The union for 10,000 striking Air Canada flight attendants said on Monday they won’t return to work even though the strike, now in its third day, has been declared illegal. The job action at Canada’s largest airline is affecting about 130,000 travelers a day at the peak of the summer travel season.
The battle between Air Canada and its flight attendants – which has boiled over into an illegal strike, stranding travellers and grounding planes – includes a fight over unpaid work that could set a precedent for other major carriers in Canada and around the world, experts say.
A key demand of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), which represents 10,400 flight attendants with Air Canada and its subsidiary Air Canada Rouge, is compensation for what is called “ground time.”
Striking Air Canada flight attendants rally at Vancouver International Airport, in Richmond, B.C., on Monday, August 18, 2025. The Canadian Union of Public Employees says a strike by 10,000 flight attendants at Air Canada will continue, defying an order from the Canada Industrial Relations Board that it provide public notice by noon ET Monday that it had ended the strike. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck
The Ontario government, poised to allow private clinics to do publicly funded hip- and knee-replacement surgeries, is facing behind-the-scenes criticism from some of the people who hope to build the new facilities.
The long-delayed move is part of the Progressive Conservative government’s push to boost the involvement of the private sector in the public health care system, in an effort to move more procedures out of hospitals and reduce waiting times.
The Ontario government says it has agreed with satellite internet provider Starlink – owned by billionaire Elon Musk – on the terms to end a $92-million contract with the company that Premier Doug Ford had vowed to rip up in retaliation for U.S. tariffs during his winter re-election campaign. But the province would not reveal how much taxpayers will have to pay to get out of the deal.
Ontario Minister of Energy and Mines Stephen Lecce, whose department was overseeing the contract, confirmed on Wednesday that talks to end it had finished and that the province was now aiming to find a Canadian company to replace Starlink. He declined to say how much the cancellation cost.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford is retracting a vow he made last week to have his province issue its own work permits to asylum seekers in the face of what he said were federal government delays that have left refugee applicants in limbo for two years.
Last Wednesday, Mr. Ford had told reporters after a conference with his fellow premiers that his province would step into the federal government’s purview and issue its own work permits to ensure that refugee applicants could enter the labour force more quickly. But on Monday, he called a press conference and reversed himself.
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