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CUPW goes to court to oppose appointment of second arbitrator; first Harper government arbitrator appointed was ruled unqualified by the court
Ottawa (07 May 2012) – The Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) is asking the Federal Court of Canada to have the second arbitrator appointed by the Harper government to resolve its dispute with Canada Post declared unqualified because of his bias. The government's first appointee was declared unqualified for the task by the same Court because he was not bilingual.
Guy Dufort, appointed by federal Labour Minister, Lisa Raitt, on March 13, ran unsuccessfully for Parliament as a Progressive Conservative candidate in 2000 and for Harper's Conservative Party in both a by-election and the general election in 2008.
As a management-side labour lawyer, Dufort also represented Canada Post in matters of pay equity from 1998 to 2003 as well as before the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal in 2005 on a pay equity case. The Tribunal ruled in favour of the Canada Post workers and made a pay equity award estimated $250 million. The Tribunal decision was appealed by Canada Post all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada which upheld the Tribunal decision in November 2011.
In March 2012, CUPW made an application to Dufort to recuse himself as arbitrator to the dispute. After a hearing on CUPW's application, Dufort issued a 34-page decision that excluded the fact that he had served as Canada Post's lawyer in fighting CUPW over a massive pay equity claim and the fact that he ran for Parliament three times as a Conservative candidate gave rise to a reasonable apprehension that he might be biased against the union and in favour of the employer.
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