SPEECH: Bill C-89, Postal Services Resumption and Continuation Act

Hon. Ratna Omidvar: Honourable senators, I will be brief, but I feel compelled to share the line of my reasoning and logic with all of you.

I will freely admit that I have see-sawed on the substance of the debate through Saturday, Sunday and today.

Senator Pratte asked : Who is right? Who is wrong? The postal workers are right. They have the right to freedom of association, and they have a right to a workplace that is free of injury. They have a right to equal pay for work of equal value.

But so are Canadians right — who want their medicines delivered, whose businesses are feeling impacted, as Senator Deacon pointed out, and who need their cheques delivered. So when I read this, I come to the conclusion that they are both right and no one is wrong.

This does not help me much. So I go to my second screen, and I ask myself three questions we are charged with asking ourselves every time: protecting the Constitution and ensuring that legislation is Charter proof. Again, I’m not a lawyer. We have some very learned legal minds in the chamber, but I know one thing about lawyers — and all the lawyers will please forgive me — when you put them all together, they will all disagree. So I have no clarity from the very learned legal minds because we have conflicting opinions here.

But I do know that I do not believe that we should look at the legislation and second-guess the Supreme Court, because we cannot second-guess the Supreme Court. We have to make our decisions based on what we know and let the Supreme Court do its job.

Second, we are charged with representing our regions. Now, if the strike goes on — the rolling strike I should say; I think we should keep in mind that it’s not a full-on strike but rather a rolling strike. If the strike goes on or the workers are mandated back to work, Ontarians will be impacted as will British Columbians, Quebecers and Newfoundlanders in the same way because we have postal workers and communities in our midst.

I go on to my third question, which has been a hard one for me: a mandate to protect the rights of minorities. I think about women in particular, and we have heard lots about the fact that there are more women who are delivering heavier parcels, trudging through the snow and wind to make their deliveries on time, and I think this is a real issue that must be dealt with.

So then I come to my final screen, because my reasoning and my logic have not persuaded me any which way as I’ve applied screens. My final screen is what is my role as an unelected senator in a house of sober second thought vis-à-vis my elected colleagues in the other place?

In our history, this chamber of sober second thought has refused legislation only a handful of times. I have notionally tried to imagine a situation where I would say no, and because I’m a practical person and I think in the particular rather than the abstract. I think if legislation to make beer free for Canadians would come before us I would probably say no. Senator Mercer would say yes, clearly. I would certainly say no if there was legislation before our house to legislate torture as a way to protect our national security. I would vote against that. I believe that we should only vote down legislation that is egregious in nature.

Very reluctantly, I come to the conclusion that this bill does not meet that bar. I will very reluctantly vote in favour of Bill C-89.

Thank you.