On June 8, 2007, the Supreme Court of Canada [SCC] overruled its jurisprudence of the past twenty years on freedom of association. The majority of the judges agreed that section 2d) of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms protects the right to the process to collective bargaining. In doing so, the SCC rejected the ratio of the majority enunciated in the 1987 trilogy and, at last, gave place to international labour law, in particular to freedom of association principles elaborated by the International Labour Organization's supervisory bodies. The analysis of these principles, focused on three related rights, i.e. the right to collective bargaining, the right to strike and the right not to associate, allows the author to conclude that for the first time, Canada is showing greater respect for its international obligations. What the SCC will decide for the right to strike remains to be seen.

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