In the summer of 2004, Canada Post announced a new policy that, to the average person, sure seems reasonable: no driving on the wrong side of the road. Until then, mail carriers who worked the rural routes routinely violated the law and veered down the left side of the street, giving them easy access to those rustic roadside mailboxes. Without ever leaving his seat, a carrier could drive on the shoulder, reach through the driver’s-side window, pull the red flag and move on to the next house.

Carolyn Pollard was among the many “rural and suburban mail carriers” who risked head-on collision in the name of convenience. And when Canada Post ordered the Brampton, Ont., woman to start driving on the same side of the yellow line as everyone else, she balked, invoking her legal right to “refuse dangerous work.” As far as she was concerned, steering into oncoming traffic was somehow less dangerous than the new directive: park on the right-hand shoulder, lean over, and deliver letters through the passenger-side window.
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