Human Rights and the Courts
September 24, 2022 By Brian Babcock What happens when you believe that you have been wrongfully dismissed and at the same time have a human rights complaint arising from your employment? The Ontario Human Rights Code section 46.1 permits you to include a claim for breaches of the Code in your lawsuit to Superior Court […]
Do you need a digital forensic specialist?
August 18, 2022 By Brian Babcock The increasing prevalence of electronic communications brings with it a renewed focus on electronic discovery. Most parties and lawyers lack the expertise necessary to be confident that they will retrieve electronic documents completely in a form in which they are both unchanged and searchable. Even where the party may […]
Whose Privacy Is It Anyway?
August 18, 2022 By Mark Mikulasik Privacy is an increasingly important issue in society. The need for privacy occurs in many situations and in various forms. No doubt you value your privacy as much as most people. Canadian courts have recognized that the right to privacy exists independently of legislation because of the importance of […]
Sometimes You Need a Full Factual Record
August 5, 2022 By Brian Babcock Everybody involved in a lawsuit should want to resolve it as quickly and simply and cheaply as possible. In the area of wrongful dismissal litigation, there has been a strong movement in that direction, using summary judgment motions under Rule 20 of the Rules of Civil Procedure to resolve […]
Taking Sexual Misconduct Seriously: Ontario Edition
July 15, 2022 By Brian Babcock In our article Taking Sexual Misconduct Seriously, we looked at an Alberta court decision where a single incident of sexual misconduct in the workplace was interpreted to constitute sexual assault and therefore was serious enough to justify dismissal for cause. In that article, we predicted that an Ontario court […]
What is Vicarious Liability?
June 27, 2022 By Jonathon Clark “Vicarious liability” is a form of liability which arises from responsibility for the acts of others. The most common form of vicarious liability is the liability of an employer for the acts of their employees. Other common examples include liability of a principal for the action of their agents, […]
Employers Beware When Terminating Long Service Employees
June 13, 2022 By Brian Babcock We have written several times before about how judges tend to favour employees in cases involving termination without notice, because they are viewed as vulnerable and lacking in bargaining power. Courts attempt to balance this by resolving doubt in their favour. This is especially true for older or longer […]
How Not to Do an Employment Investigation and Termination
May 30, 2022 By Brian Babcock A failure to do a proper investigation before terminating an employee, and then botching the termination, can lead to significantly increased damages payable by the employer to the employee. This is illustrated in the case of McGraw v Southgate (Township). The plaintiff was a volunteer fire fighter who held […]
The Working for Workers Act
April 24, 2022 By Brian Babcock Most of the Working for Workers Act, 2021 is now law in Ontario. How might it affect your business or organization, or your life as a worker? This Act amends several existing laws that affect the workplace, most particularly the Employment Standards Act. In a nutshell, the significant changes […]
Taking Sexual Misconduct Seriously
April 15, 2022 By Brian Babcock When is sexual misconduct by one employee against a fellow worker grounds for dismissal for cause? This requires an analysis of the seriousness of the misconduct. In most dismissal cases, a single, brief isolated incident of misconduct is not considered serious enough to warrant dismissal – it fails to […]