The former director of inclusion, diversity, equity and accessibility at Northern Health has filed a wrongful dismissal lawsuit against the organization.
Amy Blanding is alleging violations of her human and Charter rights, as well as defamation. She announced the lawsuit Wednesday in Vancouver, at a press conference on the steps of the Vancouver Law Courts.
Joining Blanding at the news conference were Vash Ebbadi-Cook, former executive director of workforce sustainability, quality and innovation at Northern Health, who resigned in protest of Blanding’s dismissal.
Blanding's lawsuit follows her May 10 termination from Northern Health after she declined to apologize for expressing support for Palestinian human rights while on her personal time, she states. That came after several community members accused her of bigotry, she said.
“Allegations of racism are distressing for anyone, but particularly harmful to the professional reputation of a person working in the fields of accessible organization education or IDEA,” she states in the notice.
Blanding's notice states she was "constructively terminated," which is defined by Employment and Social Development Canada as a situation where the employee has not been directly fired, but rather the employee left because the employer either failed to comply with the contract of employment in a major respect, unilaterally changed the terms of employment or expressed a settled intention to do either thus forcing the employee to quit.
It's sometimes called "disguised dismissal" or "quitting with cause," and can be treated as an unjust termination under federal law.
She's asking for financial damages for her termination, aggravated damages for breach of good faith and fair dealing, punitive damages, damages for defamation, Charter damages, costs and interest.
Northern Health has not filed a response to the notice of civil notice, and none of Blanding’s claims have been tested in court.
Blanding outlined the details of her lawsuit on the Vancouver courthouse steps Wednesday, saying she was asserting her constitutional right to express support for human rights and to oppose war.
In the notice, Blanding states that she worked for Northern Health from 2018 until May 10, 2024. The notice outlines her career path at the health authority, which she joined after she was recruited out of her position at the University of Northern British Columbia. Originally hired to be the health authority’s regional manager of organizational education and training, the notice states, her work developing ways to combat anti-Indigenous racism in the health-care sector led to the development of a new position for her, director of inclusion, diversity, equity and accessibility (IDEA). Ebbadi-Cook, who had been her supervisor, was also part of this process, she writes.
The notice states that Blanding is also a well-known singer-songwriter who advocates for social justice through her music. On April 6, 2024, Blanding performed a song alongside a local choir at a community event. “She was not at work at the time,” the notice states. “She did not perform the song in her professional capacity but rather in her role of folk music singer.”
The song’s lyrics advocate for peace and freedom, and do not mention any specific place, people or group, the notice states.
Blanding wore a shirt with a map of Israel and Palestine with a watermelon image during a dress rehearsal, but not at the performance itself. “The dress rehearsal was not open to the public,” the notice states.
The watermelon has become known as a symbol of support for Palestinian human rights. Blanding wore one during her press conference Wednesday.
Blanding later posted a video of her performance to Instagram, with a caption referencing civilian deaths in Palestine in the wake of the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas terror attack in Israel and Israel’s response: "Divisive is complacency as Israel murders 33,300 civilians, over 14,000 of them children. Political is using starvation as a weapon of war."
The notice states that four people wrote a letter to Northern Health on April 24, 2024, demanding that action be taken against Blanding on the basis of the song, her Instagram post and her T-shirt. The letter alleged that Blanding was anti-Semitic, anti-Israeli, pro-Palestinian and pro-Hamas. She states that Northern Health knew this was untrue.
Among the claims in the letter were that Blanding made a “blatant, visual call for genocide” by wearing the T-shirt, and that she engaged in “hateful, ignorant rants” and “directed her attacks exclusively at Jews.” There’s also an allegation that she showed “a total failure to carry out the kind of research in which a person in her position is obligated to engage.”
A photo of Blanding wearing the T-shirt at the dress rehearsal was included in the letter.
The notice alleges that after receiving the letter, Northern Health chose to demote Blanding without speaking to her or investigating the letter, but later decided to speak to her first.
“In internal discussions, Northern Health executives stated that the context and accuracy of the letter were irrelevant to their decision,” the notice states. “Northern Health’s priority was risk management, not doing the right thing. Northern Health did not follow its own guidelines concerning complaints from the public.”
It’s alleged that Northern Health consulted with a crisis management communications firm, but did not consult with experts on human rights, employment law or constitutional law. Blanding was then instructed to post a statement confirming that her actions had negatively affected community members, with an apology to the Jewish community, to her personal social media. She refused. Northern Health demoted her and placed her on administrative leave with a letter stating that the T-shirt, her public comments and her refusal to post the statement were the grounds for the decision.
She later learned that Northern Health allegedly wrote to the original four letter-writers, stating that the health authority agreed with their position that Blanding had made people unsafe and unwelcome at Northern Health, particularly Jewish people.
"Her employer of seven years, who had always told her she was doing an excellent job, told people it 'agreed' that she was bigoted, incapable of performing her position and supportive of violence, and had conveyed to the public that it was necessary to remove her from her position for these reasons," the notice states.
Blanding writes that she has been unable to find work since her termination on May 10, and has suffered “extreme mental distress, complications related to her disability exacerbated by stress, and injury to her dignity. She has experienced psychiatric symptoms, sleep disruptions, appetite loss and other harms to her health.”
The suit alleges Northern Health fired Blanding in violation of terms of her employment and was done not for legitimate business reasons but to avoid controversy stemming from innacurate complaints.
At a press conference, Blanding said she also plans to file a defamation lawsuit against individuals who accused her of supporting terrorism.
"This case highlights a troubling trend where individuals face job losses for expressing their views on sensitive issues," Blanding said. "I believe it is crucial to stand up for the right to free expression, especially in matters of human rights."
