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With Alberta Premier Danielle Smith’s invocation of the notwithstanding clause, it marks yet another milestone in a new era of Canadian governments being increasingly comfortable with vetoing court mandates.

On Tuesday, Alberta’s UCP government passed the Back to School Act ordering the province’s striking teachers back to work. In an opening declaration, it stated that the act is being drafted under Section 33, a little-used section of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms that allows lawmakers to ignore its other provisions so long as they announce they’re doing so.

The Back to School Act marks the seventh time since 2018 that a provincial government has employed the notwithstanding clause — an unprecedented uptick in usage for what was once one of the most taboo sections of th

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