Judge: Mounties have right to form union

TORONTO, April 7 (UPI) -- The Royal Canadian Mounted Police's 22,000 members have the right to unionize, an Ontario Superior Court judge ruled in Toronto.

In a 25-page ruling, Justice Ian McDonnell struck down the more than century-old policy of disallowing union activity among the Mounties, The Globe and Mail reported.

The suit against the force was filed by the Mounted Police Association of Ontario, one of the RCMP's various associations that straddle the country, with officers who serve as municipal, provincial and federal police.

"Why does the wider jurisdiction of the RCMP or its status as a unique Canadian institution make the labor relations modes in place for other police forces inappropriate?" MacDonnell said in his ruling, referring to the RCMP's status as the only non-unionized force in Canada.

The right to strike isn't part of the suit's goal, as all Canadian police associations give up the right to do so, the Globe said.

The ruling gave the federal government 18 months to have a unionization mechanism established for the force.