Steven MacKinnon directed the Canadian Industrial Relations Board to order dockworkers in British Columbia and Quebec back to work, ending lockouts at ports up and down the West Coast and in Montreal and Quebec City. Replacement workers have kept the comparatively small Port of Quebec functioning through a two-year lockout, while the more recent stoppages in B.C. and Montreal have been nearly total. (The Logic)

Talking point: Negotiated agreements are best, MacKinnon said, but none seems imminent and “there is a limit to the economic self-destruction that Canadians are prepared to accept.” MacKinnon used the same ministerial power he invoked to end work stoppages at Canada’s major railways over the summer. The federal labour board itself has raised doubt about whether such an order is constitutional, and the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference is challenging the railway orders in court.