Government enforced holidays not quite retro

How much are Government of Ontario employees looking forward to their first weekday of not having to be open for business since January 2? Enough for two different ministries to issue press releases reinforcing labour practices and store closing laws more than three weeks beforehand. The Retail Business Holidays Act seems like an archaic concept in this Global Village, yet it still applies to both Good Friday and Easter Sunday, which represent one-quarter of the remaining days each year where store aisles are all but certain to resemble a bowling alley, with the exception of magazine stores under 2,400 square feet with a maximum of three employees, pharmacies under 7,500 square feet, flower shops and gas stations. A first offense fine of $500, or penalty of $50,000 or beyond, can also still be technically slapped on those who flout those laws that once applied in this province to at least one day of each week – with the exemption of designated tourist areas, which only came to include the Eaton Centre and environs once Sunday shopping became legal in 1992, after a decade of challenges that nonetheless failed to convince the courts that it was unconstitutional for the province to keep most shops locked on a day of rest. (This debate continues to be waged in Nova Scotia, where current poll numbers favour stores opening seven days a week.) Those employees corralled into working on Good Friday have the right to entitlements – although the long list of professions not covered by those laws make it seem like pretty much anyone who works hard for a living isn’t bound to reap the rewards of a government-enforced day off. Naturally, there are folks glad to be unleashed from their daily grind for religious reasons, although the complaint to the Ontario Human Rights Commission by Professor David Noble, who is “cautiously confident” that York University will discontinue their tradition of not holding classes on two Jewish holidays in autumn, should be an interesting battle to watch. The commission is hoping to mediate a solution to Noble’s demand that the practice get extended to all faiths, something that the York administration says would be too difficult, given how there are at least 100 such holidays each year.