Know when to punt

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 27/07/2023 (778 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Teams have two plays to gain 10 yards in the Canadian Football League before the offence must decide whether to gamble on third down or punt the ball away.

The provincial government has a similar option on its hands after two failed legal plays in its seven-year legal dispute with the University of Manitoba Faculty Association (UMFA).

In a February 2022 decision, Court of King’s Bench Justice Joan McKelvey ruled the province breached UMFA’s charter rights and must fork over $19.4 million in damages to the faculty association, saying the government illegally inserted itself into contract negotiations with the University of Manitoba in 2016.

The province “significantly disrupted” the relationship between the U of M and UMFA and caused “significant discord” between the faculty association and its membership of about 1,200 instructors, researchers and librarians, Justice McKelvey wrote in her ruling.

After 20 bargaining sessions with the U of M, UMFA members had received a salary proposal that was seven per cent over four years.

The province, which newly elected premier Brian Pallister led in 2016, ordered the university to retract the offer and demand a one-year agreement that would freeze UMFA members’ wages and not disclose where the order came from.

An impasse ensued and led to UMFA going on strike for three weeks.

The province appealed Justice McKelvey’s decision, as it was entitled to do, only to learn on July 14 the Manitoba Court of Appeal rejected its argument that she made errors of law and fact in her ruling.

The three-justice panel also upheld the $19.4-million award, which includes $15 million to faculty members employed between April 2016 and March 2020, $1.6 million in wages lost while they picketed and $2.7 million to UMFA for strike-related expenses.

The judgment also doesn’t include how much the province has spent on presenting its case at two levels of Manitoba’s courts.

It’s a debt that would be paid by Manitoba taxpayers and not the Progressive Conservative party, which has demanded salary freezes for public servants throughout its seven years in power while handing out tax cuts and rebates that threaten to strain the public purse.

A government spokesperson says the province will review the appeal court’s decision before deciding whether to launch a final appeal.

Those who support another appeal would compare Canada’s legal system to baseball, where batters get three strikes when they step up to the plate, rather than the two-and-out rules of the CFL.

For that last swing, the Manitoba government would have to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada and prepare its case once again, with no guarantee the country’s top court would even consider their case, let alone rule against two previous justice’s decisions.

Rather than taking one final swing, risking further cost to the taxpayer and another defeat should they strike out at the Supreme Court, the province should consider how a football coach would act when facing a similar third-and-long bind on the gridiron.

The province is hardly in a desperate situation in the UMFA dispute, which is usually the only time CFL teams choose to gamble on third down after their first two plays fail.

The risk of giving their opponents valuable field position — or political capital for Manitoba’s labour movement in the government’s case — is too great unless a Hail Mary play is needed to stay in the game.

Premier Heather Stefanson, Pallister’s successor, should decide to punt, let the sad UMFA dispute fade into provincial history and move on to the next political play.