Questioning Whether Performance Issues Are Disability-Related Is Not the Same as Perceiving a Disability

Crookbain v. Interior Health Authority, 2026 BCHRT 177
August 6, 2026

Following a three-day hearing, the BC Human Rights Tribunal dismissed a nurse’s complaint that her employer discriminated against her based on a perceived mental disability when it placed her on administrative leave and reported her to her professional regulator. The decision provides helpful guidance for employers managing performance concerns that may, or may not, have a medical dimension.

Background

Ms. Crookbain worked for Interior Health Authority (IHA) as a casual nurse beginning in 2015. Around 2019, she moved into home and community care work at sites in Castlegar and Nelson, where she sometimes provided care in patients’ homes without other health care workers present.

Her supervisors developed concerns about her practice shortly after she began that work. One supervisor’s contemporaneous notes showed that Ms. Crookbain required assistance with her duties several times in early 2020 and could not independently complete a standardized home care assessment tool after multiple attempts. In 2020, IHA placed her on administrative leave and reported her to her regulator.

Shortly before the leave, Ms. Crookbain overheard a conversation in which a nursing educator criticized her skills and questioned whether her work was affected by a mental disability. She argued this showed that her supervisors perceived her to have a disability and that this perception factored into their decisions.

The Decision

The Tribunal dismissed the complaint. It found that Ms. Crookbain had not established that anyone at IHA perceived her to have a disability when she was placed on leave and reported. The nursing educator was merely questioning whether performance issues could be connected to a disability, and that does not mean anyone perceived her to have one.

Notably, the Tribunal did not need to resolve conflicting evidence about each performance incident. It was enough that her supervisors genuinely had concerns about her practice by April 2020.

After the leave, IHA obtained a psychologist’s opinion finding that her nursing skills were in fact affected by a disability. Ms. Crookbain made clear she was not relying on that actual disability. In any event, the Tribunal found that even if she had, IHA proved its conduct was justified and that it fulfilled its duty to accommodate.

Key Takeaways for Employers

Asking whether a medical issue may be behind performance problems is not, by itself, evidence that the employer perceived the employee to be disabled.
Contemporaneous documentation of performance concerns was central to the employer’s success. Keep clear, dated notes.
Where an employee’s condition is later confirmed, a well-documented, justified response and a genuine accommodation process will protect the employer.