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On December 5, 2009, an international symposium took place at the Faculty of Law, University of Toronto, on the question, "Is there a constitutional right to strike in Canada?" In organizing that meeting, I invited leading labour and constitutional law scholars, practitioners and judges from Europe, South Africa, Israel, the United States and the United Kingdom, as well as from across Canada, to attend in order to help answer the most pressing issue facing students and practitioners of Canadian labour law today.

This paper looks into how a "strike" should be defined under Canadian law. Although labour boards and courts in Canada claim to apply an "objective" definition, whereby a "strike" means any con- certed cessation of work, the author argues that this approach is incap- able of providing a coherent answer to the question of which work stoppages are strikes and which are not. What is needed, rather, and what accurately reflects the understanding of "strike" embodied in labour relations statutes and cases decided at common law, is a subjec- tive definition that is based on the reason for the work stoppage. Thus, in the author's view, a strike is a timely (and hence legal) cessation of work if it is engaged in by a group of workers who are negotiating (or renego- tiating) their agreement with an employer, in an effort to induce the employer to come to terms. The author warns, however, that any attempt to constitutionalize the right to strike through the Charter freedom of association in s. 2(d), rather than through the guarantee of equality in s. 15, will inevitably draw courts into the mistaken exercise of trying to create a 'judicial labour code."

Judges in Canada now adhere to the view that it is their task to draft labour codes for Canadians - a position recently and fully embraced by the Ontario Court of Appeal in Fraser v. Ontario (Attorney General).' Some commentators believe this is a sound legal development. Others are equivocal. I think it is a very serious mistake. Given the alternatives, it is a strange and undesirable turn of legal events. But the strangeness does not end with the mere fact that we now live with what I call a "judicial labour code" (JLC). There is more. Judges undertaking this exercise, enthusiastically but nonetheless disconcertingly, insist that their nascent labour code happens to contain most of the provisions inserted over the years by Canadian legis- lators in an overtly political effort to "balance" or (in Paul Weiler's term) to "reconcile" the interests of labour and capital. Those provisions relate, for example, to the duty to bargain, to unfair labour. --Introduction

The relevance and continuing existence of industrial relations, as a field of academic study, is facing a number of challenges, particularly in English-speaking countries, as union membership declines, collective bargaining coverage shrinks and the number of strikes wanes each year. Yet issues of employment and workplace relations remain significant to economic prosperity and social harmony, particularly with the changing nature of work and of employment contracts. Furthermore, there are a number of other means by which employee voice is heard, through the agency of non-government organizations, community groups and various consultative bodies. In order to reinforce its relevance, industrial relations needs to include new actors, cover a wider range of issues and adopt a multi-level approach which incorporates both local and global dimensions.

The article reviews the book, "Global Unions: Challenging Transnational Capital through Cross-Border Campaigns," edited by Kate Bronfenbrenner.

This paper examines a range of ways in which a right to strike can be derived from the right to freedom of association, focusing on a dis- tinction between a direct and indirect linkage between the two rights. The form of derivation will, in the author's view, determine the appro- priate degree of judicial deference to legislative policy decisions con- cerning the legitimate dimensions of a strike. The link between freedom of association and the right to strike also depends on the particular fea- ture of a strike that is in question. Some of those features are constant (i.e. strikes are always coordinated action, designed to bring pressure to bear), while other features are variable (i.e. whether strikes are con- trolled by a trade union, whether they are required to be part of a formal collective bargaining process, whether strikers are protected from employer retaliation, and whether the strike pursues a political objec- tive). On the basis of these distinctions, the author argues that the con- stant features of strikes - their collective quality and the pressure they exert - can legitimately claim protection as a matter of constitutional or internationally recognized right flowing directly from a qualified right to freedom of association. The variable features of strikes can be shaped by legislatures more freely than can the constant features. Here, the fundamental rights constraint is via an indirect connection to free- dom of association. However it is wrong to treat the indirect connection entirely separately from the direct one. A great deal turns on whethe, in regulating these variable features, the legislature arbitrarily excludes certain employees from an ability to engage in the constant features of all strikes: features which make it, as a directly derivable species of right to freedom of association, a right that all should enjoy. Professor, School of Law and Centre for Human Rights, University of Essex (U.K.). The author wishes to thank Brian Langille and Chris Albertyn for their insightful suggestions. This does not, of course, implicate them in the positions advanced here.

The article reviews the book, "Citizens to Lords: A Social History of Western Political Thought From Antiquity to the Middle Ages," by Ellen Meiksins Wood.

The article reviews the book, "Equity, Diversity and Canadian Labour," edited by Gerald Hunt and David Rayside.

