A group of current and former officers alleging systemic sexism in a southern Ontario police force has lost a bid to pursue a proposed class-action lawsuit.
The officers with the Waterloo Regional Police Service had tried to launch the suit against the force and its union on behalf of all past and present women who worked there.
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A lower court judge quashed their effort last year, finding that the issues they raised would be best addressed by a human rights tribunal or a labour arbitrator.
The officers asked the province’s top court to allow them to move forward with their action but the Ontario Court of Appeal has upheld the earlier ruling.
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It says the officers have not used the police force’s mandatory grievance and arbitration process, calling the failure to do so a “fatal flaw” in their argument.
The police force has denied the officers’ unproven allegations and had argued that granting permission for the suit to proceed could have had a negative impact on labour dispute negotiations across the country.
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