Canadian Lawyer InHouse

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2018 8 INHOUSE News Roundup Family Physicians of Canada on au- thorizing dried cannabis for chronic pain and 2014 guidelines from the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Newfoundland and Labrador on marijuana for medical purposes. In the end, Roil concluded the reg - ular use of medically authorized cannabis products can cause impairment of a worker in a workplace, and the length of cognitive impairment can exceed four hours after in - gestion — sometimes up to 24 hours. In addition, a general practising physi- cian is not in a position to adequately deter- mine the daily safety issues in a hazardous workplace. "Specialized training in understanding workplace hazards is necessary to fully un- derstand the interaction between cannabis impairment and appropriate work restric- tions in a given fact situation," said Roil. Newfoundland and Labrador also lack readily available testing resources "to allow an employer to adequately and accurately measure impairment rising from cannabis use on a daily or other regular basis," he said, and, more importantly, "there is cur - rently no effective or practical means to ac- curately measure impairment in the work- place from evening cannabis use. "The inability to measure and manage that risk of harm constitutes undue hard- ship for the employer," Roil said. While Valard's accommodation process was not perfect, it reached the correct out- come, said Roil. "It is easy to have sympathy for the plight of [Tizzard], but he has chosen a therapy which, while effective in term of his pain relief, requires more research and knowledge than is currently possible in order to ensure an employer's ability to determine impairment in a construction environment." This case is significant in recognizing the limitations on the current testing technol - ogy and the impairment effects of canna- bis, says Tara Erskine, partner at Mathews Dinsdale and Clark LLP in Halifax. "It's not like alcohol or cocaine, where there's a narrow window and if you test someone for alcohol, you know when they've consumed alcohol. It's not the same for cannabis because it stays in your system 28 days or longer, so it's a real problem and it's only going to get more significant when recreational use of cannabis is legalized." IH — Sarah Dobson, Canadian HR Reporter, a Thomson Reuters publication. Campus sexual assault requires complex approach around education, say legal experts W hile post-secondary institutions and their legal departments have been looking at the role they can play in educating students around the issue of consent, some legal experts say education should start well before students get to campus. The Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity at Montreal's Concordia University has said it will offer sexual assault and consent semi - nars for students as sexual assault has been a prevailing problem in post-secondary schools. In-house counsel at schools are helping with policy creation for sexual as- sault on campus, but it isn't solely their de- partment's responsibility — it's a team ef- fort with other stakeholders at the schools. "[In-house counsel] don't own this. We're there to support the people who are dealing with this day in and day out in terms of delivering the programming and supporting the students and the rest of the community," says Giselle Basanta, senior legal counsel, office of the general counsel and secretary of the board of governors at Ryerson University in Toronto. She was also an adviser during the establishment of the university's sexual violence policy. In Ontario, as of Jan. 1, 2017, all post- secondary educational institutions are mandated by Bill 132, Sexual Violence and Harassment Action Plan (2016) to have a sexual assault policy in place. Also, in Nova Scotia, an NDP private member's bill in - troduced by Lenore Zann, Bill 83 — Safer Universities and Colleges Act, had its first reading March 8. It is similar to the On- tario act. Halifax's Dalhousie University, although not yet required by the provincial law, said in a statement that the school has developed a sexualized violence/response strategy, in - cluding a "stand-alone sexualized violence policy," as part of this strategy. For a strong campus sexual assault pro- tocol, Basanta says, there need to be sev- eral key aspects: good supports offered to survivors, academic accommodation when needed, clear community standards/under- standing of those standards and solid poli- cies. She stresses that, although policy cre- ation is a collaborative effort at the schools, the role of counsel is valuable to guide sex- ual assault experts in "providing the appro- priate parameter" for creating the policies. But Deepa Mattoo, director of legal ser- vices at the Barbra Schlifer Commemora- tive Clinic in Toronto, says the problem of sexual assault is broader and "more deeply rooted in society." "Sometimes, we try to really, from the legal lens, simplify the situation and look at who is responsible. The legal system is more about creating accountability in society and making sure that there is a rule of law that can prevail," says Mattoo. "Purely from a societal standpoint, I think it's important to realize the cost of an incident of violence in a person's life is way more holistic." Specialized training in understanding workplace hazards is necessary to fully understand the interaction between cannabis impairment and appropriate work restrictions in a given fact situation.

• Cover