The appellants, owners of hotels and other businesses, brought a civil action for defamation, interference with economic relations, and conspiracy to injure against an employee and union steward who delivered a speech to customers.
The motion judge dismissed the action, finding that the dispute was essentially a workplace dispute governed by the collective agreement, thereby ousting the court's jurisdiction under the Weber framework.
The Court of Appeal upheld the decision, agreeing that the facts and context of the dispute were overwhelmingly employment-related and that the appellants had initially treated the matter as a workplace incident by taking disciplinary steps.
