Alberta teachers head to court amid labour and Charter dispute with province

Alberta’s teachers are heading to court today to try to get a judge to take immediate action on a provincial law ordering them back to work.

Lawyers for the Alberta Teachers’ Association will ask a judge to temporarily set aside all or part of a bill passed three weeks ago by Premier Danielle Smith’s government that ended a provincewide strike by 51,000 teachers.

They want the bill put on hold pending a full airing in court of the issues involved.

The bill also imposed on the teachers a collective bargaining agreement rank-and-file teachers had earlier rejected and invoked the Charter’s notwithstanding clause to shield it from legal challenge.

The teachers, however, argue the clause has not been properly used.

The clause overrides teachers’ Charter rights, but Smith has said the gover