Mr. Speaker, I welcome this opportunity to speak to Bill C-317 standing in the name of my colleague and friend from Manicouagan. The purpose of this bill is to amend the Canada Labour Code and the Public Service Staff Relations Act so as to deal with the issue of scabs and essential services in the case of labour disputes.
I am somewhat surprised to be in this position in 1995, because it seems to me this kind of legislation should have been passed long ago at the federal level.
The history of labour relations has more often than not been one of struggle and sometimes, unfortunately, one of violence. When we study the history of the labour movement, we realize that when violence occurred, either on picket lines or as a result of a strike, it was in situations where the employer had hired strike breakers. In other words, he had replaced his employees who were legally on strike with people who were supposed to do the same work.