Rubin Thomlinson | Insights, News & Articles

Think Respect at Work and Harassment Policies can be sidelined during the pandemic? Think again.

April 30, 2020 | By Christine Thomlinson

Racism is on the rise as a result of the global pandemic. Concerns about its prevalence prompted Marie-Claude Landry, Chief Commissioner for the Canadian Human Rights Commission (CHRC), to issue a statement earlier this month condemning the practice. Landry noted that minority groups, and in particular people of Asian origin, have been the victims of taunts, threats and intimidation in public and online. She went on to make clear that no one should feel threatened or unwelcome because of the colour of their skin or where they some from.

How flaws in an investigation may lead to a finding of racial discrimination

April 28, 2020

Evidence of racial discrimination can be hard to come by. In Ontario, it is settled law that discrimination will more often be proven by circumstantial evidence and inference; the law has also accepted the principle that racial stereotyping will usually be the result of subtle unconscious beliefs, biases, and prejudices.

A recent decision from the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario shows how an external review body may make such an inference based on flaws in an organization’s investigation.

Sometimes a comment is just a comment: Making out a prima facie case of discrimination or harassment

April 16, 2020

Standards of appropriate workplace behaviour have rapidly changed over the last few years, and conduct that was once deemed acceptable is no longer tolerated in the workplace. But as the following arbitration decision demonstrates, one fundamental requirement still remains: the need to demonstrate a prima facie case of discrimination or harassment before the obligation to investigate a complaint is triggered.

When catfishing comes to work: Assessing the authenticity of social media evidence in a workplace investigation

April 13, 2020 | By Elizabeth Bingham

As workplace investigators in 2020, we routinely deal with issues in investigations that relate to technology, especially social media applications. In any given investigation, some portion of the alleged bullying might have taken place over Facebook, or Slack messages might provide critical evidence of sexual harassment.

Workplace investigators working remotely part 4: Making the best of a difficult situation

April 8, 2020, , | By Katharine Montpetit

Here is the fourth and final installment of our chain blog, where our colleagues have discussed their experiences with working at home during the COVID-19 pandemic.
This post outlines some of the silver linings that we’ve discovered, both personally and professionally, as we collectively try to find our new normal during this pandemic.

Think twice before you slack

April 6, 2020

I was actually going to write this blog last fall but it seems even more timely now. I have done a number of investigations in the past year where some of the allegations and evidence concerned conversations on various instant messaging platforms: Slack, Microsoft Teams and WhatsApp. While I seem to have developed a sub-specialty with investigations in the Tech sector, I confess that the first time a party spoke to me of Slack, I was somewhat clueless.

Workplace investigators working remotely part 3: Thoughts on self-care while working in a pandemic

March 30, 2020, , , | By Dana J. Campbell-Stevens

Here is the third installment of the chain blog that our colleagues started, sharing their experiences working at home during the COVID-19 crisis. This blog focuses on what we’ve learned while trying to take care of ourselves in the midst of the coronavirus chaos.

Workplace investigators working remotely part 2: Some ways we adapted our workdays this week

March 26, 2020 | By Cory Boyd, , , | By Elizabeth Bingham

On Monday, several of my RT colleagues shared a “chain blog” about some of the humbling lessons that they learned from various mishaps occurring during their first week working remotely. In response, a few other colleagues and I would like to share some of our successes – things that have gone well or solutions that we have implemented to potential issues.

Five respect at work rules for the remote workplace

March 24, 2020 | By Liliane Gingras

I find it amazing what we, as human beings, have had to do in the last week to adapt to the realities of living with COVID-19. I am so impressed, for example, by how some small businesses have been able to quickly change how they deliver their goods and services so that they can survive and how customers have embraced and supported this. I am equally impressed that office employees have rolled up their sleeves and found new ways to communicate with one another to “get the job done” and that offices with hundreds of workers are able to operate remotely.

Workplace investigators working remotely part 1: Some humbling lessons we learned this week

March 23, 2020 | By Janice Rubin, | By Christine Thomlinson, | By Liliane Gingras,

Last week, our colleague Dana Campbell wrote a terrific blog entitled “Four Tips for Conducting Workplace Investigations Amidst the COVID-19 Crisis.” It contained some excellent advice including the use of technology to replace face-to-face interviews that are part of our investigation process.

We have all had a chance to put Dana’s advice into use this week as we are all investigating and working remotely. For the most part, this way of working has been successful. However, we have had some unanticipated mishaps, which we share with you below. And, in the spirit of working in new ways, this is the first RT blog written collaboratively, so you will hear the voices of different members of our team.

Serious insight for serious situations.