Pre-employment polygraph screen in Halifax

According to David Fraser, the issue of pre-employment polygraph (lie detector) screening has been raised in Halifax. Apparently, the police and fire services there are requiring potential employees to submit to a polygraph test (and pay for it). It appears that the debate has centered around the privacy issues raised by the questions being asked. Equally important is the accuracy question — are polygraph examinations accurate for determining the truth. The answer is clearly no (see my previous post here), and yet organizations continue to use polygraph.

Slaw: Pre-employment screening

According to media reports, anybody applying for a job that falls within the purview of the Halifax Police Service and Fire Service is required to pay for a polygraph examination that includes a range of questions, some of which have been considered to be objectionable.

It is interesting to review the court decision (R. v. BÉLAND) mentioned in the Slaw article. That court found that polygraph evidence was not admissable in this case, even though they did not address the issue of the accuracy of the polygraph.

…the polygraph has no place in the judicial process where it is employed as a tool to determine or to test the credibility of witnesses.

…

…this view is not based on a fear of the inaccuracies of the polygraph. On that question we were not supplied with sufficient evidence to reach a conclusion. However, it may be said that even the finding of a significant percentage of errors in its results would not, by itself, be sufficient ground to exclude it as an instrument for use in the courts.

And be sure to check out this funny YouTube video…