Posted on 11/08/2017 9:51:25 PM PST by nickcarraway
Christie Blatchford: It's 1984 all over again for Ontario lawyers arguing against compelled speech
The Law Society is forcing its 58,000 members to create a mandatory ‘statement of principles’ stating their ‘obligation to promote equality, diversity and inclusion’
How amusing it is that the case most cited in the current discussion (it is, I grant you, a small discussion) about the Law Society of Upper Canada’s egregious foray into compelled speech is a Supreme Court of Canada number from 1984, the very title of George Orwell’s creepy novel about “thoughtcrime.”
That was a labour law case between the National Bank of Canada and the Retail Clerks’ International Union and the Canada Labour Relations Board.
The bank, itself a creation of a merger between the Provincial Bank and the Canadian National Bank, had closed a unionized branch and incorporated it in a non-unionized branch.
The union complained to the Canada Labour Relations Board, which found that the bank had closed the branch for “anti-union reasons,” infringed the Canada Labour Code and ordered various remedies.
The board ordered the bank to do a number of things enabling the union to function (such as holding meetings during working hours, having a bulletin board and the like), all of which the Supreme Court found to be reasonable.
But the board also ordered the bank to send a letter that the board drafted and which couldn’t be altered, under the signature of the CEO, to all employees, and to pay the union a total of $144,000 over three years for its sins.
The court set aside both these remedies.
The proposed letter would have said the board had found the branch closure “was aimed … at denying the employees … the fundamental right to bargain collectively”
(Excerpt) Read more at nationalpost.com ...
It is forcing its 50,000 lawyer and 8,000 paralegal members to create and adopt a mandatory “statement of principles” acknowledging their “obligation to promote equality, diversity and inclusion.”
This is "mandatory speech". If that seems arcane, consider that "Cry uncle!" is a good paradigm.
Kiss the ring, beotches. It was always about that.
Christie Blatchford (and the Globe and Mail’s Margaret Wente): OUR Canadian last bastions of media sanity!
Thanks nickcarraway.
Mark Steyn, pick up the purple phone....
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