The most widely read magazine for Canadian lawyers
Issue link: https://digital.canadianlawyermag.com/i/50826
LEGAL REPORT: OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH & SAF E T Y The Lori Dupont Legislating domestic violence as a workplace hazard presents hazards in itself. BY KELLY HARRI S N urse Lori Dupont arrived at work on the morning of Nov. 12, 2005, and was confronted by her great- est fear. She was going to be working with Dr. Marc Daniel, the married man she had a tumultuous affair with until he tried to kill himself earlier that year, which prompted Dupont to finally end the relationship. The resulting coroner's jury — examining the nurse's murder at the Hôtel-Dieu Grace Hospital in Windsor, Ont., and the doctor's subse- quent suicide — would find Daniel had different ideas about when the relation- ship should end. The seven-week inquiry found Daniel launched an escalating campaign of harassment, both verbal and psycho- logical, intimidation, and threats. The final act, the only physically violent act against the nurse in the 10-month cam- paign, was when he brutally and fatally stabbed Dupont as she stood near her nurses' station at the hospital. The result of the inquiry was a series of recommendations to better protect those confronted with domestic violence in the workplace. Recommendations were made taking into account several of Dupont's employer's failings, includ- ing recognition of the power relation- ship between a nurse and a doctor, and a review of the Public Hospitals Act. The Ontario Ministry of Labour was given a specific recommendation to review its Occupational Health and provision Safety Act and "examine the feasibility of including domestic violence [from someone at the workplace], abuse and harassment as factors warranting inves- tigation and appropriate action by the Ministry of Labour." The recommenda- tion made specific reference to wheth- er or not "emotional or psychologi- cal harm, rather than merely physical harm, ought to be part of the mandate of the ministry." As a result, and as part of Bill 168, the Ontario Occupational Health and Safety Amendment Act, Canada's first provision in legislation to recognize the dangers of domestic violence in the workplace, was created. It received Royal assent on Dec. 15, 2009. Under s. 32.0.4, the law requires "if an employer becomes aware, or ought reasonably to be aware, that domestic violence that would likely expose a worker to physi- cal injury may occur in the workplace, the employer shall take every precau- tion reasonable in the circumstances for the protection of the worker." www. C ANADIAN Law ye rmag.com M ARCH 2010 55 JACQUI OAKLEY