School union asks McLachlin to cancel speech

British university lecture conflicts with strike, spurring call for her to withdraw

OTTAWA— Striking academic staff at Cambridge University say former chief justice Beverley McLachlin, who recognized a constitutional right to strike in Canada, should respect their picket line and cancel her speech Friday at Cambridge University.

McLachlin is scheduled to give the Sir David Williams lecture at Cambridge University’s prestigious law school, an annual event which regularly draws a who’s who of the legal community from Cambridge, Lon- don and beyond.

McLachlin led the Supreme Court of Canada from 2000 until her Dec. 15, 2017, retirement. She will continue writing judgments until June in cases she has heard. She was chief justice in 2015 when Canada’s top court enshrined the right to strike as “an essential part of a meaningful collective bargaining process.”

On Friday, she is to deliver a speech entitled, “Where Are We Going? Reflections on the Rule of Law in a Dangerous World.”

However, the British union representing university academic and research staff is now appealing directly to McLachlin to stand up for a principle she espoused while on the bench and not cross their picket line, physically or figuratively.

Jenny Sherrard, a spokesperson for the University and College Union that represents professors on strike across the United Kingdom, said in an email to the Star the union is taking strike action for 14 days over a four-week period.

“And tomorrow is bang in the middle of our first strikes. Sixty-four universities are affected by the action to defend staff pensions, including Cambridge,” Sherrard said. “We are writing to Justice McLachlin advising her of the action and the message of solidarity we have received from our sister union in Canada, and asking her not to cross the picket line.”

It isn’t clear whether McLachlin would have to cross a physical or figurative picket line Friday evening. Either way, the British union and its Canadian counterpart, the Canadian Association of University Teachers, hopes she’ll change her mind about her appearance.

“We would encourage her to respect the picket line,” said David Robinson, executive director of the Canadian union.

“The McLachlin court ruled on several important labour cases, including one in which the SCC (Supreme Court) ruled that the right to strike was protected by the charter. I would hope that she now demonstrates this by not crossing the UCU picket line at Cambridge.” Lawyer Paul Champ, who represented one of the intervenors in that seminal 2015 Canadian case that constitutionalized the right to strike in Canada, said in an interview that McLachlin should take the request seriously, that while it “doesn’t necessarily mean that she’s picking sides, it certainly doesn’t send a great message to the Cambridge faculty.”

“Justice McLachlin is being asked to speak at an event in honour of a former eminent professor of Cambridge, yet ironically Cambridge professors are on strike and presumably won’t be able to attend to attend the lecture.”

The Star began making inquiries about McLachlin’s planned speech Thursday. Requests for comment sent directly to McLachlin, who had already left for the U.K., and sent through the Canadian court had not yet been answered. Nor had Cambridge University administration responded to requests for comment.