The Federal Court of Appeal has allowed Karen O'Grady's appeal, set aside a 2020 Federal Court decision and a 2018 Canadian Human Rights Tribunal ruling, and substituted its own finding that she established a prima facie case of disability discrimination under the Canadian Human Rights Act. The court's reasons, released as 2026 FCA 162, remit only Bell Canada's bona fide occupational requirement and accommodation defence, along with any resulting remedies, to a differently constituted Tribunal panel. What happened at Bell O'Grady stopped working for Bell on June 1, 2006 because of a mental health disability. She received long term disability benefits paid by Bell and administered through the company's disability management process. By 2008 and into early 2009, her treating providers and an independent medical examiner were contemplating a graduated return to work, though she had not actually begun that return. In August 2008, Bell eliminated O'Grady's position as part of a restructuring that affected roughly 2,500 employees, but the company did not immediately tell her.
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