Harassment, as a civil wrong, had developed within the administrative structure of human rights tribunals and grievance
processes under collective agreements but there was no generally recognized common law «tort» of harassment.
Given the historical, international, and jurisprudential context, it is clear that the ability to engage in the
collective withdrawal of services in the
process of the negotiation of a
collective agreement is the irreducible minimum of the freedom to associate in Canadian labour relations as protected
under section 2 (d) of the Charter.