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Serious insight for serious situations.

Serious insight for serious situations.

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Reflections and news direct from Rubin Thomlinson.
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Fatal Flaws: 10 mistakes that can sink your workplace investigation report

November 30, 2020
| By Liliane Gingras

In my role as review counsel, I train others on how to write effective workplace investigation reports.  When I review reports, much of what I focus on is readability: how is the report going to sound to the reader? Is it easy to read? Is the reader going to get confused by the report’s organization? I think about this mythical reader a lot; probably too much in fact, and I bet my colleagues are tired of hearing me go on about it.

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The Supreme Court of Canada’s Recent Trilogy of Cases on s. 276 of the Criminal Code – How We Can Apply it to Our Investigation Practices

November 23, 2020
| By Sharon Naipaul

In a recent webinar offered at Rubin Thomlinson, titled “Primer on Consent,” we enjoyed a highly informative discussion on consent in the context of sexual assault. Part of that presentation included reference to a trilogy of cases from the Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) on the issue of sexual assault and s. 276 of the Criminal Code (“CC”).

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Virtual Investigations: The Good, The Bad, and the Future?

November 17, 2020
| By Katharine Montpetit

I must admit that pre-COVID-19, I was wary to conduct investigations virtually. This had more to do with my own discomfort with technology and videoconference platforms than anything else. Now, more than six months into the pandemic, it is hard to deny that virtual investigations may be around for the long haul. Below are some of our observations regarding conducting investigations remotely.

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Policy Pet-Peeves Continued: Crafting a complaint and investigation process in your policy that will make workplace investigations easier

November 3, 2020
| By Sophie Martel

I have seen some policies that set out a specific hierarchy for reporting a complaint. The order sometimes starts off with addressing the matter directly with the person engaging in the unwelcome behaviour, followed by reporting it to a supervisor, that supervisor’s manager, Human Resources, and in cases where Human Resources is engaged in the alleged wrongdoing, a member of the executive team and/or an independent organization.

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Maybe not that GIF: Digital blackface and other ways in which anti-Black racism may present in the workplace

October 21, 2020
| By Fiona Lee

Call it a job perk? As a workplace investigator, I not infrequently get questions from friends, family, people I’ve just met, about whether Situation XYZ may be an example of discrimination and/or harassment. A recent discussion about digital blackface led me to think of other possible examples of how anti-Black stereotypes and microaggressions can manifest in the modern workplace.

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The Booze Blog

October 5, 2020
| By Janice Rubin, Liliane Gingras

Alcohol and work events often don’t mix well. Some know this from personal experience. Others, like us, are called upon to investigate allegations arising from work events at which alcohol and “good times” were flowing freely.  It will come as no surprise that, as workplace investigators, the issue of alcohol consumption and intoxication pops up with some frequency in our work.

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Policy Pet-Peeves: Crafting a workplace harassment policy that will make workplace investigations easier

September 24, 2020
| By Michelle Bird

The first step in any new investigation is to review the workplace harassment policy. As both an investigator and someone who has written workplace harassment policies, I sometimes find myself sighing deeply as I conduct this review, knowing that some parts of the policy are going to make the investigation process harder – not only for me, but for the parties and the employer as well.

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