How (Not) to Conduct Deferential Review: Dionne v. Commission scolaire des Patriotes, 2014 SCC 33

The province of Quebec allows pregnant workers to exercise a right of withdrawal from dangerous work environments. At issue in Dionne v. Commission scolaire des Patriotes, 2014 SCC 33 was a supply teacher's thwarted effort to exercise her right of withdrawal. A unanimous Supreme Court of Canada quashed the decision of the Commission des lésions professionnelles and held that teacher was entitled to withdraw.

Although it may seem unusual to treat schools as dangerous workplaces, it is common and accepted practice in Quebec for pregnant teachers to withdraw from the workplace because of the risk of contracting harmful diseases from their students. Reading between the lines of the present case, the school board and the CLP apparently took umbrage at the teacher's temerity in claiming her statutory rights, evidence perhaps of a disconnect between law-in-the-books and law-in-practice and lingering discomfort amongst employers about assertive employees.

Be that as it may, the most interesting aspect of the case, from an administrative-law point of view, lies in the differing approaches to the task of judicial review taken by the appellate judges involved. In my view, the Quebec Court of Appeal's stance was more appropriate than that of the Supreme Court of Canada. And of the Quebec Court of Appeal judges, the dissenting reasons of Dalphond J.A. are preferable to the majority reasons of Wagner J.A. (who is now a member of the Supreme Court, though obviously he did not sit on this appeal).