The law of drug and alcohol testing in Canada is in a
state of evolution. While the Supreme Court of Canada's
decision in Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union
of Canada, Local 30 v Irving Pulp & Paper Ltd.,
2013 SCC 34, provided important guidance on the strict standard
that employers must meet in order to subject employees to random
testing, it raised many questions regarding how those principles
would be applied to other forms of testing.
In the two years since the decision was released, the
trend in the case law suggests that the Court's analysis in
Irving Pulp & Paper is not limited to random testing.
For example, in Re Mechanical Contractors Association Sarnia v
UA Local 663, 2014 ONSC 6909, the Ontario Superior
Court of Justice upheld an arbitration award which applied
Irving Pulp & Paper to conclude that the employer did
not have the right to require pre-employment testing.
