Labour and Employment Law Blog

A recent decision from the Alberta Human Rights Commission serves as a good reminder to employers to keep sufficient notes and document reasons to justify the termination of employment of employees, even in not-for-cause situations. For employees, the same decision serves as notice that the mere fact of having immutable characteristics or belonging to a protected group ...

It’s hard for me to take off the labour and employment lawyer hat. I view everything through a certain lens. 

Even as an avid Royal watcher, I was initially quite critical of Prince Harry and thought of him as a disgruntled employee who had quit his job, yet strangely thought he should retain his salary and benefits. Then, as I read his memoir “Spare” I considered what an ...

Mask wearing indoors has become a ubiquitous part of the COVID-19 experience. The B.C. government mandated mask wearing in November of 2020 for most indoor public settings. Those orders are premised on face coverings helping to prevent, respond to or alleviate the spread of COVID‐19, when used with other protective measures. Some members of our society have physical ...

Early last year, we blogged about the British Columbia Court of Appeal’s decision in Envirocon Environmental Services, ULC v. Suen, 2019 BCCA 46, where the Court of Appeal confirmed that there is a strict test for finding a prima facie case of family status discrimination under the British Columbia Human Rights Code. Recently, the British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal ...

A recent decision of the British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal (the “Tribunal”) held that a professor telling a subordinate employee (the “Complainant”) that “you will have to let me know if this is a misstep but I am crazy about you” (the “Comment”) did not constitute sexual harassment pursuant to the B.C. Human Rights Code.

Background Facts

The ...

In Dumitrache v. Glenlyon-Norfolk School Society, 2019 BCHRT 68 (“Dumitrache”), the British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal dismissed a complaint because the complainant had signed a release of claims, which included a term that he would not commence any human rights complaint against his former employer. This case is a good reminder for employers to ensure that ...

The BC Government has passed a bill (Bill 27 – 2016: Human Rights Code Amendment Act, 2016) to add "gender identity and expression" as a prohibited ground of discrimination under the Human Rights Code. The amendment adds a prohibition against discrimination on the basis of "gender identity and expression" in addition to the existing grounds of “sex” and “sexual ...

The Supreme Court of Canada has provided some important guidance regarding who qualifies as an "employee" under the British Columbia Human Rights Code in the case of McCormick v. Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP.

Mr. McCormick was an equity partner at Fasken. The Fasken Partnership Agreement required Mr. McCormick to divest his ownership in the partnership and retire ...