Canadian Lawyer InHouse

JULY 2015 40 INHOUSE AS CANADA POST CORP. proceeds with its five-year plan to phase out door-to- door mail delivery in favour of community mailboxes, it is facing a Charter challenge from its major union, the Canadian Union of Postal Workers, joined by several seniors organizations. The plaintiffs claim that only the federal government, not CPC, has the authority to make this decision, and they argue the de - cision discriminates against the elderly and the mobility-challenged. No court hearing has yet been held. Bonnie Boretsky, 58, is no casual observer of the proceedings. A 30-year veteran of Canada Post, she has been vice president, general counsel, corporate secretary & com - pliance since 2008. "I'm definitely involved from a strategy point of view," she says of the CUPW case. She, her assistant general counsel and another senior lawyer "are paying very close attention." She has also hired two external law firms specifically to address the human rights arguments. The legal department has also been fight - ing a bylaw passed by the City of Hamilton to block the phase-out of home delivery lo- cally. The case was being heard by the Supe- rior Court of Jutstice at press time. CPC consulted its legal department on the original decision to phase out home delivery. "I'm at the senior management table, and it's something I for sure got involved in," she says. "But there wasn't a lot of hard thinking to do." CPC has been installing community mailboxes in the country since the late 80s. The former City of Nepean early on fought the move in court, but lost. "The legal department was therefore very supportive of the initiative," says Boretsky. "We weren't surprised when CUPW took us to court. We were ready for all possible challenges on all different fronts." Boretsky's lengthy career at Canada Post has inured her to legal battles. In fact, her tenure has largely overlapped with CPC's longest litigation. In 1983, the Public Service Alliance of Canada filed a pay equity complaint on behalf of 2,300 mostly female clerical workers at CPC. The Canadian Human Rights Tribunal upheld the pay equity complaint, but CPC Canada Post's Charter challenge A 30-year veteran of Canada Post, Bonnie Boretsky is leading the legal strategy in the current Charter challenge by the Canadian Union of Postal Workers around changes to home delivery. BY SHELDON GORDON

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