No Password Required: Education Lead at Semgrep and Former Czar for Canada’s Election Security
4 Key Takeaways | Major U.S. Supreme Court Trademark & Copyright Decisions
Hidden Traffic : New Human Trafficking and Child Labor Regulation in Canada with Sean Stephenson
[Podcast] Catching Up on Canadian Environmental Regulation
[Podcast] USMCA in Review, with C.J. Mahoney, Former Deputy U.S. Trade Representative
Episode 4 - USMCA and the trade relationship between the U.S.A, Mexico, & China
Five Questions, Five Answers: Electric Mobility Canada on Its Promises for a Cleaner Economy
Five Questions, Five Answers: The Voice of Canadian Automotive Parts Manufacturers
The Great Green North: A Discussion on Canada’s Environmental Regulations
Blakes Continuity Podcast: Cutting Through the Weeds: A Look at Environmental Issues Impacting Businesses
Balado continuité – Environnement : nouveautés du régime d’autorisation québécois
Blakes Continuity Podcast: What to Expect When Insolvency Crosses the Border
Infrastructure and Indigenous Engagement
A Way Forward: Energy Industry Ready to Fuel Canada's Recovery
Blakes Continuity Podcast: The Moving Landscape of Foreign Investments
Blakes Continuity Podcast: COVID-19: The Regulatory Impact on Pensions
Employment and Labour in the Time of COVID-19
Nota Bene Episode 70: Examining the USMCA: Is it Simply a Rebranded NAFTA? with Scott Maberry
This Week in FCPA-Episode 96, 2018 - the Opening Day edition
Exporting ERISA After Walter Canada
In a significant decision focused on public employers, the Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) recently held that Ontario public school boards are “government” and, as such, they are subject to the provisions of the Canadian...more
In November 2023, the Government of Ontario passed Bill 149, the Working for Workers Four Act, 2023 (the “Act”). The Act places new obligations and prohibitions on employers, and intends to strengthen Ontario’s employee...more
In Nelson v. Goodberry Restaurant Group Ltd. dba Buono Osteria and others, 2021 BCHRT 137, the British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal found that a restaurant and its managers that refused to use a server’s pronouns, among...more
In Giacomodonato v. PearTree Securities Inc., 2023 ONSC 5628, Ontario’s Superior Court of Justice ordered the employer to pay to the employee the costs of the proceeding in the amount of $830,761 to dissuade employers from...more
The advent of telework and its widespread adoption over the past few years have turned the work world upside down and had a direct impact on the courts’ interpretation of various legislative provisions governing labour law....more
Earlier this year, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (OPC) revised its guideline, Privacy in the Workplace, which addresses employee rights and workplace obligations with respect to employee personal...more
The Budget Implementation Act 2018, No. 2 (BIA 2018, No.2) made numerous changes to the Canada Labour Code (CLC) by. As a result of these changes, federally regulated employers will be required to reimburse employees for...more
On December 12, 2022, the Ontario Legislature published Regulation 559/22: Naloxone Kits (Regulation) providing further details on the naloxone kit requirements introduced as part of the Working for Workers Act, 2022, (Bill...more
UPDATE: On November 3, 2022, Bill 28, Keeping Students in Class Act, 2022, received Royal Assent. On October 31, 2022, in an unprecedented bid to prevent school board employees represented by the Canadian Union of Public...more
Key Highlights - - A constructive dismissal does not occur automatically just because an employer has unilaterally changed a key term of employment—the employee must reject the change. - The employee must reject the...more
On May 31, 2022, Alberta’s Bill 17, Labour Statutes Amendment Act, 2022, received Royal Assent, and the following amendments to Reservist Leave and Bereavement Leave in the province’s Employment Standards Code came into...more
In Smith v Lafarge Canada Inc, 2022 ABQB 289 [Smith], the Court of Queen's Bench considered a preliminary application arising out of a proposed class action which involved claims advanced on behalf of the proposed class as...more
*Disclaimer: Given the speed at which new laws, regulations, and policies have been implemented to control the COVID-19 pandemic, it is possible that the responses below will be impacted.* Has vaccination been made mandatory...more
The 2022 Ontario general election will take place on June 2, 2022. Voters will elect members of the provincial government to serve in the Legislative Assembly. Under Ontario’s Election Act, every employee who is...more
On April 11, 2022, the Ontario government’s Bill 88, the Working for Workers Act, 2022 (“Bill 88”), received royal assent. Earlier this year, we wrote about Bill 88 on this blog, when it was still at second reading. In...more
On April 4, 2022, in Fraser Health Authority v British Columbia General Employees’ Union, 2022 CanLII 25560, Arbitrator Koml Kandola of the British Columbia Labour Relations Board dismissed the union’s grievance respecting...more
In Unifor Local 973 v Coca-Cola Canada Bottling Limited, 2022 CanLII 20322, Arbitrator Mark Wright made another contribution to the “weight of authority” in Ontario labour arbitration awards pertaining to mandatory COVID-19...more
On the heels of the passage of the Working for Workers Act, 2021, Ontario introduced Bill 88, Working for Workers Act, 2022 (Bill 88) on February 28, 2022, and carried it at First Reading....more
On February 24, 2022, Ontario announced that later this month, in an effort to protect the privacy of employees, it will be the first province to introduce legislation requiring employers to tell their workers if and how they...more
In Chartwell Housing REIT v. Healthcare, Office and Professional Employees Union, Local 2220, 2022CanLII 6832 (ON LA) (Chartwell), Arbitrator Gail Misra considered a provision in a mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policy that...more
Since we last wrote on the topic of COVID-19 vaccination policies, another vaccination policy was upheld at arbitration, this time, requiring employees to receive a third “booster” shot against COVID-19. ...more
In Bunge Hamilton Canada, Hamilton, Ontario v. United Food and Commercial Workers Canada, Local 175, the arbitrator found that a mandatory vaccination policy requiring unvaccinated unionized employees to be placed on unpaid...more
In Bunge Hamilton Canada, Hamilton, Ontario v. United Food and Commercial Workers Canada, Local 175 (Bunge), Arbitrator Robert J. Herman dismissed a union grievance challenging the employer’s mandatory COVID-19 vaccination...more
In an effort to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 in the workplace, many employers are implementing vaccination requirements for employees. Vaccination policies are employer specific and vary widely in terms of their particular...more
There are now three recent Ontario arbitration decisions that address whether an employer may require its unionized employees to be vaccinated. While directly relevant to unionized employers, given the lack of case law...more