Response to Bill 100: Keeping Ontario Open for Business Act, 2022

Response to Bill 100: Keeping Ontario Open for Business Act, 2022 An unnecessary and redundant expansion of police powers Submitted by the Ontario Federation of Labour April 7, 2022 Response to Bill 100: Keeping Ontario Open for Business Act, 2022 An unnecessary and redundant expansion of police powers 1 The Ontario Federation of Labour is the largest provincial labour federation in Canada. [...] The Ontario Federation of Labour therefore urges the Standing Committee on Justice Policy to report to the House that Bill 100 not be adopted. [...] The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms protects freedom of expression, assembly, and association.1 In turn, freedom of association protects the right to collectively bargain, including the right to strike.2 Bill 100 explicitly targets this type of associational activity. [...] Under the Highway Traffic Act, a police officer may remove and store any vehicle or debris on a road that is impeding the normal or reasonable movement of traffic, if it is reasonably necessary to do so to ensure the orderly movement of traffic.28 In exercising their duty to protect life and property, police have a common law power to tow vehicles that are reasonably believed to be in violation of. [...] All of the conduct that ostensibly animated Bill 100 is already illegal; the police and the courts already have the tools to deal with them.