''Reference Re Public Service Employee Relations Act (Alta)'', 9871 S.C.R. 313 is a leading opinion of the

Supreme Court of Canada The Supreme Court of Canada (SCC; french: Cour suprême du Canada, CSC) is the highest court in the judicial system of Canada. It comprises nine justices, whose decisions are the ultimate application of Canadian law, and grants permission to ...

on right to

freedom of association Freedom of association encompasses both an individual's right to join or leave groups voluntarily, the right of the group to take collective action to pursue the interests of its members, and the right of an association to accept or decline mem ...

under section 2(d) of the ''

Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms The ''Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms'' (french: Charte canadienne des droits et libertés), often simply referred to as the ''Charter'' in Canada, is a bill of rights entrenched in the Constitution of Canada, forming the first part ...

''. The Court held that section 2(d) does not include the right to strike.

Background

The province of

Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...

referred a

reference question In Canadian law, a reference question or reference case (formally called abstract review) is a submission by the federal or a provincial government to the courts asking for an advisory opinion on a major legal issue. Typically the question con ...

to the

Alberta Court of Appeal The Court of Appeal of Alberta (frequently referred to as Alberta Court of Appeal or ABCA) is a Canadian appellate court. Jurisdiction and hierarchy within Canadian courts The court is the highest in Alberta, Canada. It hears appeals from the ...

, which was eventually appealed to the Supreme Court. The questions concerned the constitutionality of prohibiting strikes and replacing them with compulsory arbitration.

Opinion of the Court

McIntyre, argued that the freedom of association is an

individual right Group rights, also known as collective rights, are rights held by a group ''qua'' a group rather than individually by its members; in contrast, individual rights are rights held by individual people; even if they are group-differentiated, which ...

that protects collective activities which are already protected by individual rights. Thus, activities that are prohibited individually are also forbidden collectively. As such, a trade union cannot strike incident to a collective bargain. Dickson, in dissent, also agreed with the characterization of the freedom, but argued that the right is not associated with particular activities but rather is "a freedom of persons to join and act with others in common pursuits". Note that this case involved a "double-swing decision" where Dickson was assigned the reasons for the Court at conference but lost the signatures to McIntyre who then lost them to LeDain.

External links

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case summary
Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms case law Supreme Court of Canada cases Labour relations in Canada 1987 in Canadian case law Supreme Court of Canada case articles without infoboxes Supreme Court of Canada reference question cases {{canada-law-stub