The Alberta Teachers’ Association says it will use every legal avenue it can to challenge the provincial government’s Back to School Act.
Using procedural shortcuts, the Alberta government passed the bill early Tuesday, just hours after it was introduced in the legislature, forcing 51,000 teachers back to work Wednesday and imposing a new four-year contract that 90 per cent of teachers had already voted to reject.
The Back to School Act invokes the notwithstanding clause pre-emptively, preventing the ATA from bargaining or striking until September 2028 and blocking a court from overturning the law in the event of a successful Charter challenge.
“Teachers will comply with the law, but make no mistake, compliance is not consent,” ATA president Jason Schilling said at a press conference in Edmonton on Tuesday. “The association will fight this abuse of power with every tool the law provides, and every ounce of conviction we possess.”
Schilling said a legal team is assessing the ATA's options to challenge the legislation, which was proclaimed into law on Tuesday. The Back to School Act gives the government permission to breach rights articulated in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the Alberta Bill of Rights and
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