Year: 2011
Location: Edmonton
Profile: Sheila Greckol worked as a labour and human rights lawyer in Alberta for 25 years, advocating for unions and workers in the courts, arbitrations, and human rights tribunals. Appointed a justice of the Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench in 2001, and to the Alberta Court of Appeal in 2016, she retired in 2022.
Greckol was lead lawyer for Delwin Vriend, a laboratory coordinator fired because of his sexual orientation. Alberta’s human rights legislation omitted sexual orientation as a ground of prohibited discrimination. The Supreme Court of Canada in 1998 ruled this omission an unjustifiable breach of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and added sexual orientation to the list of prohibited discriminations.
Her other cases involved protections for freedom of association and the right to strike, the right to paid maternity leave, safe access to abortion clinics, freedom from sexual harassment, and employment discrimination based on disability.
Greckol’s union clients included United Nurses of Alberta; United Food and Commercial Workers; numerous faculty associations; Energy and Chemical Workers Union; and United Steelworkers.
For her achievements in advancing human rights and labour rights, Greckol has received awards including a University of Alberta Honorary Doctorate in 2023.
Keywords: Employment discrimination; Freedom of association; Human rights; Labour law; Mandatory retirement; Maternity leave; Sexual harassment; Sexual orientation discrimination
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See also: 2SLGBTQ+ in Alberta; Unifor; United Food and Commercial Workers; United Nurses of Alberta; Women and Work in Alberta