B.C. teachers who claimed mercury poisoning get new compensation hearing

VANCOUVER – Six Cranbrook, B.C., high school teachers who say they were poisoned by mercury while at work have received a new court-ordered compensation board hearing.

The Workers Compensation Appeal Tribunal rejected the teachers’ claim that they were poisoned after being exposed to mercury in the science classes at Mount Baker Secondary in 2004 and 2005.

The group took the board and the school district to court for a review of the decision.

B.C. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Saunders called the tribunal’s decision unfair and unreasonable, ruling the panel disregarded evidence that the teachers were poisoned.

The judge said the panel’s readiness to dismiss the expert evidence was difficult to understand.

He has set aside the tribunal’s ruling and ordered another hearing by panel members who now must consider all the evidence in the case.

Mercury assessments were conducted at the school in 2005 and remediation was undertaken shortly afterwards.