Donald F. McLeod

The Grievance Settlement Board issued a procedural decision on consent to suspend the investigation of Workplace Discrimination and Harassment Policy (WDHP) complaints filed by various grievors, as the substance of those complaints would be addressed within the grievances before the Board.

The Employer was directed to notify investigators and provide details of the affected complaints.

The Board also assigned additional hearing dates for specific grievors.

In a mediation-arbitration process concerning systemic issues of racism, discrimination, and harassment at the Toronto Jail, the Grievance Settlement Board directed the union and the employer to commit to a comprehensive set of objectives and action plans.

These directives aim to foster a fair, respectful, and inclusive work environment, addressing areas such as union-management collaboration, workplace hospitality, handling of hate mail, recruitment and promotion, orientation and training, operations, and conflict resolution.

The Crown appealed the conditional sentences imposed on two black single mothers who pleaded guilty to importing cocaine.

The trial judge had introduced his own research on systemic racial and gender bias, concluding these factors mitigated their culpability and justified conditional sentences.

The Court of Appeal held that the trial judge overstepped his role by acting as advocate, witness, and judge, and erred in principle by imposing conditional sentences for a serious offence like importing cocaine.

Although the appropriate sentences would have been custodial terms of 20 months and two years less a day, the Court dismissed the appeal because the respondents had already served 17 months of their conditional sentences, and incarcerating them now would cause undue hardship.