On September 21, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government introducedlegislation that could amount to one of the most significant rollbacks of workers’ rights in Canada since the creation of the postwar industrial relations system. Tucked inside the sprawling 232-page Bill C-39 are amendments to the Canada Labour Code that would give the federal labor minister explicit authority to terminate lawful strikes and impose binding dispute resolution when the minister decides a work stoppage threatens the “national interest.”

The legislation would also create a new “special mediator,” adding an additional state-directed phase to collective bargaining. Before workers can strike, the mediator would produce a report on bargaining disputes, which the minister would make public if the parties fail to reach an agreement. The new process would create a new perquisite for eventual government intervention under the controversial Section 107 of the Labour Code.

The government describes these provisions as “guardrails” constraining ministerial power. But they are anything but. The legislation instead doubles down on what has become a pattern of strikebreaking from the Liberals. These proposed changes to labor law fit within Carney’s broader corporate remodeling of Canada.