Articles 2021

In Kovintharajah v. Paragon Linen and Laundry Services Inc., 2021 HRTO 98, Vice-Chair Bruce Best held that an employer violated the Human Rights Code (the “Code”) by revoking an existing family status accommodation that allowed an employee to leave work before the normal end of the shift in order to meet their child care responsibilities.

Summary of a decision awarding $170 thousand to an applicant in a coercive sexual relationship and assaulted by her supervisor. The employer settled. The award was against the individual respondent, who did not participate in the proceedings.

If no provincial vaccine mandate is implemented, individual employers will have to take it upon themselves to determine how to introduce employees back into their workplaces in light of legal and social responses to the pandemic. These policies promise to be complex, requiring a fine balancing of the rights of each stakeholder. This article will discuss some of the considerations for employers when creating these “return-to-work” policies.

Can corporations suffer cruel and unusual punishment? In Quebec (Attorney General) v 9147-0732 Québec Inc, the Supreme Court of Canada assessed this notion and determined that corporations cannot benefit from the protection of section 12 of the Charter.

Young offenders need equal, if not more, protection than adults. Section 37(10) of the Youth Criminal Justice Act (YCJA) hinders access to justice for youth. This provision of the YCJA was recently analyzed by the Supreme Court of Canada in C.P. v Her Majesty the Queen.

As provincial economies reopen and many employees return to the physical workplace, the issue of childcare remains as many schools and daycares are closed or operating at reduced capacity.

On October 5, 2020, the federal government re-introduced Bill C-7, An Act to amend the Criminal Code (medical assistance in dying). Among other things, this Bill would remove the requirement that a person’s death be “reasonably foreseeable” in order to obtain a physician's assistance to end their life. This article discusses the federal governments obligations to uphold its international commitments, protect the rights of marginalized Canadians, and reconsider Bill C-7.

When COVID-19 was declared a pandemic in March, everyone was saying that we are all in it together. Six months in, it is clear that we are not. We have seen huge disparities in terms of the impacts of this virus on the elderly, the unemployed and underemployed, women, the disabled, Indigenous peoples and racialized minorities.

On the evening of September 30, 2020, over 120 lawyers and other professionals attended virtually to hear from Roger Love and Faisal Mirza on “Civil, Charter, and Human Rights Challenges,” part 2 of the Race and Policing Series, co-hosted by the Criminal Justice and Constitutional Civil Liberties and Human Rights (“CCLHR”) sections of the Ontario Bar Association (“OBA”). This article provides a brief summary of the program.