Regulatory Ramblings: Episode 72 - Cultural Roots, Belonging, and the Fear of Change: What’s Next for Inclusion?
Daily Compliance News: June 24, 2025, The Questions, Questions, and More Questions Edition
Hot Topics in International Trade - Tariff Mitigation Strategies
Everything Compliance, Shout Outs and Rants: Episode 151, The What is Illegal DEI Edition
Adapting to Tariffs and Other Trade Policy Shifts Under the Trump Administration
A Brief Primer on Tariffs Under the Trump Administration
Protect, Prepare, Prevail: Navigating a Complex Cybersecurity World
Private M&A 2024: Key Trends and Forecasts
Patent Considerations in View of the Nearshoring Trends to the Americas
Examining E-Discovery in Competition Law
No Password Required: Education Lead at Semgrep and Former Czar for Canada’s Election Security
Shifting Dynamics in Private Equity
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
On May 28, 2025, the Ontario Government introduced the Working for Workers Seven Act, 2025 (Bill 30). If passed, Bill 30 will amend the Employment Standards Act, 2000 (ESA), Occupational Health and Safety Act (OHSA), and...more
On October 28, 2024, Ontario’s Working for Workers Five Act, 2024 received Royal Assent. ...more
As the festive season begins and employers prepare for holiday social events, they should be digging out their workplace policies and checking them twice. No matter how well-intended, social events that are hosted or planned...more
In Croke v. VuPoint System Ltd., 2024 ONCA 354, the Court of Appeal for Ontario (OCA) upheld the Superior Court of Justice – Ontario (SCJ)’s summary judgment decision that an employee’s refusal to comply with their employer’s...more
The Ontario Court of Appeal recently held that an employee’s failure to meet COVID-19 vaccination requirements imposed by a third party amounted to frustration of the employment contract. As a result, there was no obligation...more
In the case of Van Hee v Glenmore Inn Holdings Ltd., 2023 ABCJ 244 (Van Hee), Justice L.L. Burt of the Alberta Court of Justice (the Court) held that an employer was justified in unilaterally placing an employee on an unpaid...more
In Van Hee v Glenmore Inn Holdings Ltd., 2023 ABCJ 244 (Glenmore), the Alberta Court of Justice found that an employer’s mandatory vaccination policy was a reasonable, justified and lawful response to the extraordinary...more
The British Columbia Supreme Court recently sided with an employer in its first civil case determining whether employees may be placed on unpaid leave for failing to comply with a mandatory vaccination policy. The court’s...more
The Court of King's Bench of Alberta recently applied the long-standing principle that labour arbitrators have exclusive jurisdiction to adjudicate disputes arising under a collective agreement, even in the context of an...more
With the decision of the British Columbia Supreme Court in Parmar v Tribe Management Inc. 2022 BCSC 1675 (“Parmar”), Canada has its first judicial decision considering whether placing a non-union employee on unpaid leave of...more
Although arbitrators in Canada have considered whether an employer in a unionized workplace can place an employee on unpaid leave for failing to comply with its mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policy, the British Columbia...more
On April 27, 2022, in Canada Post Corporation v. Canadian Union of Postal Workers (Canada Post), Arbitrator Thomas Joliffe, Q.C. dismissed a union grievance disputing that the unilateral imposition of a mandatory vaccination...more
Since late fall 2021, we have seen a steady flow of arbitration awards emerge in Ontario and British Columbia that consider issues relating to mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policies in the unionized workplace. In this...more
In BC Hydro and Power Authority and IBEW, Local 258, Re, 2022 CarswellBC 837, Arbitrator Gabriel Somjen decided that the mandatory vaccination policy of BC Hydro, British Columbia’s primary electricity supplier, was...more
On April 4, 2022, in Extendicare Lynde Creek Retirement Residence and United Food & Commercial Workers Canada, Local 175, Arbitrator Stephen Raymond upheld a retirement home’s mandatory vaccination policy as a reasonable...more
In The Toronto District School Board and CUPE, Local 4400 (Re: PR734 COVID-19 Vaccine Procedure) (TDSB and CUPE), Arbitrator William Kaplan upheld the Toronto District School Board’s (TDSB) mandatory COVID-19 vaccination...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 February 28, 2022, the Government of Ontario introduced Bill 88, the Working for Workers Act, 2022. Bill 88 would enact the Digital Platform Workers’ Rights Act, 2022, which would establish rights for workers who offer...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 Power Workers’ Union v Elexicon Energy Inc., 2022 CanLII 7228 (ON LA) (Elexicon Energy), a union challenged the reasonableness of an electricity distribution company’s mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policy (Policy). ...more
Canada’s Constitution makes it such that the presumptive and preeminent jurisdiction in matters of employment, labour relations writ large, privacy and health and safety at work is provincial, not federal. This is in marked...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
Throughout 2021, employers continued to grapple with the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, employers may not have been focused on workplace priorities unrelated to COVID-19. In the circumstances, we have...more