Former Penticton school educational assistant petitioning court over Human Rights Tribunal decision

Upset over tribunal decision

Photo: Glacier Media File Photo

Penticton school educational assistant petitioning the court over Human Rights Tribunal decision.

A former certified educational assistant is fighting a Human Rights Tribunal decision regarding a complaint against School District 67, submitting a petition to the court earlier this week.

Michelle Broe worked at Penticton Secondary School in 2018. She has since filed a human rights complaint against School District 67 and one of its directors in 2019, alleging she was discriminated against based on mental disability, contrary to the BC Human Rights Code.

The district applied to dismiss the complaints, and has been partially successful.

A public tribunal decision dated Oct. 13, 2023, said SD67 removed Broe from the workplace to investigate allegations by her colleagues of bullying and harassment in late 2018.

The district had put Broe on paid administrative leave and advised her that they would require medical evidence of her fitness to attend work before she could return.

An external investigator was brought in to conduct investigations into the complaints and found that the allegations were substantiated and constituted bullying and harassment by Broe.

The tribunal findings said that Broe did not agree that the work fitness assessment, which included questions as to whether Broe was diagnosed with any medical conditions, was necessary and she answered the questions on the form herself, rather than taking it to her doctor.

When Broe refused to provide a physician’s response, SD67 did not allow her to return to work.

Broe's claim that she was discriminated against when the district refused to return her to work unless she provided medical evidence of her fitness to return to work was dismissed.

Broe said in her petition to the court that she filed a discrimination action complaint with WorkSafeBC in March of 2020.

She now wants a review, claiming that the "tribunal failed to consider the legislation requirements and statutes."

Broe alleged that the investigator was a retired former school employee and was "biased" against her when reviewing the bullying and harassment claims.

"I was guilty of some but not all of the B&H allegations," she claimed.

Broe claimed that a tribunal member dismissed her complaints in December of 2025, incorrectly not taking into account that she was bullied and harassed by her employer.

When she made an application for reconsideration, Broe claimed that the member dismissed it and advised her that her only recourse would be a judicial review.

"I have been advocating for justice for 8 years straight now, and it is my belief that the member wants the Attorney General to hear my story and let me show the injustice that has been done to me," Broe alleged.

None of the allegations in Broe's petition has been proven in court.