Upcoming Webinar: November 27, 2025 @ 12:30 P.M. (ET)  |  “Deep Fakes” and Other New Technological Challenges in Workplace Investigations  |   Register Today!

Serious insight for serious situations.

Serious insight for serious situations.

Insights

Reflections and news direct from Rubin Thomlinson.
Subscribe to receive updates of interest to you.

Filtered By:

New parents, new responsibilities: Help for employers with post-parental leave concerns

A recent Globe and Mail article highlights the fears that new parents face as they contemplate returning to work after a parental leave. It also highlights the issues employers must address when those employees return to work. Since our employer clients often raise questions about post-leave matters, we would like to offer some helpful tips

Read More

Investigation overturned: The Federal Court in Shoan provides clear direction to workplace investigators of the need to keep an open mind

In a September 2, 2016 decision out of the Federal Court, Justice Russel Zinn did not mince words in his finding that a workplace investigator failed to retain an open mind during the course of her investigation. The decision, Balraj Shoan and Attorney General of Canada (2016 FC 1003) is a pointed reminder for all

Read More

What makes an investigation “reasonable”?

While large organizations often have robust policies, human resources departments and, at times, human rights and/or investigation specialists to help them ensure that they are meeting the expectations of the Ontario Human Rights Code, it can be more challenging for smaller, less legally sophisticated organizations to ensure that they too are meeting expectations when faced with

Read More

150 Words

In December 1995 (a bitterly cold December!) I arrived in Canada with my family. Bewildered (and freezing!), I looked around the airport and even at the age of 8, I could sense Canada was a different place than the one I had left. While I could not verbalize what that difference was then, I sit

Read More

Particular problems with making bald allegations against dismissed employees

As justification for offering reduced termination packages to departing employees, employers often make bald and generalized allegations of misconduct and/or substandard performance. Although this aggressive approach sometimes has its advantages during the preliminary phases of negotiating a termination package, employers may face unintended consequences if the matter subsequently becomes litigious. The Supreme Court of Canada

Read More

Who do you choose? Workplace investigator selection in the Ontario and federal jurisdictions

I can almost hear the whirr of printers in human resources departments across Ontario pumping out the recent Ministry of Labour “Code of Practice to Address Workplace Harassment under Ontario’s Occupational Health and Safety Act [OHSA]” (“the Code of Practice”). This Code of Practice will no doubt become the go-to manual for Ontario employers as they

Read More

Risks of paying employees “under the table”

The Ontario Employment Standards Act, 2000 (the “ESA”) is intended to be remedial legislation, designed to protect vulnerable employees.  While employers cannot contract out of many of the provisions in the ESA, the practical reality is that not every employment relationship is 100% compliant. This non-compliance may come as a result of either the employer

Read More

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

Read More