A number of my constituents have major concerns about some of the activities of some of the unions recently.
Going back to when the check-off system was put in place by Chief Justice Rand, which is why it's now called the Rand formula, that money was to be checked off from union membership, to be used for collective bargaining purposes to advance the interests of the worker. It has now become a cash cow for a lot of unions that engage in activities that really have absolutely nothing to do with the collective bargaining process.
One recent example is the Canadian Union of Postal Workers. This caused a huge outrage in my riding. They sent a couple of people to what they call Palestine and said that the Israeli government was engaging in gross human rights abuses, and that Canada was complicit in this, and Canada, by virtue of supporting Israel, was committing war crimes.
This is the kind of thing they're using hard-earned money for, and workers who worked tirelessly have to pay into this.
I see you make reference to it here: the social justice fund, sports and entertainment fund, promotion fund. If I don't believe in the cause that my union is promoting.... A lot of the workers who came to see me, many of them postal workers, said that this is an absolute outrage and there's no recourse, but they have to pay this.
Could you comment on the activities of unions, and union dues going beyond what they were intended for?