Edward C. Chiasson

The appellant employer and respondent union were engaged in a bitter, 18-month strike marked by violence.

The employer refused to negotiate a grievance arbitration process for employees dismissed for picket-line violence, making it a precondition to further bargaining.

The Canada Labour Relations Board found this constituted a failure to bargain in good faith and ordered the employer to table its previous tentative agreement, with four unresolved issues subject to binding mediation.

The Supreme Court of Canada upheld the Board's decision, finding that the determination of bad faith bargaining was within the Board's specialized jurisdiction and not patently unreasonable.

The Court also held that the Board's broad remedial order under s. 99(2) of the Canada Labour Code was rationally connected to the breach and necessary to counteract the consequences of the employer's intransigence, thus not exceeding its jurisdiction.

The appellant railway company appealed a decision upholding a damages award for negligent misrepresentation.

The respondent industrial caterers had entered into a contract based on an inaccurate estimate of the number of meals required, resulting in a substantial loss.

The Supreme Court of Canada dismissed the appeal, holding that the trial judge was not bound by a previous appellate finding regarding whether the respondents would have bid at a higher price.

The Court affirmed that the burden of proof shifts to the defendant to show that the plaintiff would have entered into a different contract on other terms, and since the appellant failed to prove this, the respondents were entitled to recover their full loss on the contract.