Accommodation Efforts by Employees Results in Discipline

When a training session was being conducted on the second floor of a local hardware store, a few employees realized that their wheelchair-bound colleague would be unable to attend. The colleague requested that they strap him in his wheelchair onto a forklift, in order to hoist him onto the second floor. They gladly obliged. At […]

Employer Liability to Provide Safe Workplace is a Perpetual One

In R. v. Corporation (City of Guelph), the Ontario Court of Justice declared that an employer’s duty to maintain a safe workplace is a continuing one to which no time limitations apply. In 2003, the City of Guelph undertook to construct a building in one of its parks. An architect and engineer were hired for […]

Employment Agreements Must Specify Duty to Mitigate

A recent ruling of the Ontario Court of Appeal has clarified that where an employment agreement provides for a specific amount to be paid to the employee in the event of termination without cause and is silent with respect to mitigation, the employee will not be required to mitigate. The employee in this case, Peter […]

RCMP Members Right to Freedom of Association Not Violated

In June 2012, the Ontario Court of Appeal released its’ decision in the Mounted Police Assn. of Ontario v. Canada (Attorney General) case. The decision addresses the scope of section 2(d) of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms (the “Charter”) which protects freedom of association, a controversial subject which has been addressed by the […]