargaining rights includes the right to strike.

It’s not absolute. That freedom isn’t protected if it would threaten the life, safety or health of another person. Police, fire fighters, paramedics, many hospital workers and others can’t strike. But flight attendants sure can. In theory.

Prime Minister aboard an Air Canada flight in better days: As Prime Minister, he has access to a government-owned jet.

Air Canada asked Carney to violate Charter and he did

Yet on the weekend, Liberals, who like to boast about their commitment to a rules-based order, committed some flagrant rules-breaking.

The current Air Canada dispute has its roots in the years when the company was struggling financially. Flight attendants, among others, took major pay concessions. In 2015 they signed an unprecedented 10 year collective agreement to give stability to the airline. Then the inflation surge of 2021-22 added to the concessions they’d already given.

Michael Rousseau, Air Canada CEO, pockets a “grotesque $12 million last year.”

But that 10 years deal is now up. Last year Air Canada earned $3.9 billion. With company executives paying themselves millions — including a grotesque $12 million last year for CEO Michael Rousseau — employees are looking to use collective bargaining to win back the concessions they took.

Patty Hajdu  “unaware of the practice”

Flight attendants also hope to end the practice of receiving no pay for ground hours worked. Unbelievably, Minister Patty Hajdu late today on Twitter implied she was unaware of the practice, which she called “allegations.”

Determined to repay their helpful employees with disdain equal to that they regularly inflict on paying passengers, Air Canada executives asked Prime Minister Mark Carney to issue orders taking away flight attendants’ collective bargaining rights. And Carney did.

Carney used an obscure section of the Canada Labour Code the government says gives them the authority to take away the rights to bargain and to strike. It doesn’t.

Canada Labour Code section 107 says the Minister can direct the Canadian Industrial Relations Board to “do such things as the Minister deems necessary.” But the section isn’t exempt from the Charter. It doesn’t invoke the notwithstanding clause. Section 107 itself may not be illegal, but the way it has been used by Carney certainly is.

NDP rediscovers purpose as Poilievre goes silent

Politically, Carney’s attack on worker rights has restored a sense of purpose among NDP MPs dispirited by their epic routing in this spring’s election. NDP leader Don Davies, formerly a staff lawyer for the Teamsters Union, has spoken at picket lines strongly denouncing Carney’s attack on workers’ Charter rights.

In contrast, Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre has remained silent, offering no public comment, perhaps because his party pioneered use of section 107.

Lisa Raittwhen she was Minister of Transportation .  She knew what she could do with Section 107 of the Labour code.

Section 107 was added to the Canada Labour Code in 1984. But it was never used until 2011 when Lisa Raitt, Stephen Harper’s Transport Minister, first used it against flight attendants.

After that, the section went unused for over 10 years. During that time Liberals, with Conservative help, reverted to using special-purpose legislation to take away the right to bargain and right to strike:

• November 2018 — Liberals and Conservatives voted in support of bill C-89, taking away the bargaining and strike rights of postal workers after three days of rotating strikes. NDP and BQ MPs voted against. CUPW took the law to court but four years later, in June 2024, the Ontario Superior Court dismissed CUPW’s case, arguing the case was moot because there was nothing left to remedy. CUPW is appealing the decision.
• April 2021 — Liberals again team up with Conservatives to pass bill C-29, taking away negotiating and strike rights from workers at the Port of Montreal. The NDP and BQ opposed the bill. CUPE is fighting the legislation in court.

Liberals’ Charter violations leaves labour stuck in court

Then suddenly in mid-2024, the Liberals rediscovered section 107 and have since used it rapid-fire, at least six times:

• June 2024 — Liberals take away the bargaining and strike rights of mechanics employed by WestJet
• July 2024 — Liberals take away the bargaining and strike rights of longshore workers at the Port of Vancouver
• August 2024 — Liberals take away bargaining and strike rights of railway workers at the request of railway companies CN Rail and Canadian Pacific Kansas City; Teamsters launch a court challenge
• December 2024 — Liberals take away bargaining and strike rights of postal workers; CUPW launch a court challenge
• May 2025 — Liberals take away the bargaining and strike rights of workers at the Port of Quebec. The order came after an 89 day lock-out during which the employer used replacement workers.
• August 2025 — the current orders against flight attendants.

It’s standard advice for union members to “obey now, grieve later.” And pursuing legal appeals of section 107 orders has been the path the labour movement has followed, up to now.

Airline strikers defy federal back-to-work order. Their Union leader said he was prepared to go to jail over the issue. He just might.

But when court cases drag on for years, later never comes. Meanwhile the hits keep coming. So flight attendants aren’t waiting for later, instead refusing to obey illegal orders now. This is historic stuff.

How this strike plays out will have historic importance to the labour movement and in deciding what kind of Canada we will become.

Hopefully it becomes a searing lesson to Mark Carney.