On May 11, 2026, the Ontario Nurses’ Association (ONA) announced an historic constitutional challenge that aims to strike down a decades-old law that strips Ontario’s nurses and health-care professionals of fundamental rights to meaningful collective bargaining and guts their bargaining power.
ONA’s legal action targets the Hospital Labour Disputes Arbitration Act (HLDAA), a 1965 statute that is among the most restrictive labour relations regimes in the world. Enacted before the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms existed, it applies a blanket ban on any form of job action for all nurses and health-care professionals working in hospitals and long-term care homes. This amounts to more than 90 per cent of health-care workers in Ontario.
In a press conference held by ONA to announce the challenge, Cavalluzzo partner Danielle Bisnar said that there are many other models that allow some form of strike action in most other jurisdictions in Canada and across the world. As she noted: “Ontario is an anomaly”.
Cavalluzzo lawyers Danielle Bisnar, Tyler Boggs, and Adriana Zichy will be representing ONA in this important challenge. We are proud to stand by Ontario’s nurses and health-care professionals in their ongoing fight to restore their rights so they can use their collective bargaining power to better their working conditions and fight for quality public healthcare for everyone.
A copy of ONA’s press release in relation to the challenge can be found here.
A copy of a CBC article detailing the challenge, in which Danielle Bisnar is quoted, can be found here.