When the final tally was counted, the labour movement could be forgiven for heaving a sigh of relief. The Senate this week amended, some say eviscerated, legislation passed by the House of Commons that would have given organized labour another sound reason to believe it is under siege.

This time the Conservative government would have under the auspices of accountability and transparency forced unions to disclose financial information to tax authorities. Other entities that too receive favourable tax treatment were inexplicably exempted from the disclosure obligations. Organized labour could be forgiven for feeling that its capacity to flex its muscle is being thwarted as it helplessly watches the federal government trying to systematically strip elements that once made it a force.

Provincial governments across the country too are following suit. Many have enacted legal obstacles to make life difficult for labour. “It’s the age of conservatism,” told me Ronald Pink of Pink Larkin, a law firm from the Atlantic Canada that actually boasts it pays heed to social justice. “We are turning back the clock 50 years on things we fought to achieve.”

Others see matters differently.

What follows is a look at legal developments that could shape the Canadian labour landscape for years to come.

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