Why should anyone have the right to tell you when you can or cannot work? If we want to earn more money by staying open longer or on holidays, why should the city have the right to tell us that we have to stay closed? Isn’t this a basic right in capitalist society? They don’t tell doctors or lawyers or computer programmers or painters or plumbers when to work. So, why should the retail industry be under their proverbial thumb?

This foolishness is not be perpetrated upon us by the feds or the provincial government. The province amended the Retail Business Holidays Act (RBHA) in 2006, exempting the City of Toronto, so that the city can decide without provincial or federal interference whether or not businesses can open on statutory holidays. You would imagine that the city would have taken the opportunity to allow shopping on statutory holidays, thereby leaving it up to the individual retailers to decide whether or not to open. In March 2008 Toronto’s City Council voted to leave things as they are and to only allow shopping on statutory holidays in designated tourist areas. A change in policy would have benefited many retailers and the tourists who take in the entire city and not only the designated areas.

Some adventurous retailers along Queen Street East decided to open on Easter this year and take advantage of the foot traffic being generated by the Beaches Easter Parade. These retailers were very courageous or had a good plan in case they were caught because they could have faced fines of up to $50,000. Interesting enough, not one ticket was issued largely due to the fact that most of the bylaw enforcement officers were taking a holiday as well.

When are we going to end this foolishness and let hardworking people work instead of forcing them to take holidays that they don’t want?