Supreme Court dismisses former Folk on the Rocks' director's fight for bonus

The former executive director of Yellowknife's Folk on the Rocks has lost his legal battle against the music festival, after a Supreme Court justice dismissed his appeal claiming the festival owed him an unpaid bonus.

David Whitelockclaimed thatthe Folk on the Rocks Society owedhim compensation for unpaid wages and bonuses after he was terminated in December 2015. He was hired in March 2014 on a three-year contract.

In a letter, then-Folk on the Rocks president Ryan Fequetclaimed that Whitelock was being terminated for "various misdemeanours," and offered him six weeks salary and benefits in exchange for signing a departure agreement. Whitelock turned down the offer, filing a complaint with the Employment Standards office.

Ultimately, most of Whitelock'sclaims to the office were dismissed, but an officer with Employment Standards did rule that the festival society owed him about $1,600 in wages, which were then paid.

Whitelockthen filed an appeal of that decision, which was dismissed by an adjudicator, and ultimately took his case to the Supreme Court of the Northwest Territories in May of 2017.

• Ex-director of Folk on the Rocks taking fight for compensation to Supreme Court

'Not an extricable question of law'

Whitelock's appeal to Supreme Court Justice Shannon Smallwoodinitially focused on three separate grounds, but only one non-payment of an outstanding bonus was advanced at the hearing.

According to court documents, Whitelock'scontract provided for an annual bonus to be received after a performance review. The bonus was to be equal to 20 per cent of any "general purpose cash income" or any cash income that was not tied to a specific program or activity undertaken by the festival, and could be used at the festival's discretion.

Both the Employment Standards officer and adjudicator found that Whitelock was not entitled to a bonus, as the festival was in a financial deficit at the time of Whitelock's termination, and as such did not have any general purpose cash income.

In her decision dismissing the appeal, Smallwoodsaid that the court was unable to consider the issues regarding the non-payment of Whitelock'sbonus, as the issue was "not an extricable question of law, and involves a question of mixed law and fact."

Smallwood also wrote that the interpretation of the contract is"inherently fact specific" and that "it is not a question that will have a precedential value beyond its impact upon the parties.

"Therefore, it is not an appeal on a point of law within the meaning of s. 81.1 of the Act," she wrote.

Whitelock has now run out of legal avenues to contest the grounds of his termination with the festival.

Folk on the Rocks is scheduled to hold its 2018 festival on July 21 and 22. After losing nearly $170,000 in 2014 and 2015, the festival was able to pull itself out of debt in 2016.

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