Canadian Employment Law Today

6 | August 30, 2017 Canadian HR Reporter, a Thomson Reuters business 2017 Cases and Trends in a romantic relationship. However, she felt people started staring at her and acting hos- tile towards her. By 2005, she believed mana- gerial employees at Peel Manor and with the municipality suspected she was having an affair with the commissioner. McDonald felt false rumours were spread about an af- fair, employees began spying on her home in an attempt to confirm the rumours, and management recruited her co-workers to spy on her and provide information. She also claimed the police were contacted and ac- cused her of unlawful conduct leading to a police investigation. McDonald began feeling pressure at the workplace as well, claiming management implied she destroyed and sabotaged soft- ware and was insubordinate. She took issue with certain requests that were made of her, such as training a receptionist on software, labelling residents' glasses, reducing her in- volvement with tours, covering her duties when she was away, and a lack of support for month-end financial reconciliations. She felt she was asked to do tasks for which she wasn't qualified or others should be doing. is ha- rassment caused her stress and anxiety that led to health issues and symptoms of post- traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), though she hadn't been diagnosed with the condition. Worker felt everyone was out to get her McDonald perceived things getting worse in 2005, as she noticed suspicious cars driving by her home, she thought somebody went through her purse at work and copied her phonebook, she found her car's trunk un- locked in the parking lot, and a death threat on her car. She also believed a man she spoke to at work, a furnace installer who came to her home, and a man she met from a news- paper dating advertisement were under- cover police officers who were investigat- ing her. She also claimed Peel management sent someone to a bar she was at one night in 2005 and spiked her drink with grain al- cohol, causing her to drive while intoxicated and being caught by police. She concluded that Peel management was making an orga- nized attempt to pursue a false investigation of her related to the rumours about her and the commissioner of health. McDonald said she tried to transfer out of Peel Manor through a "reorganizational transfer," but management blocked her ad- vancement and she continued to work at Peel Manor. However, she said she worked in a poisoned work environment that – along with financial difficulties, physical health is- sues, and her daughter's own problems with police and the Children's Aid Society – con- tributed to extra stress as her life seemed to spiral out of control. By late 2009, McDonald said she couldn't take it anymore and filed a claim for "special, general, punitive and exemplary damages" of $5 million for Peel management's "wrong- ful and vexatious course of conduct that was deleterious and harmful to her" based on its suspicions of the affair with the commis- sioner of health. e municipality denied all of McDonald's claims, saying it was all hearsay based on her questionable perceptions. A psychiatric as- sessment indicated she suffered from a de- lusional disorder, but McDonald questioned the results, arguing that if she suffered from a psychiatric disorder, it was caused by the stress she suffered as a result of manage- ment's actions at her workplace. e court found that McDonald's psychi- atric assessment raised questions about her credibility. While it noted that McDonald wasn't trying to mislead the court or inten- tionally lie, it found she had "a number of complicated and intertwined challenges in her life" and she "perceived the world to be against her, whether that related to her personal difficulties, her children's difficul- ties, or her professional challenges." In her mind, her allegations were true, though they were based only on perceptions with no real evidence, said the court. In addition, her per- ceptions were coloured by her dissatisfac- tion with some of the duties she was asked to perform and some of the reorganization that was going on at Peel Manor. e court found the municipality's expla- nations were credible and straightforward, and the psychiatrist's opinion was thorough and carefully considered. Each of the inci- dents McDonald described — people spying on her and breaking into her car, her drink at a bar spiked, people staring at her at work — were all elements of perception and had no real link to her employer. In addition, the municipality explained that McDonald didn't go through the application process when she asked for a transfer, so she didn't follow the procedure properly if she wanted one. When she didn't get the transfer, she filed the claim against the municipality. "I accept Peel's submissions and find specifically that Ms. McDonald was a difficult employee who did not like to take direction from her superiors, who did not like the re-organization that took place or the changes to her responsibilities and who essentially complained about management when she could not obtain a transfer without going through an application process," the court said. e court found no evidence that the mu- nicipality's management acted in a way that caused a poisoned work environment for McDonald — in fact it often gave her the benefit of the doubt when she acted out and didn't discipline her. e court noted that McDonald's disenchantment with some of her work duties and failed transfer, com- bined with problems in her private life and her "perception and flawed insights," fed the stress she suffered from and any related health issues. As a result, the court deter- mined McDonald wasn't entitled to any damages and dismissed her claim. For more information see: • McDonald v. Regional Municipality of Peel, 2017 CarswellOnt 11815 (Ont. S.C.J.). Worker had troubles in personal life causing stress « from HARASSMENT on page 1 The court found the employee 'perceived the world to be against her.' WEBINARS Interested in learning more about employment law issues directly from the experts? Check out the Carswell Professional Development Centre's live and on-demand webinars discussing topics such as "dress codes and accommodation, managing diverse workplaces, and marijuana in the workplace. To view the webinar catalogue, visit cpdcentre.ca/hrreporter.

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