Things with the Air Canada labour dispute threatened to veer into farce yesterday as things did not go as the government had hoped. Early in the morning, the Canadian Industrial Relations Board declared that the ongoing strike action by the flight attendants was now an illegal strike—but they didn’t refer it to the courts for enforcement, even though union leaders said that they were willing to go to jail for it (but there is no criminal offence here, merely administrative monetary penalties). And then, gallingly, the minister declared that she was shocked—shocked!—to learn about the allegations of unpaid labour, and ordered a probe of the situation, promising to close any loopholes in the law, but she can’t have been shocked. This has been an ongoing issue for decades. In the last parliament, both the Conservatives and the NDP put forward private members’ bills about this. The NDP in particular made a bunch of members’ statements and questions in QP about the issue, but Hajdu is only now learning about it? Come. On.

https://bsky.app/profile/lyleskinner.bsky.social/post/3lwoofl4ahs2v

Air Canada, meanwhile, is cancelling more flights, because they didn’t think that the union would not obey the back-to-work order (that has no enforcement mechanism). The union is trying to get an injunction because they argue that the order is abusing Section 107’s powers (and they are very likely right about that). And then Air Canada insisted that they won’t negotiate until the planes are flying again…but then talks resumed with a mediator by night, so we’ll see where this is at by morning.

Meanwhile, the broader problem of the moral hazard of continued government intervention, particularly the use of Section 107 (which doesn’t require a legislative process, or anything other than an email or phone call), has other unions on edge that this is going to permanently imbalance labour relations, because employers can simply declare an impasse and wait for the government to intervene. While I do think that these Quebec unions in the CP story are not differentiating between provincial and federal legislation enough (Section 107 is a federal power that applies only to federally-regulated workplaces), but we also know that many provincial governments are not exactly worrying about rights these days, which includes labour rights. Next steps remain the courts, who are likely to strike down these uses of Section 107 as being abusive.

Ukraine Dispatch

The toll from those strikes on Kharkiv and elsewhere early Monday have climbed to at least ten dead and 23 wounded. A Russian general was seriously wounded on the front lines.

At the conclusion of the meeting at the White House, Trump has agreed to European security guarantees (for now, anyway) after Ukraine offered to buy $100 billion in weapons from the US, and  now Trump wants to set up a meeting between Putin and Zelenskyy (not that it will change anything as Putin doesn’t want to end the war). AP has a timeline of the changes in the front lines from February 2022 until now.

Good reads:

• Mark Carney met with Doug Ford, but apparently didn’t give Ford the tax cuts he was begging for (but Ford remains effusive in his praise).
• Anita Anand and Mélanie Joly are in Finland to talk Arctic sovereignty.
• The Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization shut down some of its systems after finding a cybersecurity threat.
• The Logic talks to Jocelyne Bourgon, who was Chrétien’s Clerk of the Privy Council, about how to and how not to do a programme spending review.
• Two former Indigenous leaders on either side of the TMX debate discuss the lessons learned and how they might apply to future projects under Bill C-5.
• As more countries start withdrawing from the Ottawa Treaty, an expert on landmines says that they won’t provide security for Europe given new technology.
• It looks like Pierre Poilievre handily won the Battle River—Crowfoot byelection.
• Damien Kurek says he still plans to run again in Battle River—Crowfoot in the next general election.
• Doug Ford says he’s putting another $1.6 billion toward helping municipalities get more housing built. (We’ll see if that money gets spent).
• Charlie Warzel writes about the mass delusion of digital asbestos, and the real danger of waiting for it to achieve its potential when it never will.
• Graham Thomson recounts the angry and profane reception Danielle Smith got with her “Alberta Next” panel in Edmonton.

Odds and ends:

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