If the courts strike down the Sunday shopping ban in Nova Scotia the Notwithstanding clause has to be used

If the courts strike down the Sunday shopping ban in Nova Scotia the Notwithstanding clause has to be used
Created by Tony Lohnes on August 6th, 2006 at 8:37 am AST


In 2004,the majority of Nova Scotians voted No to Sunday shopping in a provincial plebiscite. Since then, two major grocery chains have been breaking the law by opening on Sunday despite the loop holes being fixed by government. They are taking the province to court. At the same time there is a big push by the Halifax Chamber of Commerce to have stores open on Sunday, while their offices remained closed on Sunday. They talk about business' having the right to open on Sunday if they want to. If we continue to use excuses like this, it will set a dangerous precedence in this country. If we go by that, we would not have a minimum wage, vacation pay, or holiday pay. Stores could open on all holidays. Plus no pensions,employment deductions, as this again would be a case of government telling business' what to do. We have governments for a reason, to pass laws giving us the same rights as government workers, banks, registry of motor vehicles,mail persons, etc, who are currently off all week-ends. This issue is headed to the courts, and we feel strongly that the court has no right to decide on the issue after it has been solved already. Fifty- Five percent of Nova Scotians voted No to Sunday shopping. A vote is a vote and should be respected by everyone in the province. Our government has the responsibility to use the Notwithstanding clause if it has to keep our current Sunday shopping ban. Other provinces have used the Notwithstanding clause and so can we. More information can be found on it here-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Notwithstanding_clause
We hereby ask that our government respect the plebiscite vote and use the Notwithstanding clause if it has to.