[E]xamines the implications for unions of the federal and provincial human rights legislation and the Canadian Charter of Rights [with respect to equity]. ...[The author] warns that unless unions find acceptable ways to deal with the increasingly diverse interests of their members, conflict could ensue that could remove unions' legal right to represent certain minority intersts, as well as destroy union solidarity. [The author] describes one such conflict currently moving through the courts, which arose from the negotiation of a two-tier wage clause that is allegedly discriminatory. This is a cautionary tale that highlights the link between union revitalization and equity. --Editor's introduction

Where does a young boy turn when his whole world suddenly disappears? What turns two brothers from an unstoppable team into a pair of bitterly estranged loners? How does the simple-hearted care of one middle-aged nurse reveal the scars of an entire community, and can anything heal the wounds caused by a century of deception? Award-winning cartoonist Jeff Lemire pays tribute to his roots with Essex County, an award-winning trilogy of graphic novels set in an imaginary version of his hometown, the eccentric farming community of Essex County, Ontario, Canada. In Essex County, Lemire crafts an intimate study of one community through the years, and a tender meditation on family, memory, grief, secrets, and reconciliation. With the lush, expressive inking of a young artist at the height of his powers, Lemire draws us in and sets us free. This new edition collects the complete, critically-acclaimed trilogy (Tales from the Farm, Ghost Stories, and The Country Nurse) in one deluxe volume! Also included are over 40-pages of previously unpublished material, including two new stories. This title has been voted by Canada Reads Top 10 title for the decade! --Publisher's description

The article reviews the book, "Social Murder and Other Shortcomings of Conservative Economics," by Robert Chernomas and Ian Hudson.

Worker representatives were formally recognised as agents in regulating workplace health and safety in most Canadian jurisdictions in the late 1970s. This was one component of the transition to an Internal Responsibility System that included mandated Joint Health and Safety Committees, right to know regulations, and the right to refuse dangerous work. Very little has changed in this regulatory framework in the ensuing three decades. The effectiveness of these regulations in improving health and safety was contentious in the 1970s and continues to be debated. Earlier work by Lewchuk et al. (1996) argued that the labour-management environment of individual workplaces influenced the effectiveness of worker representatives and Joint Health and Safety Committees. In particular, the framework was more effective where labour was organised and where management had accepted a philosophy of co-management of the health and safety function. The Canadian economy has experienced significant reorganisation since the 1970s. Canadian companies in general face more intense competition because of trade deals entered into in the 1980s and 1990s. Exports represent a much larger share of GNP. Union density has fallen and changes in legislation make it more difficult to organise workers. Non-standard employment, self-employment and other forms of less permanent employment have all grown in relative importance. This chapter presents new evidence on how these changes are undermining the effectiveness of the Internal Responsibility System in Canada, with a particular focus on workers in precarious employment relationships. Data is drawn from a recent population survey of non-student workers in Ontario conducted by the authors. -- Publisher's description. Contents: pt. 1. National arrangements for workers' representation: case studies from Europe and Australia. Worker representation on health and safety in the UK -- problems with the preferred model and beyond -- The Australian framework for worker participation in occupational health and safety -- Health and safety committees in France: an empirical analysis -- Characteristics, activities and perceptions of Spanish safety representatives -- An afterword on European Union policy and practice -- pt. 2. Challenges and strategies for worker representation in the modern world of work -- Precarious employment and the internal responsibility system: some Canadian experiences -- Employee 'voice' and working environment in the new member states: translating policy into practice in the Baltic States -- Health and safety representation in small firms: a Swedish success that is threatened by political and labour market changes -- Trade union strategies to support representation on health and safety in Australia and the UK: integration or isolation? -- Worker representation and health and safety: reflections on the past, present and future. Includes bibliographical references and index.

The article reviews the book, "The Crisis of Imprisonment: Protest, Politics, and the Making of the American Penal State, 1776-1941," by Rebecca M. McLennan.

Drawing on two waves of survey data collected from 250 Canadian firms in 2000 and 2004, this study examines union influence on the mix of compensation methods used by employers. As expected, firms with more unionization devoted a larger proportion of total compensation to indirect pay (also known as "employee benefits") than did firms with less unionization, a finding that held in both time periods. However, while more unionized firms devoted a smaller share of compensation to individual performance pay in 2000, this was not true in 2004. Also surprising, more unionized firms did not differ significantly from less unionized firms in their proportions of base pay, group performance pay, or organizational performance pay in either time period. The paper concludes that although unions may still have the power to influence some aspects of the wage bargain (i.e. the compensation mix), this power may be declining.

Wrapped around the stories of these four women, is a mystery. Something''s gone wrong with the Mosquitos being built for the war effort -- they keep crashing in flight tests, for no apparent reason. Is the problem with their design, or are they being sabotaged? By whom? The traitorous Red Finns? The political subversives who have recently escaped from one of the nearby prison camps? Everyone''s on high alert, and "The Factory Voice" keeps abreast of the details. Or at least the rumours. --Publisher's description

In April 2005 Wal-Mart Canada closed a store in Jonquière, Quebec, following a successful certification application by the United Food and Commercial Workers and an impasse in collective bargaining. When the union succeeded in having an arbitrator appointed (under the "first contract" provisions of the Quebec Labour Code') to decide on the terms of a collective agreement, Wal- Mart immediately announced that it would close the store. It did so less than two months later, putting 190 employees out of work. The union and the affected workers claimed that the closing violated the Quebec Labour Code because it interfered with freedom of association and discriminated against employees who had exercised rights under the Code. The matter reached the Supreme Court of Canada. On November 27, 2009, that Court decided two cases arising from the Jonquière store closing - the leading case of Plourde and the companion case of Desbiens. In Plourde, where the Court was split 6 to 3, Justice Binnie's majority judgment concluded that the laid-off workers could not obtain relief under s. 15 of the Quebec Labour Code, prohibiting discrimination against workers who exercise rights.

The article reviews the book, "Recrutement et sélection du personnel," by Anne Bourhis.

The article reviews the book, "Child Workers in England, 1780-1820: Parish Apprentices and the Making of the Early Industrial Labour Force," by Katrina Honeyman.