Laura Walton on uniting workers in an era of the notwithstanding clause

Bridget Potasky, rabble's 2025–26 Jack Layton Journalism for Change Fellow, has been working on a series examining the growing use of the notwithstanding clause by federal and provincial governments, as we discussed in last week's episode.

This week, she sat down with Ontario Federation of Labour president Laura Walton to talk about why strengthening worker solidarity is essential as governments increasingly invoke the notwithstanding clause.

About our guest

Laura Walton is the president of the Ontario Federation of Labour (OFL), Canada's largest provincial labour federation. The OFL represents 54 unions and one million workers in Ontario. Laura previously served as the president of the Canadian Union of Public Employees' Ontario School Board Council of Unions (OSBCU), which represents over 55,000 education workers across the province.

In 2022, Laura led an historic strike that won unprecedented gains for OSBCU members and that led to the defeat of Bill 28, the provincial government's landmark anti-labour legislation.

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