Board Orders (HSARB)

Schuyler Farms Limited v. Dr. Nesathurai, 2020 ONSC 4711 (CanLII)

[2] As part of the local response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Nesathurai issued an order to employers of migrant farm workers (“MFWs”) in the Haldimand-Norfolk region that required them to take measures to enable MFWs arriving from out-of-county to self-isolate for fourteen days (the “Order”). The Respondent in the present appeal, Schuyler Farms, requested a hearing before the HSARB regarding the appropriateness of the Order’s requirement that no single bunkhouse shelter more than three MFWs during the self-isolation period. The HSARB held that this requirement was arbitrary in that, among other things, it did not account for variations in the size and layout of bunkhouse facilities. On this basis, the HSARB struck this requirement from Dr. Nesathurai’s Order.

Issue 1: Did the HSARB apply the wrong test and too high a standard of proof?