[url=http://www.lancasterhouse.com/about/headlines_apr7.asp][color=red]Really good news:[/color][/url]
A Quebec Superior Court judge has struck down legislation declaring that providers of government-funded childcare in their homes were not employees and therefore could not unionize. The judge found that the legislation deprived the predominantly female childcare workers of the guarantee of freedom of association in both the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the Quebec Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms, and that it also discriminated on the basis of sex contrary to both Charters.
These workers started signing union cards in 2001, and were actually granted bargaining rights. When the Charest Liberals came to power, they passed a law (December 2003) removing those rights, claiming that the home-based workers were independent contractors. The Court has now recognized their true status as employees of the early childhood centres.
It's worth reading the full account at the link above.