Human Rights - Inspire Law

Romance at Work

February 12, 2020
Susan Kootnekoff
Photo: "Valentine (36)" by M.aryam is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

A noticeable number of people have met their soul mate at work. Some may say there can never be enough love in this world. Becoming romantically involved with someone you work with is not illegal. However, some workplace relationships are inherently problematic. This...

Accommodating Religious Celebrations

December 12, 2019
Susan Kootnekoff
Photo: "Eid Mubarak Greeting Cards" by Rimana Zaman is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

This time of year, many of us are busy preparing for the upcoming holiday season. It is important to remember that the two biggest holidays of the year – Christmas and Easter- arise from one faith tradition. Of course, not everyone shares...

Wrongful Dismissal in Coach’s Corner

November 12, 2019
Susan Kootnekoff
Photo: "Don Cherry" by mark6mauno is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0

Don Cherry was notoriously loud, outspoken and colourful, both in what he said and in what he wore. He was a permanent fixture on the Canadian hockey scene. That came to an end this past Monday, Remembrance Day 2019. After making a...

Workplace Investigations

November 7, 2019
Susan Kootnekoff
Image: "Search." by Jeffrey Beall is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0

When an organization becomes aware of a potential problem, such as sexual harassment, discrimination, drug use or trafficking, embezzlement or safety violations, one of the first things to do is investigate. Whether you are a complainant, an employee under investigation, a...

Assisted Reproduction in Canada – A Call For Adequate Regulation – Part 3 of 3

August 21, 2019
Susan Kootnekoff

When the federal legislation that was to apply to assisted reproduction was first introduced in 2004, it failed to follow the recommendations of the 2001 Canadian House of Commons Standing Committee on Health. That Committee did some excellent work which...

Assisted Reproduction in Canada – Part 2 of 3 – The Wild West

August 14, 2019
Susan Kootnekoff
Photo: "Babies" by Mika Peltomaa is licensed under CC BY-ND 4.0

I was surprised to learn several years ago that third party assisted reproduction is a frontier in which the wild, wild west remains largely intact. Nail salons and cattle breeding are more closely regulated that the creation of human beings. It...

Assisted Reproduction in Canada – Part 1 of 3 – New Draft Canadian Regulations

August 6, 2019
Susan Kootnekoff
"amorphous baby 2" by timbashape is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0

Many years ago, the federal government of Canada decided not to allow paid surrogates and “donors”, people who provide their reproductive material to assist someone else to conceive a child. As a nation, we decided not to promote a trade...

“…You Would Cry Too if it Happened to You” – Smoking in Condos Part 2

July 21, 2019
Susan Kootnekoff

In last week's article, "It's My Strata and I'll Smoke if I want to", we started looking at the British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal case of Bowker v. Strata Plan NWS 2539. The case involved a militant smoker (LR) in...

“It’s My Strata, And I’ll Smoke If I Want To” – Part 1

July 14, 2019
Susan Kootnekoff
Photo: "We tried to save the innovation economy" by henribergius is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0

What happens when a smoker does not want to stop smoking, but whose adjacent neighbor is a non-smoker with a health condition? Let's say the health condition worsens with exposure to second-hand smoke. Let's also say they live in a...

Parental Discrimination Against Babysitters

May 30, 2019
Susan Kootnekoff
Photo credit: Pexels Online

The Supreme Court of Canada recently declined to hear an interesting case that considered whether a parent had discriminated in a babysitting ad. The case arose from an ad posted on Kijiji by a mother looking for a babysitter to take...