A recent case of the Federal Court of Appeal, Bernard v Canada (Customs and Revenue Agency), 2015 FCA 263, is a cautionary tale on the importance of collecting all necessary evidence and putting it before an administrative decision maker in the first instance, and not before a Court on judicial review. An applicant challenging administrative or […]
A holiday fundraiser in support of Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF). The event, which was organized by one of our own associates, Cenobar Parker, was a huge success! With over a 100 young professionals and leaders from across the legal profession in attendance, Cenobar and her co-organizers raised about $8,000 for MSF! PWJ is […]
From time to time we meet with employees who have been given notice of termination by their employer and want to know what happens to their severance pay if they decide to resign during the working notice period. Are they still entitled to it? Must they work the entire notice period or risk losing their […]
The issue of an employer’s right to itsemployees’ medical information is a fiercely contested one in the Ontario workplace. Ontario law provides employees with a degree of security that their employment will be protected while on medical leave. The Courts are still in the process of clearly defining the rights of each party vis-à-vis what […]
Few areas of employment law cause as much confusion as the duty to accommodate persons with disabilities in the workplace. Under the Ontario Human Rights Code (“Code”), every person has a right to equal treatment with respect to employment without discrimination because of disability.
Our client worked almost 30 years at a chemical plant. His employer terminated him for cause when he refused, for health reasons, to continue to work with carcinogenic chemicals after his doctor had diagnosed him with cancer. We secured our client a significant settlement including amounts for the cancellation of his disability insurance while he […]
In a recent decision released in August 2015, an Ontario Court held that a plaintiff could bring a defamation action in Ontario over allegedly defamatory statements made in a foreign based news publication which were posted online. The plaintiff is a Canadian billionaire owner of a soccer club in Israel. The defendants are Israeli journalists […]
The Ontario Government has begun the roll-out of the Ontario Retirement Pension Plan (“Retirement Pension Plan”) which is intended to provide a predictable source of retirement income for Ontarians. The costs associated with the Retirement Pension Plan may come as a sudden shock to employers and employees absent informed financial and legal planning. The Retirement […]
Earlier this summer, the Supreme Court refused to grant leave to appeal from the Ontario Court of Appeal’s decision of InStorage Limited Partnership and InStorage Trustee Corp. v. Matthew Brady Self Storage Corporation. In refusing to grant leave, the Supreme Court implicitly approved the Court of Appeal’s holding that specific performance is an appropriate remedy […]
Distinguishing at law between a dependent contractor and an independent contractor can be challenging at the best of times. This issue is important to businesses and organizations because like employees, dependent contractors are owed reasonable notice upon termination, while independent contractors are not. In his decision in Keenan v. Canac Kitchens, 2015 ONSC 1055 Justice […]
