Speaker Name: Valerie Prather, Stephanie Henry, April Kosten
Session Description:
This session will explore the legal duties and obligations of regulated professionals, employers, employees, and unions with respect to accommodating substance use disorders in the workplace. It will also explore the limits of those obligations, including such questions as:
• When has an employer reached undue hardship?
• What are employees’ and regulated professionals’ rights to privacy, including the right to keep their medical information confidential, in any accommodation or related workplace process?
• Does it make a difference if a person is engaged in a safety-sensitive or decision-critical position (or not)? Or if a person is in a regulated profession?
• What is the scope of the duty to accommodate?
The speakers will engage in a discussion of the Canadian case law, highlighting situations where adjudicators determined that: employers did not satisfy the duty to accommodate; unions failed in their obligations to their members or did not appropriately cooperate in the accommodation process; and employees did not satisfy their obligations in the duty to accommodate process.. We will also consider the obligations of regulatory bodies vis-à-vis regulated professionals and the public with respect to the duty to accommodate.
Learning Objectives:
- Gain a better understanding of human rights legislation and accordant obligations on all of the parties involved at the worksite.
- Gain a better understanding of how the regulatory environment for regulated professionals intersects with the duty to accommodate substance use disorder;
- Obtain tools to avoid the pitfalls and overcome the obstacles to advancing the creation of safe and inclusive workplaces where employees thrive and employers’ benefit; and
- Better understand the rights – and the limits of those rights – of all workplace participants as it pertains to employee off-work activities and personal information, including medical information.
BIO
Stephanie Henry is a Chambers Ranked labour and employment lawyer based in Calgary, Alberta. She acts primarily for employers, in both the public and private sectors in both the unionized and non unionized sectors. Stephanie regularly represents employers in civil litigation, before human rights tribunals and in labour arbitrations. She has extensive experience advising on complex human rights matters, including complex disability management cases. Stephanie also has experience representing physicians in medical malpractice litigation, and in matters before the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Alberta.
BIO
Valerie Prather’s professional negligence practice concentrates on representing physicians before the courts when they are sued for medical negligence. In addition, she provides assistance to physicians in dealing with professional conduct issues before the College of Physicians and Surgeons and various hospital administrative tribunals. Valerie is an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the Cummings School of Medicine at the University of Calgary with a focus on medico-legal risk management and a frequent lecturer at Grand Rounds and medical conferences. She is Chambers and Lexpert Ranked in Health Law. In 2013, Valerie was named a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers. She was also the recipient of the Women in Law Leadership Award for Leadership in Private Practice. In 2016, she was appointed as Queen’s Counsel. In 2025, Valerie was awarded the King Charles III Coronation Medal for her significant contributions to the community. In 2026, Valerie was the recipient of the Calgary Influential Women in Business award for Professional Services.
BIO
April Kosten is a Chambers and Lexpert Ranked leading labour and employment lawyer in Canada. She is recognized as one of Canada’s leading authorities on workplace alcohol and drug testing. She is frequently called on by organizations to design and implement compliant drug and alcohol policies, including from a cross border perspective. April has extensive advocacy experience at all levels of courts and before labour relations boards, arbitration panels and human rights tribunals. Beyond her practice, April is an active contributor to the legal and business community. She regularly speaks and writes on workplace law developments and serves on the Legislative Review Committee of the Alberta Branch of the Canadian Bar Association and the Privacy Committee of the Canadian Association of Counsel to Employers.