“Our members are not going back to work,” Canadian Union of Public Employees national president Mark Hancock said outside Toronto's Pearson International Airport.

Air Canada flight attendants said on Sunday (August 17) they will remain on strike and spurn a government return-to-work order they called unconstitutional that would send them back to their duties.

The union said no, setting up an almost unprecedented standoff with the Canadian government, which had requested the back-to-work order.