Mr. Speaker, Canadian National treated itself to full pages of publicity in the dailies stating that its employees are paid to do nothing.
Egged on by the unfailing support the federal government has given it from the very beginning, that company is using the worst demagogy to achieve its ends, which is to stop the strike and to erode working conditions. Some believe that the lower the working conditions are, the easier it will be to privatize CN. In fact, the federal government wants to line its empty coffers with money taken from CN workers.
Does this kind of publicity show the Liberal government's and the employer's good faith and will to settle the dispute? Not at all.
CN's ad this morning states that we are no longer in the 1980s and that the company must adapt its employees' working conditions.
For all intents and purposes, by denying the right to strike, rejecting all negotiations and imposing their own conditions, CN and the Liberal government are setting us back several generations.