JUDGE RULES FOR MAN FIRED AFTER SMOKING POT

An Alberta judge has ruled a construction company discriminated
against a man when it fired him from an oilsands project after his
pre-employment drug screening tested positive for marijuana.

Instead, Justice Sheilah Martin said the man -- a recreational user --
should have been treated the same way as someone with a drug
addiction, which is considered a disability in a growing body of human
rights case law across Canada.

In 2002, John Chiasson was hired by Kellogg, Brown & Root as a
receiving inspector at Syncrude's plant north of Fort McMurray. He was
required to take and pass a pre-employment drug test.

It is the first time that Alberta's Court of Queen's bench has
addressed pre-employment drug testing under Alberta human rights
legislation. And while the judgment is specific to one company's
policy, some are calling it a significant decision that could place
new legal limits on when workers can be tested for drugs.

Leanne Chahley, an Edmonton labour lawyer who regularly represents
unions, said it means a worker does not have to be disabled to
challenge a policy as discriminatory. It also means companies cannot
use drug tests to automatically weed out potential employees who test
positive, she said.

Companies that require employees to drug test before setting foot in
the workplace say they do so for important safety reasons.

KBR argued that drug testing was "a necessary facet of a wider drug
and alcohol strategy to counter the danger of the growing drug culture
in Fort McMurray."