Yes, they are opposed to the resumption of normal activities in the port, something the longshoremen are prepared to do with a mediator. It has been 20 years since there was a labour dispute in the port of Montreal. A tradition of good bargaining. At Canadian Pacific, the current attitude to labour relations has been to take a hard line and let labour disputes fester without resolution and then ask for special legislation.
I heard the chairman of the Quebec Liberal Caucus say earlier: "But there are no essential services". And why not? Do you know why? Because there is no anti-scab legislation. There are no anti-scab provisions in the Canada Labour Code. This government came to power a year ago. It promised to introduce legislation but it never did. It was in favour of such provisions when it was in the opposition but not any more. We have seen nothing so far. Sure, a working paper was distributed with several proposals for anti-scab legislation where it would take 60 per cent and scabs would become legal. Quite something. They call it anti-scab legislation, but they would allow scabs under this proposal.
One last comment, since my time is almost up. I agree there may be emergencies and I agree that from time to time we may have to consider legislating workers back to work. But after 15 hours, in one case, and 24 hours, in the other? Let us get this straight: Either they have the right to strike or they do not. If we want no more strikes, we should pass legislation accordingly, but we should not give the parties the impression that this right exists-if they have that right, they should exercise it-while resorting to special legislation. We cannot have it both ways. Either the right to strike exists and it may be exercised, or it does not. Let us stop resorting to special legislation. Let us put our cards on the table and be logical instead of pretending to support public service employees during the election campaign and then doing what they are doing now.
This party talks like the New Democratic Party during the election campaign and acts like the Progressive Conservative Party once it is in power. That is the Liberals for you.