Truck driver also claims he's owed $234,000 in overtime for 3-year period
A long-haul truck driver fired after failing a random cannabis test for the second time — which he described as a one-off to get close to a woman — has lost his wrongful dismissal case.
An Ontario court found the employer's zero-tolerance drug policy held up.
In a decision released June 25, 2026, Justice R.E. Charney of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice dismissed the claim brought by the driver against Bison Transport. The driver had sought damages for breach of contract plus more than $234,000 in unpaid overtime, along with moral, aggravated and punitive damages.
Two failed drug tests and firing for cause
The driver was hired in 2013 as a long-haul driver, a role Bison Transport treats as safety-sensitive. About 22 per cent of his miles took him across the Canada-U.S. border. During a five-day orientation he was trained on the company's drug and alcohol policy and signed an acknowledgment that breaching it could lead to termination.
In November 2014 he failed a random drug test, testing positive for cannabis. He acknowledged using it, showed no sign of addiction, and was placed on unpaid leave and referred to a substance abuse professional. After completing a counselling program, the trucker returned to work and signed a written warning stating that a further failed test could mean immediate termination.
In October 2017, a second random test came back positive for a marijuana metabolite. He acknowledged using marijuana, describing it as a one-time use “to get close to a female individual,” and said he was a casual user with no addiction.
But on Nov. 2, 2017, Bison Transport terminated him for cause, paying no severance and ending his benefits immediately.
No disability so no accommodation
In safety-sensitive industries, employers may enforce drug and alcohol policies as long as they accommodate workers found to be drug or alcohol dependent, the decision noted. Bison Transport's policy promised reasonable accommodation for any employee dependent on alcohol or other drugs.
The question before the court was whether the driver had a disability that triggered that duty.
The evidence said he did not. The substance abuse professional who assessed him in 2014 reported no problem with substance abuse or addiction, and at the hearing, he confirmed he had never had a substance abuse problem.
His claim was amended to drop the disability allegation. As Justice Charney put it, "In the absence of a disability, there is no duty to accommodate."
Justice Charney found the policy was communicated, understood and consistently enforced, and that terminating the driver for cause was a proportionate response that did not discriminate.
He declined to award the moral, aggravated or punitive damages sought, finding nothing unfair or bad faith in how Bison Transport handled the dismissal. Had the firing been wrongful, he would have awarded $17,500.
Overtime bill doesn’t add up
The driver also claimed Bison Transport never paid him overtime, calculating 3,471 hours between 2013 and 2016 and seeking $234,292 at a rate of $67.50 an hour. Bison Transport argued its blended per-mile pay rate already covered overtime, and disputed both the hours and the method behind them.
Justice Charney held that a two-year limitation period barred the claims before 2016, reducing the figure to 743.80 hours that year. He also questioned whether the blended mileage rate met the legal requirement to pay 1.5 times the hourly rate for work beyond 60 hours in a seven-day period, writing that, as far as he could tell, it did not.
Even so, the calculations did not hold up. The driver had relied on an assumed average speed, made arithmetic errors, and counted hours over periods longer than seven days. Justice Charney wrote that the affidavit evidence "appears to seriously exaggerate the number of overtime hours worked and his damages for any such hours." The overtime claim, and the action as a whole, was dismissed.
