Dale Johnson has been disqualified as the United Conservative Party’s nominee for Lac Ste. Anne-Parkland in next year’s provincial election, after the party discovered he was ordered to pay $5,584.60 for wrongfully firing an employee who he was in a romantic relationship with.
A January 2015 civil court document shows Johnson fired his bookkeeper, Janice Janiten, following a physical altercation between the pair that happened on Nov. 12, 2012.
Employee was fired after physical altercation
The document said Janiten had gone to Johnson’s home to confront him because she believed he was cheating on her, and she likely struck him first. The pair were both injured in the altercation, before Johnson “confined” Janiten and attempted to drive her home.
She was then fired from her job as bookkeeper at Johnson’s company, Country Automotive Specialists Ltd.
“In this particular case, which is unprecedented in the case law, where the party that is the victim of the assault is also the employer, the situation that caused Ms. Janiten to breach her duty to her employer, existed partially of the employer’s creation,” wrote Judge K.R. Wilberg in the decision.
“In this particular case Ms. Janiten struck only the one blow and I cannot find on the balance of probabilities that the rest of the physical confrontation is her responsibility. In this particular case, what she did does not support termination.”
Wilberg, acting as an umpire, upheld a 2014 order that Johnson’s company was to pay $5,594.60 to Janiten, but did not award any costs to Janiten because he said it was reasonable that the company had appealed the decision.
CBC has reached out repeatedly to Johnson for comment.
UCP reviewed Johnson before disqualifying him
The UCP said the party was made aware of the matter after Johnson’s nomination.
“Mr. Johnson failed to disclose the legal matter in question as required. The party takes this matter extremely seriously,” UCP executive director Janice Harrington said in an emailed statement.
“Mr. Johnson was previously made aware that his candidacy was under review pending an investigation. Mr. Johnson has since been notified that he is no longer a UCP candidate.”
Johnson won the nomination on Aug. 22 after a contentious race that saw one candidate retract statements about another candidate, and another candidate disqualified over social media posts involving jokes about sexual assault.
On top of owning Country Automotive Specialists Ltd. in Onoway for 38 years, Johnson was a municipal councillor, deputy mayor, the chair for Alberta’s Persons with Developmental Disabilities program and spent more than a decade on the board of the regional health authority, said UCP Leader Jason Kenney in a statement issued congratulating Johnson on his win.