Reprinted with permission from Blacklock's Reporter, an on-line, paid news subscription service. Blacklock’s Reporter covers news you won’t find anywhere else: bills and regulations; reports and committees; Federal Court and public accounts. Blacklock's Reporter is the only reporter-owned and operated newsroom in Ottawa that finds the facts needed by business, labour and associations. www.blacklocks.ca

November 3, 2016 - Conservative senators were pressured into passing two union bills in 2014 and 2015, says a former caucus member. The first-hand account yesterday in the Senate is the first public confirmation of lobbying to push the bills through Parliament.

Senator James Cowan (Liberal-N.S.), leader of Senate Liberals, said certain legislators were arm-twisted into passing Bill C-525 Act To Amend The Canada Labour Code. The bill lowered the threshold of votes needed to trigger a decertification ballot from 50 percent to 40, and abolished the membership card check system in favour of secret voting by employees.

“I know some honourable senators felt pressured to vote to support that decision,” said Cowan, noting he was “disappointed” then-Conservative Senator Diane Bellemare of Québec abstained on the final vote. “Now, of course, she is sponsoring legislation to repeal a bill that she didn’t rise to oppose when the final vote was called and counted,” said Cowan.

The Senate passed the bill December 16, 2014 by a vote of 45 to 21. Senator Bellemare abstained after criticizing the bill as an infringement on labour rights.

“I believe that what took place on Bill C-525 influenced some in their decision to leave a political caucus and sit instead as a so-called ‘independent’,” said Cowan; “It’s always a personal choice. One may regret a decision one makes.”

Senator Bellemare left the Conservative caucus last March 8 to sit as an independent. Bellemare is currently legislative deputy to the government representative in the Senate.

“Isn’t it true that an abstention is not in favour of a bill, but it’s a no – a polite no, when in a caucus you receive a lot of pressure?” said Bellemare. “Obviously I can’t speak for what pressures you may or may not have been under because I was clearly not part of that discussion,” Cowan relied.

“I think an abstention is very different from either voting in favour of a bill or voting against it,” said Cowan; “That was a choice you made. I respect that choice, Senator Bellemare, but it’s your choice. You made it. I made a different choice.”

“Poison Pills”

The Senate in 2015 also passed Bill C-377 An Act To Amend The Income Tax Act that required unions to disclose confidential financial records under threat of $25,000 fines. Both bills are currently the subject of repeal.

Three Conservative senators who opposed or abstained from voting on the two bills subsequently quit the caucus including Senator Bellemare; Senator John Wallace of New Brunswick; and Senator Douglas Black of Alberta.

Dissenters within the Conservative caucus earlier privately told Blacklock’s they were threatened with removal from Senate committee assignments if they did not vote in favour of the bills. University of Regina researchers in a 2015 essay in the Journal Of Canadian Labour Studies also cited anecdotal evidence then-Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s staff directed legislators to do as they were told.

A former Canadian Labour Congress executive told authors of the essay Working In The Shadows Of Transparency that one cabinet member assured him “she thought that C-377 was very harsh”, and that another cabinet minister described the bill as “garbage”: “But it had the support of (the Prime Minister’s Office), that’s what counted.”

Senator Mike Duffy (Independent-P.E.I.) in diary entries disclosed at his 2015 fraud trial also detailed Conservative caucus discussions. Duffy wrote of an October 31, 2012 caucus meeting, “Cabinet minister whispers ‘poison pills’ being put in legislation.” A January 15, 2011 entry quoted Harper telling caucus, “We’ll reform the Senate or abolish it!” Caucus was later told, “Senate reform is NOT on the government priority list,” Duffy wrote.

By Blacklock's Report Staff