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Serious insight for serious situations.

Serious insight for serious situations.

Ensuring witness statement accuracy in investigations

As an external investigator, I conduct investigations for various organizations using their policies and procedures as the basis for my process. Sometimes these organizations include within their policy a requirement that parties and witnesses be given the opportunity to review and sign off on my interview notes, or a statement that I have prepared based

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Recently in BC: It takes a lot of Moxie to make a finding against someone without their evidence

The recent decision of Chen v. Moxie’s Restaurants Management Inc. from small claims court in British Columbia highlights some of the fundamental requirements for a workplace investigation and the consequences of an inadequate investigation. Mr. Chen was an employee of Moxie’s Restaurants for approximately four months until he was dismissed when one of the female

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Should you conduct a workplace investigation for your own client?

No. We do not think so if what you and your client would like to accomplish is a neutral, unbiased and objective investigation, and a neutral, unbiased and objective report. In a post-Bill 132 world, where investigation processes and reports will be scrutinized more closely, we do not recommend this approach. When you act for

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Ontario court potentially expands the actionable duty of good faith to workplace investigations

In recent years, there has been a growing incidence of legal disputes involving inadequate workplace investigations.  While these disputes often involve an employer’s failure to comply with prescribed statutory duties (e.g. as per the Occupational Health and Safety Act, the Ontario Human Rights Code, etc.), courts have equally demonstrated an increased willingness to impose upon

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Again? Making the case for workplace investigation “do-overs”

From time to time, we are retained to redo a workplace investigation that an employer has already done. The prompts for our work on these occasions are different.  Sometimes, on review of the report (or in the case where none is produced) the employer itself knows there is a problem with the process or the

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Workplace investigations: Interviews, note taking and other best practices

The decision in Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco & Grain Millers International Union, Local 410 v. Canada Bread Company Limited, 2015 CanLII 20939 (NL LA) was interesting not only for its outcome, but equally for the description of the workplace investigation conducted into the horseplay/violence incident giving rise to the grievance arbitration. This incident occurred on April

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« Savoir-faire » – Effectuer des enquêtes en milieu de travail dans ma langue seconde

J’ai grandi en parlant en français. Quand j’étais petite et que je jouais avec mes amis dans le quartier, on parlait en français ou en anglais selon les mots qui nous venaient à l’esprit. On vivait dans une communauté composée de familles anglophones, de familles francophones ou de familles bilingues, alors la langue n’était jamais

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“Savoir faire” – Conducting workplace investigations in my second language

I grew up speaking French. From the time that I was little and playing with my friends in the neighbourhood, we spoke French or English depending upon what words came to mind. We lived in a community with English families, French families or bilingual families so language was never a dividing line – we were

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