Mr. Speaker, I listened with interest to my hon. colleague from Mississauga West. Frankly, I did not find much comfort in his remarks.
What we are doing here is putting postal workers on trial. I have never seen greater contempt for postal workers. This government is portraying the workers and their union as the bad guys and accusing them of being the only ones responsible for the current situation. These people apparently have no sense of responsibility and they are not negotiating in good faith, unlike the government. The government is the good guy, while the workers have no sense of responsibility.
Why then did the government pretend to give them the right to strike? At the time this right was granted, it was argued that this was a sacred right because, as citizens of this country, workers had every right to fight for better working conditions, to fight for their families.>
Today, they supposedly have the right to strike. Why bother giving them this right only to take it away? If you think they should not have the right to strike, you should take it away altogether. Do you have the will and the courage to do that? You are taking this right away from them. That is unacceptable.
You are putting postal workers on trial without giving them a chance to defend themselves. You are here blaming them for everything. What a fine scenario. As my colleague, the House leader for the Bloc Quebecois, indicated this morning, if we were to identify one single culprit, it would have to be the minister responsible for the Canada Post Corporation. And I agree with him.
Everything was arranged ahead of time by this government, including the Prime Minister. Now the government is trying to sound and look good. It says: “Look, the workers are the bad guys. We are introducing legislation to make them go back to work. We are good enough to send them back to work. We are restoring peace with the workers.”
Why did you give them the right to strike after numerous discussions if, as soon as they want to use it, you take it away from them?