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VICTORIA — A short history of the B.C. Liberals’ botched dealings with the B.C. Teachers’ Federation:

Spring 2001. With the B.C. Liberals poised to win the election, they assure public sector workers that there are no plans to roll back the generous contracts signed by the outgoing New Democratic Party government. “I don’t believe in ripping up agreements,” insists Liberal leader Gordon Campbell. “I am not tearing up any agreements.”

January 2002. Turns out Campbell does believe in ripping up agreements. The Liberals muster their legislative majority to pass three laws vacating provisions in a number of contracts in the education and health care sectors. Incensed by the doublecross, the unions move to challenge the legislation in court.

2002-2006. The Hospital Employees Union assumes the lead on the court challenge. Despite losing the first two rounds, the union presses onward. En route to the highest court in the land, it gains access to cabinet documents, providing telling insights into the high-handed conduct of the Liberals in drafting their contract-breaking laws.

June 2007. The Supreme Court of Canada finds that the B.C. Liberals trampled union rights by stripping contracts without first trying to obtain concessions at the bargaining table. The judgment relies heavily on those cabinet documents, which show the Liberals disregarded the urgings of their own advisers to try negotiations before bringing down the legislative hammer.

Though the specifics only apply to the hospital employees, the high court decision opens the way for the teachers to pursue their own case against the contract-breaking legislation.

November 2010. The Liberals find themselves back in court on the contract-breaking issue, this time with the teachers. Apparently the government believes that the circumstances are sufficiently different in this case that it has a chance of winning. This will prove to be a gross miscalculation.

April 2011. Drawing on the high court’s reasoning in the hospital employees case, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Susan Griffin rules that the government also trampled the bargaining rights of teachers. Again, the smoking gun is provided by the government’s own documents.

“Internal government documents indicate that at least some government officials expected that the teachers’ union would be very opposed to the legislation,” wrote Griffin. “By passing this legislation without so much as consulting with BCTF, the government did not preserve the essential underpinning of collective bargaining, namely, good faith negotiation and consultation.”

She gives the government a year to rectify the situation. Though the Liberals are stung by her findings, they decide against appealing to a higher court. Instead they determine to negotiate a settlement with the union. Another miscalculation.

March 2012. Having got nowhere at the bargaining table, the Liberals bring in legislation that attempts to restore the status quo in the teachers contract to where matters stood at the time of the first contract-breaking episode. Not surprisingly, the union reserves its option to challenge this legislation in court as well.

June 2013. The new contract-breaking legislation is back in court in front of the same judge who ruled against the government last time. If the Liberals have any concerns about the prospect, the record discloses no effort on their part to get the case reassigned to a judge less likely to be annoyed by the de facto disregard for the earlier ruling.