A New Brunswick arbitrator has reinstated a paper mill worker fired for harassment after a workplace conversation about the Israel-Gaza conflict escalated into profanity and offensive comments directed at a Jewish truck driver.
The worker, a shipper with four years at Lake Utopia Paper in Saint George, will serve a four-month suspension without pay and must complete sensitivity training before returning to work.
The case centres on an April 28, 2025 exchange in the mill’s shipping office between the worker and a long-haul truck driver who was Jewish and Israeli. What began as election-day small talk shifted to Middle East politics, then turned hostile.
The arbitrator found the worker violated the company’s Safe and Respectful Workplace Policy by telling the driver: “If you don’t want to hear other people’s opinions you can shut your mouth and fuck off.”
The driver filed a complaint the next day, stating the comments hurt him and made him feel unsafe.
Investigation flawed but violation confirmed
Lake Utopia Paper hired a former police officer to investigate. The investigator interviewed the driver and worker separately, then recommended termination.
The arbitrator criticized the investigation process, finding the investigator “appeared to have concluded that the Complainant’s account was accurate before having spoken to the Grievor.”
The worker was not given a copy of the complaint before his interview. The arbitrator noted the investigator used “many repetitive leading questions” and suggested words to the driver, including the term “genocide” when describing the conversation.
Despite these procedural problems, the arbitrator determined the worker’s aggressive comments constituted workplace harassment under New Brunswick’s Occupational Health and Safety regulations.
“The Board is satisfied that the language used meets the definition of harassment, as intended in the Policy,” the decision stated. “The comments relating to the supposed loading of the trailer are as well offensive, irrespective of the precise words used.”
Competing accounts of conversation
The two men had known each other for about two years and typically chatted when the driver picked up loads. Their usual topic was the worker’s love life.
On April 28, the conversation turned to politics. The driver testified the worker compared Zionism to Nazism, stated Jews killed Jesus, and suggested Israel had advance knowledge of the 9/11 attacks.
The worker disputed some allegations but admitted discussing conspiracy theories and Jewish involvement in Jesus’s death. He maintained he was simply responding to the driver’s questions.
The company retained an expert on antisemitism who testified such statements meet the definition of antisemitism. However, the driver was clear about what actually upset him.
“What hurt me, when someone tells me to fuck off from here, a few times. That is what hurt me,” the driver testified. “My connection to what Israel is doing is zero. It doesn’t hurt me when he says these ridiculous things about Israel, 9/11. It doesn’t hurt me.”
The arbitrator found neither man had a “clear and consistent recollection” of the conversation, noting the driver gave four different descriptions across his text message, email complaint, investigator interview and hearing testimony.
Termination deemed excessive
The arbitrator ruled the comments warranted discipline but not dismissal.
The worker had no disciplinary record under the collective agreement’s 12-month sunset clause. He apologized during the investigation and offered to take sensitivity training. The arbitrator found him “remorseful and contrite” at the hearing.
The worker testified losing his job forced him to work two jobs and reduced custody time with his children.
“The violation of the Policy by the [worker], as the Board has determined, is not as minor or trivial as the Union suggests, it is egregious and must be sanctioned accordingly,” the arbitrator wrote. “Nor is the violation as extreme as the Employer proposes.”
The decision noted the worker’s comments “did hurt and bother” the driver and “affected his emotional health.” The driver stated “the altercation with the Grievor had bothered him for a week.”
The arbitrator ordered a four-month suspension without wages or benefits, plus mandatory sensitivity training. The board retained jurisdiction to help calculate back pay and benefits owed to the worker.
The case highlights the tension employers face when investigating workplace conflicts involving sensitive political and religious topics, particularly when procedural fairness issues complicate otherwise legitimate harassment complaints.
See the original ruling here: Unifor, Local 523N v Lake Utopia Paper, a Division of J.D. Irving, Limited, 2025 CanLII 136812 (NB LA).
