Does an employee have a right to see his or her own personnel file, without first obtaining the employer’s approval?
If you are an employer, and an employee demands to see his or her personnel file, must you oblige?
In B.C., Alberta...
Is age relevant in dismissals?
Under Canadian common law, an employer is able to dismiss a non-unionized employee in only one of two ways.
One is with just cause. This is generally difficult, though not impossible, for an employer to establish.
The second...
In R. v. Reeves, the Supreme Court of Canada recently considered the extent of a person's privacy rights in a shared computer. This was a criminal case that centered on whether the police had properly seized the shared computer.
Mr. Reeves...
Just when it seems that the scandal currently plaguing the federal government could not get much worse, the federal government may have another trick up its sleeve.
First, some background. The federal government’s procurement website states that “in 2015, we introduced...
In a recent decision in Envirocon Environmental Services, ULC v. Suen, the BC Court of Appeal confirmed that in order to establish discrimination in employment on the basis of family status, a human rights complainant must show:
(1) a change in...
On September 19, 2018, amendments to the Criminal Code came into force establishing Deferred Prosecution Agreements (DPAs), for the first time in Canada. They had at that time escaped the radar, slipped into an omnibus bill, labeled “remediation agreements.” DPAs...
A recent B.C. Human Rights Tribunal case involved a twist, in which Caucasian employees claimed their Asian boss had discriminated against them at work. This was a reversal of the more common situation where discrimination is alleged against a member...
Bill 48, the Temporary Foreign Worker Protection Act, B.C. (the “Act”) has received royal assent. While these provisions will not come into effect until the government issues additional regulations, recruiters and employers of temporary foreign workers will need to become...
In Ottawa about two weeks ago, a double decker public transit bus crashed into a bus shelter. Three people died and 23 others were injured.
As this news broke, I couldn’t help but think of the TTC, the Toronto Transit Corporation,...
Federal employment law changes are pending for later in 2019. Well, at least possibly. This of course assumes that the writ for the next federal election is not dropped before the changes become effective.
The changes are part of federal Bill...
