“When you’re terminating employment based on a single act, it raises the bar – you need to double check the situation so that you know that, if challenged, you’ve got everything because it rides on one incidence of misconduct, and that’s really difficult [to justify termination].”
So says labour and employment lawyer Michael Horvat of Aird and Berlis in Toronto, after an Ontario arbitrator reinstated a worker after she was fired for sending an email questioning the celebration of the LGBTQ2S+ community to all of colleagues.
The worker was an occasional teacher with the Northwest Catholic District School Board (NCDS) based in Dryden and Fort Francis, Ont., who was hired in April 2019. She had no discipline on her file or any complaints from teachers, parents or students.
