MHC joined with many others on the Legislative grounds this weekend in solidarity and opposition to Bills C-37 and C-39.
Here are my full remarks from this important action:
I’m Noah from MHC. We’re a non-profit, non-partisan advocacy organization working to defend and improve public health care.
I’m here because MHC stands in solidarity with all workers, not just those in health care. I’m here because we are committed to putting principles of reconciliation, environmental justice, and decolonization into action in health care and beyond.
We hear a lot of talk these days about nation-building, and what kind of mega projects are needed to defend and grow Canada’s economy in the face of an ongoing trade war with the United States.
Promoting Canada’s ‘national interest’ is behind many of the issues we’re here to rally against today.
In Bill C-39, as we’ve heard, the federal Minister of Labour will gain the power (under section 107 of the labour code) to unilaterally end a strike if doing so is deemed in the so-called ‘national-interest’ – something left undefined in the language of the bill.
That same omnibus legislation centralizes Indigenous consultation and limits environmental assessments of all new federal projects.
Taken together, the elements of Bill C-39 amount to consolidation of federal power at the expense of the environment we all share, of workers rights, and crucially, at the expense of Indigenous sovereignty.
At MHC, our mission is to defend public health care – but we know that health care is not an isolated system within Manitoba or across Canada.
Without a healthy environment, there is no healthy public. The mental and physical health of our communities – especially Indigenous communities – are threatened by climate change on a daily basis. Wildfires and flooding have hit our communities especially hard in Manitoba.
Many First Nations communities remain under boil water advisories, and Winnipeg’s water system relies on and sacrificed the clean drinking water of the people of Shoal Lake 40 First Nation for decades.
Talk of reconciliation is just that – talk – if these injustices are not rectified through a true restoration of Indigenous control over their lands and waterways.
Something that is missing from Bill C-37.
We see none of that kind of true partnership and recognition of Indigenous sovereignty in the legislation we’re out here to oppose today.
WIth Bill C-39, as others have empathized, the rights of workers are put at unacceptable risk. Giving the Minister of Labour the power to end a strike with a single phone call is not a precedent we can afford to set in Canada, not for any kind of worker.
To truly invest in nation-building, we need to invest in public systems and solutions, including strengthening our public health care system.
We need to put principles of reconciliation and decolonization into action and not just pay lip service to them.
We need to protect the environment we all share.
Even without Bill C-39, workers are already up against a hard set of circumstances when it comes to defending their right to collectively bargain and withdraw their labour when necessary.
Just look at what happened to the workers at Dynacare, who had their strike for fair wages ended after only one day because of the labour board’s intervention.
The environment is already in catastrophic danger from ongoing damage done by resource extraction and other human driven forms of climate change.
Indigenous sovereignty is still not adequately recognized and honoured across these territories.
We cannot let another undemocratic omnibus bill – that will worsen all of these injustices – pass without a fight.
Shame on the federal government for trying to ram these pieces of legislation through, and thank you to everyone who came out here today to use your voices to fight back.
I’m proud to stand with you.
