Upcoming Webinar: May 7, 2024 @ 12:00 P.M. (ET)  |  Cultural Initiatives in Policing: Part 2 – Calgary Police Service  |  Register Today!

Serious insight for serious situations.

Serious insight for serious situations.

Excerpt from City of Toronto Equity Symposium Keynote by Janice Rubin

During the last several months, many of you have probably found yourself waking up in the morning and thinking: who’s next? Which towering figure from the world of entertainment, art, politics, restaurants, media — you name it — will be toppled due to accusations of sexual harassment? I am an employment lawyer who has worked

Read More

Proposed changes to ESA and OHSA may mean additional obligations for employers

Picking up on the recent amendments to the Occupational Health and Safety Act via Bill 132 which addressed workplace harassment and sexual harassment, a new proposed bill may now require employers to provide leave, accommodation, and training with respect to domestic and sexual violence. What constitutes domestic violence and sexual violence? This new bill –

Read More

When one bad apple becomes a bushel: Changing workplace culture

Introduction Over the last few years, our workplace investigation practice has expanded to include a growing number of workplace assessments. Unlike investigations which focus on findings of fact, assessments take the cultural temperature of an organization or a work group within the organization. In contrast to investigations, which are generally triggered by a complaint, an

Read More

TIFF: Life imitating art?

I was lucky enough to be invited to attend a TIFF Premiere this past weekend for the film “Welcome to Me”.  In case you’re not familiar with the film, it tells the story of a woman, Alice, who suffers from Borderline Personality Disorder and wins $86 million in the lottery. The film focuses on the

Read More

How does “older” old age affect reasonable notice? Consider this trilogy of cases

Last week in our Employers’ Alert, we wrote about a number of recent age discrimination cases.  We also referred to a number of American cases, and we pondered whether there would be an increase in age discrimination cases given the aging of the Canadian workplace, but also the presence of employees who are older than

Read More

High there!* Do employers need to accommodate the smoking of medical marijuana in the workplace?

As many employers already know, smoking in the workplace is prohibited in Ontario. However, with the topic of medical marijuana increasingly in the news, a question that comes to mind is: “Does this prohibition apply to the smoking of medical marijuana in the workplace?” Section 9 of the Smoke–Free Ontario Act  states: No person shall

Read More

Managing the modern workforce requires ambidexterity (and your marketing department can help)

This week I attended a Strategic Capability Network event entitled “HR of the Future in a Global World”, presented by Luca Solari, a visiting professor of human resource management at California Polytechnic State University. In his presentation, Professor Solari compared a human resource professional seeking attention from senior management to a teenager seeking attention from

Read More

Work-life issues: Implications for employment law

I was very interested to read last week the summary of The 2012 National Study on Balancing Work and Caregiving in Canada (the “Study”), published by Carleton University professor, Linda Duxbury, and University of Western Ontario professor, Christopher Higgins. This is the 3rd such study, conducted once a decade since 1991, and there are some

Read More