A worker's human rights case turned on one number he refused to accept
A former dean who says he was fired while on medical leave, after a coworker allegedly questioned whether he was truly Indigenous, has lost his discrimination complaint, not on the merits, but because he rejected a settlement offer a tribunal found fair and reasonable.
In a decision dated July 14, 2026, Erika Ringseis, a member of the Alberta Human Rights Commission, upheld an earlier decision to dismiss the former dean's complaint against Northwestern Polytechnic. She found the $40,000 settlement offer fair and reasonable, and that the dean's refusal of it justified dismissal under the Alberta Human Rights Act.
A dean's short tenure
The complainant, who identifies as Indigenous and Qualipu Mi'kmaq from the Caribou Clan, started as a dean at the polytechnic in August 2022. That November, he told the employer he needed to care for his sick daughter and was offered work from home. In February 2023, after his daughter had a mental health crisis, he took sick leave and soon began his own medical leave.
He alleged that comments had been made about working with Indigenous people, that he was told to choose between his job and family, and that he was fired while on medical leave. In April 2023 he filed a workers' compensation claim alleging harassment. An outside lawyer the employer hired to investigate concluded his supervisor had been managing performance and found no support for harassment.
The board initially denied his claim, and the polytechnic terminated his employment on May 29, 2023. About eight months later, the board reversed itself and granted him benefits for a mental disability it linked to events at work, pointing to three demeaning remarks by a coworker, only one of which touched a protected ground.
Weighing the discrimination claim
The one comment tied to a protected ground was a remark a coworker was alleged to have made: "I don't think he's even Indigenous, he's too white." The employee accused of saying it swore in a statutory declaration that she had not, and the dean acknowledged he had not heard it himself but learned of it second-hand.
Ringseis wrote that a single comment from a coworker, even if discriminatory, would be unlikely to draw a large award. She found the employer had offered accommodations more than once, including remote work and leave, and that the evidence did not clearly favour either side on the supervisor's conduct. Other remarks were unprofessional, she wrote, but not tied to a protected ground.
On the dean's claim that he could not return to work because of the employer's conduct, Ringseis was not persuaded the evidence showed that link. She noted the dean and his family had serious health issues, and that the law requires accommodation only to the point of undue hardship, not indefinitely, which she found the workplace had provided.
The settlement offer that decided the case
The offer at the heart of the ruling was $40,000: $30,000 in general damages and $10,000 described as a retiring allowance, subject to tax withholdings. The employer argued a realistic award would fall between $15,000 and $20,000. The dean countered that a win might have brought him $40,000 to $75,000.
Ringseis sided with the employer on the numbers, writing that $30,000 was likely higher than the dean could expect even if he proved his case. The $10,000 for lost income was reasonable, she found, given that he had drawn on paid leave, received workers' compensation, and collected a $20,000 disability-insurer payment. The dean had argued he lost roughly $91,000 a year and, expecting to work until 70 though he was 53 when fired, was owed more than $350,000.
Under the Alberta Human Rights Act, a complaint can be dismissed when a complainant turns down a fair and reasonable settlement, Ringseis noted, describing the statute as placing an obligation on "complainants to accept fair and reasonable settlement offers or risk dismissal." Having found the offer reasonable, she upheld the decision dismissing the complaint.
