With regard to the convention concerning the rights of association and combination of agricultural workers, an order-in-council of June 27, 1922, stated:

Agricultural workers, as far as existing Dominion legislation is concerned, would seem to have the same rights of association and combination as other workers. These rights are subject to a limitation or restriction only at the point where their exercise involves a contravention of the provisions of the Criminal Code. Probably these rights of association and combination do not extend to agricultural workers in the service of the Crown as represented by the Dominion.

Saskatchewan and Nova Scotia endorsed this convention in

1924.

The convention providing that children under fourteen should not be employed in agriculture except outside the hours fixed for school attendance was endorsed by Saskatchewan and Nova Scotia in 1924. Several of the provinces grant exemption from school attendance for urgent work in agriculture.

No action has been taken on the two other conventions passed in 1921. None of the compensation acts apply to agriculture, and none of the provinces have legislation prohibiting the use of white lead in painting and the excluding of males under eighteen and all females from painting work of an industrial character involving the use of white lead.

While no formal ratification has been made as to the convention concerning the application of the weekly rest in industrial undertakings and the recommendation concerning one in commercial establishments, the Dominion Lord's Day Act (R. S. C. 1906, c. 153) requires Sunday to be observed throughout the Dominion as a day of rest and several of the provinces have Sunday rest legislation which was not superseded by the Lord's Day Act.

The recommendation concerning the development of technical agricultural education was endorsed by Nova Scotia. and Saskatchewan in 1924. Under the provisions of the Agricultural Instruction Act of 1913 (c. 5) the Dominion Government for ten years made an annual grant to the provinces for the purpose of aiding and advancing the farming industry by instruction in agriculture, but the act has not been renewed. The Dominion Department of Labor lists. the following provincial legislation on the subject—“ Agricultural Instruction and Technical Education Acts of Canada; the Vocational Education Acts of Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick and Ontario; the Technical Schools and the Agricultural and Dairy School Acts of Quebec; the School Grants Act of Alberta; the Industrial Education Act of Ontario; and the Schools Act of Saskatchewan.”

Nova Scotia and Saskatchewan in 1924 endorsed the first, second, fourth and fifth sections of the recommendation concerning the prevention of unemployment in agriculture— (1) bringing more land into cultivation by modern technical methods, (2) encouragement of improved systems of cultivation, ... (4) transport facilities for unemployed agricultural workers, and (5) developing supplementary employment for agricultural workers. There is no legislation on any of these subjects but on the third section, calling for the provision of facilities for settlement on the land, the Dominion and several of the provinces have land settlement schemes which are now being coordinated under the Dominion Department of Immigration. The provincial legislation to encourage farmers' cooperation and for the issue of government credit to farmers is not designed to aid agricultural workers, as called for in the sixth section of the recommendation. There is no legislation on the remaining recommendations of the 1921 Conference.

No action on any of the conventions or recommendations

of the last four Conferences has been taken in Canada but it should be noted with reference to the recommendation of the 1923 Conference as to the general principles for the organization of systems of factory inspection that all of the provinces except Prince Edward Island have enacted factory legislation which provides for inspection. Further, under the Immigration Act provisions can be made for the communication of information to the International Labor Office regarding emigration and immigration, as called for by the recommendation of the 1922 Conference. The recommendation of the 1924 Conference with reference to the utilization of workers' spare time involves a number of subjects which have received attention from the provincial legislatures.

With regard to the conventions and recommendations of the 1925 Conference on workmen's compensation for accidents and occupational diseases, all of the provinces with the exception of Prince Edward Island have workmen's compensation acts and six of the provinces - Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Ontario-list among the compensable industrial diseases those resulting from mercury and lead poisonings and anthrax infection, as set forth in the convention.

Equality of treatment for national and foreign workers under workmen's compensation was treated in a convention and a recommendation. Saskatchewan alone among the provinces has not included in its Workmen's Compensation Act specific provisions discriminating against the dependents of deceased workmen residing outside the province.

As to the jurisdiction in disputes on workmen's compensation, the majority of the Canadian provinces have established workmen's compensation boards. These bodies are the final authority in the administration of compensation legislation, and in most cases employers' and workers' organizations are represented in the personnel of the boards.

The recommendation concerning the minimum scale of workmen's compensation provides, among other things, that the minimum scale of compensation for permanent total incapacity shall be a periodical payment equivalent to twothirds of the workmen's annual earnings. Ontario and Manitoba have already established this standard, while in Alberta and British Columbia sixty-two and one-half per cent has been fixed.

This brings the record of Canada's relationship with the International Labor Organization to the end of 1925. Canada has had an important place in its councils. At the outset she was granted a government representative on the governing body and in 1922 she was given a seat as one of the nations of chief industrial importance. In addition, at the elections of that year she secured a workers' seat and a substitute employers' seat. Dr. W. A. Riddell, Deputy Minister of Labor for Ontario, was appointed chief of the agricultural service of the International Labor Office, resigning in 1925 to become advisor to the Canadian Government at the League of Nations. It seems inevitable that this active participation in the work of the International Labor Organization will hasten the development of labor legislation in Canada.

CHAPTER II

DOMINION AND PROVINCIAL POWERS IN LABOR

LEGISLATION

“Untried in war, Canada stood high among the nations in the organization of her armies. I pray that in the organization of peace activities her effort will not be less worthy nor less outstanding." (From Sir Robert Borden's message to the National Industrial Conference, September 15, 1919.)

THE division of authority between the Dominion and the provinces in matters affecting labor has been the subject of much discussion. According to the British North America Act, Canada's written constitution, passed by the Imperial Parliament in 1867, the Dominion Parliament is empowered "to make Laws for the Peace, Order, and Good Government of Canada, in relation to all Matters not coming within the Classes of Subjects by this Act assigned exclusively to the Legislatures of the Provinces." While this introductory clause of Section 91 gives the Dominion this general authority, certain definite powers are also specifiedthe regulation of trade and commerce, the raising of money by any mode or system of taxation, navigation and shipping, seacoast and inland fisheries, naturalization and aliens, the criminal law, except the constitution of courts of criminal jurisdiction and "such Classes of Subjects as are expressly excepted in the Enumeration of the Classes of Subjects by this Act assigned exclusively to the Legislatures of the Provinces." A final clause indicates that any matter within these specified Dominion powers shall not be considered of a local or private nature and within the subjects assigned exclusively to the provinces.