Originally published December 2017
The
decision of Mr. Justice Paul Belzil in the Alberta Court of
Queen's Bench granting an interim injunction to block
Suncor's random drug testing policy has now been released. The
Court applied the three part test for an injunction: there is a
serious issue to be tried, there will be irreparable harm if the
injunction is not granted, and the balance of convenience favours
the injunction.
Points of note from the decision include:
- The parties agreed that the Suncor site is dangerous "but
agree on virtually nothing else".
- The parties each submitted expert evidence in support of their
argument. For the Union, Dr. Thomas Wild from the University of
Alberta opined that measurable improvements in safety will not be
achieved by random testing. In contrast, for Suncor, two experts
including Dr. Beckson from the University of California opined that
random testing does decrease the risk of incidents and injuries in
the workplace.
