“Cannabis is not as predictable as alcohol and it’s not linear in its impacts on the human body – that’s why, when you’re trying to uphold discipline, you often need an expert to provide an opinion on why we care about impairment and the signs of impairment.”
So says Justin Turc, a labour and employment lawyer at McCarthy Tétrault in Calgary, after an Alberta arbitrator upheld the dismissal of a railway worker who tested positive for cannabis after supervisors observed signs of impairment.
The worker was employed as a brakeperson for the Canadian Pacific Kansas City Railway (CPR) since 2008. The position was considered a safety critical one.
