This Liberal Candidate Claims She Supports ‘Workers’. Labour Leaders Call Her Track Record ‘Disingenuous’.

According to her campaign materials, Liberal candidate Stephanie McLean might sound like a Liberal candidate who could appeal to working-class voters in the Vancouver Island riding of Esquimalt–Saanich–Sooke.

The Liberal Party announced McLean’s candidacy by boasting a “strong track record of delivering for families and workers as a lawyer and former elected official,” noting her past role as a former Alberta NDP MLA. On her own campaign websites, McLean notes she works “primarily in the area of labour law,” including working “three years as General Counsel for a building trades union.”

But McLean’s allegiances can be difficult to peg down. After leaving the Alberta NDP, McLean became a donor supporting Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives in 2023 and decided only a month ago she would now be running for the Liberals in BC.

Some members of BC’s labour movement also say McLean, who has represented employers in labour disputes, has a questionable history representing the interests of workers in BC given her past ties to a union that has been ostracized by the province’s labour movement as well as influential “anti-union” figures in the province.

Mike Biskar, lead organizer with Unite Here Local 40, has seen McLean tout her experience providing legal counsel for the British Columbia Regional Council of Carpenters (BCRCC) in her campaign materials.

He said that based on his experience representing Unite Here in a Labour Board case the union brought against the BCRCC and Civeo Premium Services Employees LP, he believes her credibility as a labour ally is “disingenuous.”

Biskar, who was involved with the effort to organize workers at Civeo-operated work camps in Northern BC and represented the union at labour board hearings, had first-hand dealings with McLean in a dispute that Unite Here says prevented them from organizing.

“I was not impressed with her,” said Biskar. “To be representing the Carpenters in a case where, from my perspective, you’re really being used by the company to prevent workers from having a real choice was wrong.”

In a statement, McLean’s campaign rejected the notion her record on labour issues “could be characterized as ‘disingenuous’,” noting one of the co-founders of the Carpenters union was “responsible for the 8-hour workday and the creation of Labour Day.”

“Stephanie also wanted to clarify there is no such thing as an ‘employer-friendly union’,” McLean’s campaign spokesperson told PressProgress. “Those can’t be certified under any labour code.”

Esquimalt Saanich Sooke Liberals (Facebook)

Legal documents show McLean represented the BCRCC when Unite Here Local 40 brought a case against the BCRCC credibly accusing the union of making a deal with the employer to interfere with Unite Here’s organizing.

According to the decision from the British Columbia Labour Relations Board, Unite Here Local 40 applied for an “access order” for work camps operated by Civeo Pacific Northwest, a subsidiary of Civeo Corporation. The access order would allow the union to enter the work camp and speak to the workers.

After Unite Here Local 40 applied for access to the Civeo-operated camps, Andrew Sparkes, Civeo’s director of labour relations and human resources, contacted lawyer Peter Gall, an employer-side lawyer and a partner at Gall Legge Grant Zwack LLP.

Jim Sinclair, president of the BC Federation of Labour from 1999 to 2014, told PressProgress that Gall is “widely vilified in the BC labour movement as a leader in fighting any legislation that protected workers’ democratic right to organize themselves to be represented by a union” and “synonymous with some of the worst anti-union employer attacks on working people.”

“For decades Gall has been one of the key go-to lawyers for employers intent on thwarting their employees right to organize themselves to be represented by a union,” Sinclair said.

Gall’s law firm’s partners have represented employers in numerous high-profile cases against labour unions and “also represents employer groups in lobbying and advocacy related to labour and employment policy and legislation.”

McLean’s campaign did not respond to any questions about her work as an associate at Gall’s law firm or dispute its characterization as an “anti-union” law firm.

In the Labour Relations Board decision, Sparkes testified that Gall would reach out to the BCRCC on Civeo’s behalf in order to discuss Civeo entering into a voluntary recognition agreement with the BCRCC for the new work camps.

Sparkes told the labour board the access notice from Unite Here Local 40 “pushed us to bring those conversations back to light.”

Days later, Sparkes contacted Unite Here Local 40 to inform them that a voluntary recognition agreement had been signed with the BCRCC.

“(Civeo was) so nervous about workers joining our union that they turned around and made a deal with the Carpenters union to avoid workers joining us,” Biskar told PressProgress. “And that was a violation of the Labour Code.”

The Labour Relations Board’s ruling underlines its anti-worker practices. In his decision, Labour Relations Board vice-chair Brett Matthews found Civeo breached Section 6 of the Labour Relations Code “when it interfered with the formation, selection or administration” of Unite Here Local 40.

Matthews also found Civeo “improperly contributed support to BCRCC and unduly influenced its employees in favour of the BCRCC and against Local 40.”

The Labour Relations Board ordered the BCRCC agreement be cancelled. Civeo was also ordered to provide Local 40 contact information for its workers and at least three days of access to Civeo’s work camps.

Before these hearings, Biskar said he didn’t know much about the BCRCC, or its parent union, the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America.

“It was pretty unbelievable to have a union that would go along with that arrangement,” said Biskar. “You’re being invited by the company to represent the workers so that they can avoid having Local 40 represent them.”

After representing the BCRCC for almost three years, McLean went to work for Gall Legge Grant Zwack LLP, Peter Gall’s law firm, in January 2024.

Biskar was familiar with Peter Gall and his law firm from disputes between the Sheraton Hotel and Unite Here Local 40. Gall represented the hotel in those cases.

“We’ve dealt with him at the Sheraton,” explained Biskar. “In my mind, at least, he’s kind of one of the preeminent management-side lawyers.”

Gall himself has a long history representing employers in high-profile cases in BC.

He represented Seli and SNC Lavalin when they appealed a BC Supreme Court ruling ordering the companies to pay dozens of temporary foreign workers more than $2 million because they were paid half of what their European counterparts received during the construction of the Canada Line Skytrain.

Gall questioned the Court’s ruling in a CBC News article about workers who were still waiting to receive their pay four years after the ruling.

“If you bring your workers to a foreign country, is it discriminatory to maintain their pay that they received in their home country? We say it’s not, and that’s the issue in the case,” Gall told CBC.

He also represented the National Hockey League (NHL) and the owners of the Vancouver Canucks when they challenged the NHL Players’ Association’s application for union certification, as well as Dr. Brian Day when he challenged BC’s Medicare Protection Actand public healthcare in Canada.

Photo: Vancouver Sun

Gall did not respond to a request for comment from PressProgress.

Despite working for a law firm headed by a lawyer viewed with contempt by many labour unions, McLean’s campaign insists working-class voters in Esquimalt–Saanich–Sooke can trust her.

“Stephanie has always supported and defended workers’ rights,” McLean’s campaign said in its statement. “She has spent the vast majority of her legal career strongly advocating on behalf of unions and workers both inside and outside of the courtroom.”

“She is proud to have received endorsements from respected labour voices such as the Carpenters’ Union and Seamus O’Regan, the former Minister of Labour.”