Law360 Canada (June 21, 2024, 2:07 PM EDT) -- Appeal by appellant of a judgment of the Ontario Court of Appeal which set aside a decision of the Divisional Court dismissing an application of judicial review of an arbitrator’s decision. Two teachers had concerns about the preferential treatment of another teacher by the school principal. They recorded their private communications on a personal, password-protected log which was only accessible to them and stored in the cloud. The school principal came upon the log on one of the teacher’s laptop after entering her classroom in her absence. He read the log, took screenshots and forwarded them to the appellant. The appellant disciplined the teachers based on the private communications. Written reprimands were placed on their files for three years. The respondent grieved the discipline. The arbitrator dismissed the grievance concluding that there was no breach of the teachers’ reasonable expectation of privacy when balanced against the school board’s interest in managing the workplace. The majority of the Divisional Court upheld the arbitrator’s award. It determined that no Charter issues arose from the search because an employee did not have a s. 8 Charter right in a workplace environment. The Court of Appeal allowed the appeal and quashed the arbitrator’s award. It found that the arbitrator had erred in interpreting and applying s. 8 of the Charter and had reached an unreasonable decision. The question before the Court, among others, was whether the Charter applied to public school boards in Ontario....