A lost phone, a missing key and a firing all became evidence in her case

A Canadian nonprofit has managed to fend off a former employee's claims that everyday workplace decisions, from a work phone to a shift schedule, amounted to disability discrimination and retaliation for raising a human rights complaint. A tribunal sided entirely with the employer, dismissing every allegation.

In a decision dated July 31, 2026, tribunal member Andrew Robb of the British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal dismissed a complaint by a former outreach and live-in support worker against the John Howard Society of Okanagan & Kootenay, a regional social services nonprofit.

The worker, employed there under a year in 2020, argued that a removed phone and laptop, a denied office key, a mandatory medical form, discipline for lateness, and her termination all connected to disabilities including ADHD and a brain injury. Robb found none of it amounted to discrimination, and rejected her retaliation claim over her termination.

Discrimination claim

The worker said she was singled out over ordinary equipment. A manager, she said, denied her an office key because people with ADHD could be forgetful, and losing a laptop and phone made her job harder in ways tied to her disabilities.

The phone and laptop, Robb found, were issued for practical reasons unrelated to disability. Her first posting had no company office nearby, so she needed the devices to log case notes and stay reachable. When her role...

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