The B.C. Court of Appeal has upheld a lower-court ruling that prohibits Mike Singh and Seattle Environmental Consulting from working in the asbestos removal industry.

In the lower court ruling, a 2019 B.C. Supreme Court decision, Singh and Seattle Environmental were found in contempt of an earlier court order that prohibited Singh from breaching the rules of the Workers’ Compensation Act. The lower court ruling permanently barred Singh and the company from engaging in the asbestos abatement industry.

Singh was sentenced to one year’s probation and six weeks’ house arrest.

Proceedings against Shawn Singh, Mike Singh’s son, were dismissed.

In a unanimous decision issued in December 2020, the three-member Court of Appeal dismissed the issues raised as grounds for the appeal. Those included errors related to constitutional rights, the Supreme Court judge’s interpretation of the Workers’ Compensation Act and its regulations, and findings of fact.

“The judge made none of the errors identified by the appellants on substantive matters,” wrote Madam Justice Lauri Ann Fenlon in the 29-page decision.

Fenlon noted the judge correctly applied a contextual approach in concluding that the Workers’ Compensation Board (known as WorkSafeBC) did not breach the appellants’ Charter rights by gathering evidence using its regulatory powers.

“The judge did not err in imposing the injunction, as a permanent injunction was reasonable given the appellants’ repeated breaches of the Act. Nor was the sentence unfit; the judge took into account all relevant circumstances,” wrote Fenlon.

The Court of Appeal did allow an appeal to go ahead on the issue of who is responsible for paying court costs of the parties in the lower court suit.

Keep reading in the Vancouver Sun