The Big Win: Looking Back

The SFL's Nathaniel Cole interviews five insiders from the legal battle that culminated in a historic victory on January 30, 2015. They reflect on the big win and its impact on history, workers, and the law.

• Larry Hubich served President of the SFL for 16 years, retiring in 2018.
• Lori Johb, President of the SFL since 2018, previously SFL Secretary-Treasurer and Vice President.
• Craig Bavis, partner at Victory Square Law Office, part of the SFL legal team from 2008-2015.
• Rick Engel, partner at Gerrand Rath Johnson, member the SFL legal team 2014-2015.
• Kent Peterson, President of CUPE Saskatchewan, previously SFL Strategic Advisor.

Kent: Brad Wall and his right wing, anti-worker Sask. Party won the 2007 election and immediately set about using the levers of power to punish workers and their unions. Bill 5 imposed the most onerous, restrictive essential services framework anywhere in Canada.

Larry: Bills 5 and 6. It became abundantly clear to me that Wall intended to do his utmost to strip workers of rights and to engage in a campaign of government-sponsored union busting unlike anything we'd experienced in my lifetime.

Lori: I was one of the vice presidents representing SEIU on the SFL the time this all began. We knew without a doubt the newly elected Saskatchewan Party government was going to war with labour. They gutted trade union laws and introduced essential service legislation that would seriously restrict collective bargaining and striking.

Craig: Victory Square Law Office was asked to provide a legal opinion to the SFL on this legislation. On May 15, 2008 we provided our conclusion, which led to the legal challenge.

Rick: My first major role was to represent SGEU at the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal, and then the SFL and affiliates at the Supreme Court of Canada, along with Craig Bavis and Peter Barnacle.

Larry: The SFL along with many affiliates and other unions concluded that we should prepare to launch a legal challenge. These decisions were not unanimous. It was a difficult and challenging time. There was no appetite to launch a concerted job action. We needed to either share the cost of a legal challenge, or put our tails between our legs and concede defeat.

Rick: I was very concerned that based upon the 1987 Labour Trilogy, the courts would interpret workers’ rights as something akin to the administrative law duty of fairness. But once I got formally involved, I started to formulate my own argument as to why the right to strike must be seen as a human right - the same way unequal treatment is a human rights issue in racial discrimination cases.

Lori: There was never a time during these years when I was totally certain in our position or chance of victory. Remember that in the beginning this was all about challenging Bill 5 - we didn’t yet have our sights set on enshrining the charter right to strike.

As SFL Treasurer, I had to ensure we were on a path that would not break the bank. One thing was clear, this was a risky but necessary fight. At the end of the day, to do nothing was not an option.

Kent: The outcome was never certain. It was a real life made-for-Netflix labour political thriller. While winning in the courts would be historic, so would losing. Precedents would be set either way, and that extreme risk meant it was not a unanimous decision for the SFL to proceed with a Charter challenge.

Craig: Parties rarely know if they have met the tipping point … the SFL case was a rare exception. Justice Ball asked how the workers could have an effective strike when 124 [of 125 RWDSU laundry] workers were designated essential and would not be able to withdraw their labour. The judge’s frown as he made a note of [the Health Region’s] position spoke volumes, and I realized that workers had reached the tipping point in persuading the judge.

Kent: What I - and only a handful of people in the country knew - was that the Supreme Court of Canada had reached its decision on whether Canadian workers had a constitutional right to strike. We just didn't know if it was good or bad.

Craig: Given the decision in Mounted Police, I was cautiously optimistic about the decision. After a sleepless night, I walked to the SFL office and anxiously sat in the conference room waiting to hear the decision. Because it was a high profile case, the Court released the decision to the parties and media an hour prior to the general release.

Kent: I was new to the communications role with a deadly case of imposter syndrome, and I did not have a damn clue what to do. My boss, Larry Hubich - who shepherded this all the way from the initial debates to the Supreme Court - was out of the country. Who is the spokesperson?

"Here are the two versions of the news release" I said. "Which of these will we use?” Nobody had a sniff.

Lori: Craig received a copy of the decision. It wasn’t long and someone - I think it was Craig - screamed WE WON! The room erupted. Next, the press conference. Something I had never done before. I was terrified of being in front of a mic, now I'm in front of a bank of cameras and reporters from all over. It might have been the most anxious moment of my life.

Larry: I was on a winter vacation with my wife in Hawaii on that remarkable day. I participated in the meeting via Skype when then SFL Secretary-Treasurer, Lori Johb had assembled a group to meet in the PSAC Board Room.

Rick: My wife, Adrienne, and I were in the horn of Africa in January 2015. When we did get the results, I went into the bathroom at our resort and wept uncontrollably. Shortly after, [now Justice Norbeck] patched me in. It felt absolutely glorious to share this moment with my colleagues and union friends in Regina.

Lori: After the media circus died down, union leaders and our supporters all partied at the Copper Kettle, including a life-sized cardboard cut-out of Hubich. I remember popping a champagne bottle... let's just say it was a lot of fun.

Rick: The truth is that this case - and the work I did to prepare for it - changed my professional life. For one brief moment, we were at the centre of the universe! The SFL decision is one of the most important labour rights decisions in Canadian history.

Lori: We won the right to strike for all workers in Canada, and the SFL is now part of the new labour trilogy that will forever be part of legal arguments intended to protect workers and their rights. This is not a small thing!

Craig: As of January 16, 2025, SFL has been referred to in 592 decisions of Canadian courts, arbitrators, and labour relations tribunals. I have spoken about the case countless times and the decision comes up almost every week in my legal practice.

Larry: I believe that governments are now more reluctant to intervene in disputes, recognizing that their legislative interventions to bring disputes to an end will run afoul of the Charter and be struck down as unconstitutional.

Kent: We did what no group of workers had ever done before. That means something. It means something that it was won through the federation of labour.

Where there are barriers to exercising workers rights, then let's bulldoze those barriers on the wildcat picket lines, and in the streets, and at the ballot box. To make an omelette, you have to crack a few eggs. ||

Editor's note: This article is based on excerpts from a series of five interviews. Emphasis and copyediting for clarity.