MPs Pull All-Nighter Over Back-to-Work Bill

The honourable members are earning their paycheques this weekend, as the opposition vows to continue its filibuster as long as possible to delay a vote.

The debate in Parliament over a bill that would end Canada Post's lockout of its 48,000 employees dragged on through the night and could continue through the weekend, with opposition MPs taking shifts to deliver speeches to delay a vote on the bill. Despite the House having been scheduled to rise for summer break on Thursday – in time for St. Jean-Baptiste Day in Quebec – the NDP filibustered through the night with no signs of slowing down in the morning. Elizabeth May, the Green Party leader, sat at her Commons desk all night long while the four Bloc Québécois MPs passed around a bottle of scotch late Thursday. A rarity in Canadian politics, the marathon filibuster is an NDP tactic meant to delay the vote as much as possible to give Canada Post and its employees enough time to strike a new collective bargaining agreement instead of forcing them into the austere pact drawn up by the Tories.