'Our important and longstanding role to deliver the country’s mail should not be seen as tolerance or support for the contents of any mailing'
Canada Post has suspended two mail carriers in New Brunswick after they refused to deliver a flyer calling for a “child sex-change ban” in the province, according to a report.
The flyers were from registered national lobbyist Campaign Life Coalition, which has sent out three postcards across New Brunswick ahead of the province’s Oct. 21 election, reported the Telegraph-Journal, citing a news piece from The Brunswick News.
The postcards have accused teachers of “pushing transgenderism” and described gender-affirming medical care as “chemical and surgical mutilation,” according to the report. The third and latest postcard states that “no child is ‘born in the wrong body,’” and that “God doesn’t make mistakes.”
“The third flyer was straight-up nonsense,” said Shannon Aitchison, representative of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) in Saint John, who is the mother of a transgender child, according to The Brunswick News. “‘God doesn’t make mistakes,’ so you’re telling me my child is a mistake?
“I just looked at (the postcard) and thought ‘I’m not giving this to people.’”
Another carrier’s job is also in limbo for refusing to deliver the material, according to the report published in the Telegraph-Journal, citing statements from Aitchison. Canada Post also told two other carriers to use paid personal days to avoid working the window where the postcards were to be delivered, according to the report.
A one-day suspension was appropriate for an Ontario worker who failed to follow standard operating procedure with which he disagreed, an arbitrator previously ruled.
The Brunswick News noted that Canada Post neither confirmed nor denied the suspensions.
Canada Post ‘neutral third party’
In requiring workers to deliver the materials, Canada Post is staying neutral on the issue of whether the materials are offensive or not, according to a spokesperson from the Crown corporation.
“Our important and longstanding role to deliver the country’s mail should not be seen as tolerance or support for the contents of any mailing,” said Canada Post spokesperson Valérie Chartrand, according to the report.
“We are a neutral third party regardless of our views, with limited regulated exceptions on what can be mailed in Canada.”
Also, the employer has maintained the content of the postcards doesn’t meet the criteria to be “non-mailable matter.”
However, Aitchison claims the latest flyer violates Canada Post’s own Anti-Racism and Anti-Discrimination Charter.
“Whoever vet this (postcard) did not do a good job,” said Aitchison.
The report noted that Aitchison has since returned to work and was promised that she would be paid for her days off.
Meanwhile, Jack Fonseca, Campaign Life Coalition’s director of political operations, welcomed the actions taken by Canada Post.
“I am glad that Canada Post, as a federal government agency, is taking seriously its obligation to provide services equally to all Canadians. How it accomplishes that service obligation is up to CP,” he said in the report.
Canada Post “simply does not have the right to engage in viewpoint discrimination,” he added.
Employers have many legal obligations to their employees, including ensuring that the workplace is free from discrimination. This includes discrimination based on sexual orientation and identity – which is becoming a concern on several fronts in society, according to an expert.
