By Somya Lohia, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Shootin’ The Breeze
Teacher leaders across Canada are urging Ottawa to curb the use of the notwithstanding clause in labour disputes after Alberta became the first province to invoke the constitutional provision to end a provincewide teachers’ strike and impose a contract.
The Canadian Teachers’ Federation board of directors has launched a national petition to that end, asking the federal government to repeal or annul future provincial law that uses the clause to strip workers of the right to strike and bargain collectively.
The petition was announced June 2 alongside a joint statement signed by 21 teacher organization leaders representing more than 420,000 teachers and education workers across the country.
The leaders met June 1 in Banff to discuss what they describe as a growing pattern of constitutional overreach and released their joint statement the following day.
The petition, which calls on the federal government to affirm its responsibility to uphold Charter rights across Canada, is open until July 24 and can be found online at ctf-fce.ca.
Speaking at the event, leaders called the governmental overreach a “dangerous practice” that cannot be allowed to continue or become normalized.
“Without the balancing power that court scrutiny provides to individuals and groups of citizens, it is far too easy for governments to abuse their legislative authority and to the detriment of Canadians,” said Clint Johnston, president of the Canadian Teachers’ Federation.
The move follows the Alberta government’s use of the notwithstanding clause last October, when it invoked Section 33 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms to pass Bill 2, the Back to School Act. This ended a legal provincewide strike by more than 51,000 Alberta teachers and imposed a four-year collective agreement.
Madison Stocker, president of Alberta Teachers’ Association Local No. 14, supports the campaign and the organizations behind it.
“I agree with what was said by the ATA and CTF and I am glad they are continuing to fight to support teachers,” Stocker says.
The strike began Oct. 6, following months of failed negotiations between the Alberta Teachers’ Association and the Teachers’ Employer Bargaining Association over wages, funding and overcrowded, complex classrooms.
The government introduced Bill 2 during a special legislative session on Oct. 27, 2025, passing it through all three readings in a single day with limited debate.
Teachers were ordered back to work by Oct. 29 and the legislation carried penalties up to $500 per day for individual teachers and $500,000 daily for the union if members participated in future job action.
By invoking the notwithstanding clause alongside the back-to-work legislation, the Alberta government took the rare step of shielding the law from Charter challenges before they could be launched, a move teacher leaders say has set a dangerous precedent.
Jason Schilling, president of the Alberta Teachers’ Association, says effects of that decision are still being felt.
“The wounds it leaves behind are real, they’re lasting, but they do not have to be inevitable,” he says. “The message sent to workers is that their rights are somehow conditional, temporary and negotiable when politically convenient.”
Schilling described watching the fallout play out in classrooms and staffrooms across the province, as teachers who had dedicated themselves to their students and communities feeling their commitment was met with disregard.
“Once that trust is broken, rebuilding will take years,” he says. “Morale suffers, relationships fracture, young people begin to question whether public service that supports our communities is worth the sacrifice. Experienced professionals begin to leave.”
The joint statement frames the Alberta situation not as an isolated incident but as part of a broader national trend.
According to the statement, the notwithstanding clause has been invoked more frequently in the past five years to deny human and democratic rights than at any other point in recent memory, including Alberta’s Bill 2 and Bill 9.
Bill 9, the Protecting Alberta’s Children Statutes Amendment Act, was introduced in November 2025 by Premier Danielle Smith and Justice Minister Mickey Amery. The legislation proposed amendments to the Health Statutes Amendment Act, the Education Amendment Act and the Fairness and Safety in Sport Act.
Besides the two Alberta bills, the statement points to two separate uses of the notwithstanding clause in Ontario in 2021 and 2022, Saskatchewan’s Bill 137 in 2023 and Quebec’s use of the clause in 2022.
“When governments invoke the notwithstanding clause to end labour disputes, they are not simply legislating,” the statement reads. “They are telling workers that their rights are conditional and that the Charter protections all Canadians depend upon can be switched off when it is politically convenient to do so.”
Johnston said the petition was prompted specifically by the events in Alberta but stressed the implications reach well beyond one province or one profession.
“If any government is allowed to bulldoze worker rights and tip the bargaining tables in their favour in this way, it will happen again, and it could be any worker in Canada who suffers the consequences of that misuse in the future,” he said.
The federation and its provincial and territorial counterparts are calling on all levels of government to commit to good-faith collective bargaining, pledge not to invoke the notwithstanding clause in the context of labour relations and ensure courts have the opportunity to examine the constitutionality of legislation before the clause is considered.
They are also asking the federal government to take action to review and restrict provincial and territorial use of Section 33 when it is applied to deny citizens’ fundamental democratic and human rights.
The joint statement is explicit that the notwithstanding clause was designed as a safeguard to be invoked only in exceptional and demonstrably justified circumstances, not as a routine tool for governments to bypass the courts during legitimate labour disputes.
“The notwithstanding clause was intended to be used in the most extreme of cases,” Johnston said. “Unfortunately, it is becoming far too common for governments to use Section 33 simply to make legislation stick that they know would not stand up to judicial scrutiny, and that is unacceptable.”
Schilling echoes that warning, saying the consequences of silence on the issue are too great to ignore.
“Rights that can be suspended when they become inconvenient are not rights at all,” he said. “Silence makes this move by governments easier. Our solidarity today makes it harder.”
The presidents of all provincial and territorial teachers’ organizations encourage Canadians who share their concerns to sign the petition before it closes on July 24.
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