Halt flawed bill in its tracks
With our attention focused this week on Senate accountability and on Bill C-51, we risk forgetting about an equally important and serious issue: the Harper government’s attack on unions.
Bill C-377, An Act to amend the Income Tax Act (Requirements for Labour Organizations), was pushed through the legislative process using the rhetoric of accountability and transparency. However, the bill would actually foist onto trade unions a raft of crippling and undemocratic requirements that no other Canadian institution faces. As many critics pointed out in the first round of Senate committee hearings, the bill is likely unconstitutional and would violate the privacy rights of millions of Canadians.
First introduced in 2011 by Conservative backbencher Russ Hiebert, the private member’s bill was shielded from the scrutiny that normal government legislation usually undergoes, and received the special support of the Prime Minister’s Office. A recent study further reveals how anti-union lobbyists Labour Watch operated in the shadows as the real architects of C-377.
The most offensive parts of the bill were removed in June 2013, when 16 Conservative senators broke ranks to support amendments proposed by thensenator Hugh Segal. The bill was gutted of its worst provisions, including the one that would have the Canada Revenue Agency police union transactions over $5,000 — at an unreasonable cost to taxpayers, it should be added.
The shocker was that the unamended bill came back from the dead and was returned to the Senate order paper after Prime Minister Stephen Harper prorogued Parliament in mid-September 2013.
A year later, with Harper’s orchestration, the Conservatives proposed changing Senate rules that would limit debate on private member’s bills so as to fast-track C-377, a move that clearly undermined the constitutional role of the Senate as a place for sober second thought. Though it appeared wasteful, the cost of hosting a new round of public hearings on the bill in committee appeared to be no object for our Senate, and indeed highlighted the determination with which Conservatives intend to get the deeply flawed bill passed.
With two to three weeks until the Senate breaks for the summer, all that stands in the way of C-377 is the potential for thoughtful and independently minded Conservative Senators to ignore their marching orders and instead voice their legitimate concerns.
Canadians worried about protecting their privacy rights or who believe in the value of independent worker organizations should call their senators to express outrage over how an unamended C-377 continues to be rammed through the legislative process.