- Parties: The plaintiff was the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference. The defendant was the Canadian Pacific Railway Company. 

- Subject Matter: In 2023 FC 796, the court found the defendant in contempt of court for failing to comply with cease and desist provisions of a labour arbitration award relating to 22 incidents occurring between June 2018 and April 2019. A penalty hearing followed. 

- Ruling: The court ruled in the plaintiff’s favour and fined the defendant the amount of $200,000, to be paid to Canada’s Children’s Hospital Foundations. The court found it reasonable to impose a fine on the defendant. The court accepted the defendant’s recommendation that a $200,000 fine was reasonable in the circumstances. The court considered the contempt’s seriousness at the low end and the defendant’s conduct neither defiant nor egregious. In these circumstances, the court refused to assess an incident-based fine, which would not reflect the operational reality where the contempt incidents arose. The court noted that 10 incidents occurred on the same date and arose from an error that had a cascading impact and that gave rise to multiple incidents. The court saw no evidence that there was any premeditation or that any of the 22 incidents generated any profits for the defendant.

- Date: The hearing was set on Nov. 2, 2023. The court released its decision on Jan. 25, 2024. 

- Venue: This was a federal case before the Federal Court. 

- Amount: The court found the plaintiff entitled to its costs on this penalty hearing.