The Minister of Labour appointed retired judges to chair compulsory arbitration boards for hospital and nursing home labour disputes under s. 6(5) of the Hospital Labour Disputes Arbitration Act.
The unions challenged the appointments, arguing the Minister was required to select arbitrators from a mutually agreed roster and that retired judges lacked labour relations expertise and independence.
The Supreme Court of Canada held that while the Minister was not restricted to a specific roster and retired judges as a class were not biased, the Minister's appointments were patently unreasonable because he expressly excluded the relevant criteria of labour relations expertise and broad acceptability within the labour relations community, which were essential to the legislative scheme.
