Civil Contempt Of Court In The Labour Context

An ongoing and high profile Saskatchewan labour dispute between Consumers' Co-Operative Refineries Ltd. (the "Co-Op") and Unifor Canada, Local 594 (the "Union") spilled over into the courts recently, providing an opportunity to examine the court's powers to find a party to a labour dispute in contempt of a civil order.

On December 5, 2019, after being served with a strike notice, the Co-Op locked out its approximately 800 unionized employees represented by the Union, which then established picket lines around the refinery's Regina, Saskatchewan complex. The Union sought to prevent or delay access to the Co-Op's refinery, which in late December prompted the Co-Op to apply for an interim injunction preventing the picketers from impeding, obstructing, or interfering with the access to or from the Co-Op's property, "except for the purpose of conveying information and/or soliciting support, to a maximum of five minutes," which it received on December 23, 2019. On December 27, the interim injunction was amended to increase the time from five minutes to ten minutes.

The Co-Op quickly discovered that the interim injunction limiting the amount of time picketers could legitimately prevent access to the Co-Op's refinery complex was not being followed, so the Co-Op filed two applications seeking a finding of civil contempt by the Union and certain of its officials for breaching the injunction. The decision on the first contempt application was released on January 22, 2020 (2020 SKQB 17) and the second on February 12, 2020 (2020 SKQB 38). In both instances, the Union was found guilty of civil contempt resulting from repeated breaches of the interim injunction to limit interference with access to the Co-Op's refinery complex. In the second application, the Union was further found guilty of establishing a complete blockade preventing any access to the refinery, and one individual union member was found guilty of breaching the interim injunction (this individual was sentenced to complete 40 hours of community service).

The Co-Op had the onus of proving the alleged contempt on the criminal standard of proof beyond a reasonable doubt. There are three elements to a finding of civil contempt, as set out by the Supreme Court of Canada in Carey v. Laiken, 2015 SCC 17, namely:

The order must state clearly and unequivocally what should and should not be done; The alleged contemnor must have actual notice of the order; and, The alleged contemnor must have...