Education removed from list of essential services prior to the Saanich school strike, funding for poverty law clinics, and litigation over law school naming rights

With Saanich schools closed for a third week as a result of a strike, 2019 amendments to the Labour Relations Code are discussed. These amendments removed a specific provision that declared “the provision of educational programs for students and eligible children under the School Act” to be an essential service. This change was an example of the labour relations changes made each time the NDP is elected, or defeated, in British Columbia. This same legislation, Bill 30, would also have included a provision removing the right to a secret ballot for union certification, however, the British Columbia Green Party advised the NDP that they would not support the other changes if that was included so it was removed.While the language that remains in the Labour Relations Code dealing with strikes or lockouts that “poses a threat to the health, safety or welfare of the residents of British Columbia” has previously been interpreted by the Labour Relations Board to include education, in some circumstances, this would be more contentious.  In order to engage any of the essential service provisions of the Labour Relations Code, action is required by the Minister of Labour: Harry Bains. He is the minister who introduced the legislation to remove the express provision designating education as an essential service. His background includes 15 years as an officer of a steelworkers-IWA union local. Unsurprisingly, he has not acted to engage the remaining provisions of the Labour Relations Code in order to end the strike. Other legal news discussed include the announcement by the province of $2 million in funding to open 8 poverty law clinics.The provincial funding will be provided through the Law Foundation, which will afford some degree of separation from the province as the poverty law issues the clinics will assist with could involve the provincial government as a party. Prior to a 40% cut to legal aid funding in 2002, British Columbia had more than 40 legal aid offices, that assisted more than 40,000 people a year with poverty law issues. These issues often related to housing or disability claims. Since that time, no legal assistance was available for issues like these. Finally, a donation of $30 million by a graduate of the UBC Law School is discussed. That donation included an agreement to rename the law school the “Peter A. Allard School of Law” and to include this name on degrees issued by the law school. Unfortunately, for Mr. Allard, it turns out that postgraduate degrees, such as LLM and PhDs, are not granted by the faculty of law, but rather the faculty of graduate and postdoctoral studies. These degrees never had the name of the law school on them and so, don’t include the new name of the law school.  In an attempt to force UBC to include his name on these degree, Mr. Allard took the matter to arbitration. He was unsuccessful and is now going to court in an attempt to overturn the arbitrator’s decision. Unfortunately, this has created the appearance of transforming a generous gift into a contractual dispute over the sale of naming rights.Follow this link for a transcript of the show and links to the cases and legislation discussed.