When finances come before workers rights
Canadas Supreme Court has ruled that governments in the grip of a financial crisis can violate constitutional rights in an effort to stave off budgetary disaster.
Bowing to Newfoundland\'s response to a recession in 1991, the court said the province was justified in passing legislation to defer a pay-equity agreement with 5 300 female hospital workers, reports The Globe and Mail. However, fiscal emergencies of this kind would be few and far between, the court said. It warned that judges would continue to enforce the Charter of Rights and Freedoms aggressively, and that governments should not read its ruling as giving them carte blanche to trample on constitutional rights. Full report in The Globe and Mail