Supreme Court won’t hear appeal from former Nortel employee over benefits

OTTAWA – The Supreme Court won’t hear an appeal from a former Nortel employee who claimed her charter rights were violated over the issue of disability payments.

The employee had argued that the 2015 agreement reached on how disability benefits would be paid out in the wake of Nortel’s bankruptcy was unfair and unreasonable.

It was one of several cases the Supreme Court announced Thursday it won’t pursue.

Others included a case about whether standards are required for how police strip search youth in custody, and another on how human rights tribunals decide to dismiss complaints.

As usual, the top court gave no reason for refusing to hear the appeals.

But the Supreme Court did agree to hear a case that moves along a long-simmering dispute between the B.C. government and tobacco companies over access to health records, as well as one involving parliamentary privilege at the Quebec National Assembly.