B.C. lawyer on firing employees who attend protests: Glacier Media Interview

Anti-vaccine and anti-mandate protests continue across the province and at times, employees have been discovered as part of protests while wearing uniforms or exhibiting the companies they work for. Can employees be fired for partaking in these protests if caught on camera?

A Vancouver employment lawyer at Samfiru Tumarkin LLP spoke with Glacier Media regarding the ongoing protests and employee rights.

They insisted that the importance of whether or not an employee is terminated is not the real issue, but rather whether or not an employee can be terminated for cause.

“The interesting issue here is going to be whether an employer can establish cause, and therefore not pay them severance. And I don’t think the answer is going to be yes unless that employee is skipping out on scheduled shifts to go to these protests,” said the lawyer.

Some have argued that there are also questions regarding whether or not these terminations can be a violation of the human rights code.

“We don’t have a real sense of what it means to be discriminated on the basis of political belief, what are the parameters of that belief. So many people are equating the convoy with anti-Trudeau sentiment and movement, and so perhaps there’s enough of political angle there,” the lawyer states.

“It’s interesting because nobody would say that this hasn’t become a political issue. So, what does that mean in terms of these individuals’ right to be protected by the human rights code?”