Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - October 28, 2025, Winnipeg, Manitoba ustboniface.ca Discover our nationally recognized nursing program while you explore our campus! T i r a g e d e 3 b o u r s e s 3 s c h o l a r s h i p d r a w s 1 0 0 0 $ Portes ouvertes Open House UNIVERSITÉ DE SAINT-BONIFACE Take your first step into a fulfilling career en français Wednesday, November 12 10:00 AM to 1:30 PM and 5:00 PM to 7:30 PM Register for the event online ustboniface.ca/oh2025 TUESDAY, OCTOBER 28, 2025WINNIPEGFREEPRESS.COM ● A5 NEWS I CANADA E DMONTON — Premier Danielle Smith’s government introduced a bill Monday using the Charter’s notwithstanding clause to order 51,000 striking teachers back to work to end the largest walkout in Alberta history. If the bill passes, students would be back in classes Wednesday, and Smith has promised fast-tracked passage in the house. The move puts Smith’s government on a potential collision course with more than 350,000 workers in other provincial unions, which promised an “unprecedented response” if the gov- ernment invoked the clause to override teachers’ constitutional rights to as- semble. Some teachers and supporters were in the legislature chamber gallery and there were shouts of “Shame!” as Fi- nance Minister Nate Horner formally introduced the bill. Smith earlier told reporters the size of the strike and the need for ongoing labour stability in schools required the clause, which overrides Charter rights for up to five years. “This is a very unique situation we find ourselves in. This is a unique strike. We’ve never had 51,000 workers off the job at the same time,” Smith said. “I do not think people should indicate any broader type of approach (using the notwithstanding clause) when it comes to labour action.” Smith said the strike has already af- fected the more than 740,000 students out of schools since it began Oct. 6. They are suffering from not learning in classrooms and missing their class- mates and teachers, she said. “It’s not fair,” Smith said. Under the bill, the Alberta Teachers’ Association and its members would face hefty fines if they don’t comply: up to $500 a day for individuals and $500,000 a day for the union. It would also impose a collective bargaining agreement previously put forward by the union and the province, which rank-and-file teachers over- whelmingly rejected in a vote. Teach- ers would receive a 12 per cent wage hike over four years, with a promise to hire 3,000 more teachers and 1,500 more educational assistants. Jason Schilling, head of the Alberta Teachers’ Association, said the union’s executive council will meet soon to de- termine next steps, but said the use of the notwithstanding clause is a black mark and a disturbing precedent. “This is a sad day for teachers. This is a sad day for Albertans to have a gov- ernment that is willing to trample on your Charter rights for their own pur- poses,” Schilling told reporters. “They should be ashamed of them- selves, and they’re not,” he said. “They will use it again on others.” The bill also overrides protections in the Alberta Bill of Rights and the Al- berta Human Rights Act. Schilling noted the premier was not in the house when the bill was intro- duced. Smith had left the legislature to travel to Saudi Arabia for the first leg of a diplomatic tour in the Middle East. “When this happened, she ran away. She went elsewhere,” he said. Bernie Dowhan, a Grade 9 teacher in Calgary, was in the gallery watching, yelling “Shame!” and “Ignorance!” as Horner tabled the bill. Dowhan told reporters after that seeing the notwithstanding clause be evoked to shut down the strike was “dis- appointing, but not surprising.” “Doing things the proper way doesn’t seem to be resonating with Premier Smith,” he said. “What is happening in the classroom cannot continue any- more.” The teachers from public, separate and francophone schools walked off the job after the two sides failed to find common ground, mainly on the issue of class sizes and complexity. The union called for immediate action on over- crowded classrooms and lack of sup- ports for students who need specialized care. Smith has said the issues can’t be solved with a one-size-fits-all approach at the bargaining table, but require a flexible, collaborative approach. On Monday, she said the legislation wouldn’t address all concerns. She committed to collecting and publicly reporting data on classroom sizes — a measure abandoned by the United Con- servatives under former premier Jason Kenney — and to forming a special panel on classroom complexity. However, the premier called the idea of a class size cap “arbitrary,” arguing it has failed in the past. Larger labour unrest may be on the horizon. Late last week, Common Front, a coalition of 30 Alberta unions repre- senting 350,000 workers, issued a state- ment promising an “unprecedented re- sponse” if the notwithstanding clause was invoked. The group said using the clause is an abuse of process and effectively under- mines the leverage unions have in ne- gotiations. — The Canadian Press Alberta uses notwithstanding clause to force teachers back LISA JOHNSON AND JACK FARRELL AMBER BRACKEN / THE CANADIAN PRESS ‘Black mark and disturbing precedent’: Alberta Teachers' Association president Jason Schilling. WASHINGTON — The U.S. De- partment of Homeland Security is amending its policies to require that all non-citizens — including Can- adians — be photographed when en- tering or leaving the United States. The new security regulations, posted in the federal register Mon- day, are set to come into force on Dec. 26, although it could take years to fully implement them. The department is looking to build a comprehensive biometric data collection through the new policy. It says it will use facial recognition technology to match a traveller’s photo with existing passenger infor- mation on file with the U.S. govern- ment. The records could be held for up to 75 years. “In select cases, fingerprints may also need to be collected, but only as required to better establish links to previously collected traveller bio- metric records,” the department said. The posting in the federal register said the change is necessary to fight terrorism and the use of fraudulent documents, and to ensure people are not overstaying their visas. “Ultimately, this provides DHS with more reliable information to verify identities, and to strengthen its ability to identify criminals and known or suspected terrorists,” it said. The department said U.S. Customs and Border Protection has been col- lecting biometric data from some travellers since 2004. People passing through Amer- ican airports are likely to have been photographed throughout the check-in process. The rule changes will expand that effort with a more comprehensive system to track trav- ellers leaving the U.S. The department said it’s still fa- cing technological challenges as it moves to deploy the new policy at land border crossings. The Canadian Civil Liberties As- sociation expressed alarm over the policy change and called facial rec- ognition flawed and intrusive. “This dramatic expansion of intru- sive facial recognition capabilities is all the more troubling for its lack of accompanying privacy safeguards,” said CCLA executive director How- ard Sapers in a news release. “Biometric information is deeply sensitive and requires the highest level of protection, including rigor- ous security safeguards and effect- ive privacy remedies.” The association said facial recog- nition technology is highly prone to error and subjects racialized, non- white people to higher rates of false positives. Tamir Israel, director of the asso- ciation’s privacy, surveillance and technology program, said “mass de- ployment of this technology — which is simply not yet fit for purpose — is reckless.” The Department of Homeland Security is also ending a rule that exempted travellers under the age of 14 and over the age of 79 from the collection of biometric information — a rule the department said was in place due to “technological limit- ations.” The department said the exemp- tion was lifted to allow “DHS to asso- ciate the immigration records creat- ed for children to their adult records later, which will help combat the trafficking of children, and screen for criminal history or associations with terrorist or other organizations seeking to violate applicable law throughout a person’s lifetime.” A near-identical change was pro- posed in 2021. Many members of the public submitted comments at that time voicing opposition to the chan- ges due to privacy concerns. The department is collecting pub- lic comments about the latest policy change until Nov. 26. — The Canadian Press U.S. to take photos of all travellers entering or leaving the country KELLY GERALDINE MALONE ;