Brave New World

Over the past three decades, Supreme Court decisions have evolved from the position that the constitution- al guarantee of freedom of association in section 2(d) does not include a guarantee of the right to bargain collectively and the right to strike to an almost com- pletely opposite position that freedom of association encompasses the right to join a union of one’s choos- ing, the right to coll [...] The first is a brief historical overview of the political de- bate around the inclusion and meaning of freedom of association during the drafting of the Charter in the 15. [...] In deference to the Quebec Federation of Labour’s opposition to the Charter, the Canadian Labour Congress did not participate in hearings of the Special Joint Committee of the Sen- ate and the house of Commons, which examined its terms in detail and recommended amendments.20 As Leila Geggie hurst has described, during the pro- cess of the drafting of the Charter, NDP MP Svend Rob- inson made a mot [...] The First began with the release of the First Labour Trilogy in 1987, exemplified by the decision in the Alberta Reference, in which the Supreme Court, which held that freedom of association was a right belong- ing to individuals and thus section 2(d) provided no protection for collective rights, such as the right to col- lectively bargain or the right to strike. [...] Instead, he held that: the constitutional guarantee of freedom of asso- ciation in section 2(d) of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms does not include, in the case of a trade union, a guarantee of the right to bargain collectively and the right to strike.31 Rather than understanding the freedom of associ- ation as protecting collective rights, such as the right 27.