Labour and Employment Law Blog

“I gotta get out of here before I slap someone,” said actor Jim Carrey discussing his decision to retire. He was, of course, referring to the now famous moment during the Oscars where Will Smith essentially attacked a co-worker, Chris Rock, who was doing his job.

Much fun and nuanced commentary has been provided about the Oscars slap, including discussions about how the ...

Now that we have persevered through one year of the COVID-19 pandemic, much has been written about pandemic fatigue and associated social isolation, mental stress, and anxiety. Employers may be seeing an increase in the incidence of mental illness claims in their workplaces. Statistics Canada conducted an online questionnaire in April-May 2020, Canadians' mental ...

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 ...

Brianne Duke filed a BC Human Rights Tribunal complaint, 2018 BCHRT 283, that when shopping at a grocery store operated by Sobey’s in Burnaby, she was approached by an employee who told her inappropriate jokes referencing sex. Ms. Duke alleged that the behaviour by the Sobey’s employee amounted to discrimination on the basis of sex contrary to the (British Columbia ...

On November 1, 2018, the British Columbia Government tabled Bill 50, Human Rights Code Amendment Act, 2018.  The Bill would amend the Human Rights Code to reflect the recommendations contained in the December 2017 report of the Parliamentary Secretary of Sport and Multiculturalism, “A Human Rights Commission for the 21st Century: British Columbians Talk About Human ...

Last month, human rights issues hit the headlines as former employees of IBM Corp. have filed a class action lawsuit in the United States alleging age discrimination. The former employees claim that IBM has been laying off older employees over the course of a number of years in order to create a younger workforce.

Closer to home, last year the Public Service Labour Relations ...

In a pair of recent decisions originating from British Columbia, the Supreme Court of Canada appears to be putting employers on notice that their responsibilities and liabilities may extend beyond their own front door.

In December 2017, the Supreme Court of Canada released its decision in British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal v. Schrenk (2017 SCC 62), that we discussed in ...

Last week, we discussed a recent Ontario case where four former employees of Soulpepper Theatre filed sexual harassment suits alleging sexual touching, groping and harassment over a period 13 years. Harassment in the workplace can take many different forms, and despite the recent Hollywood #TimesUp campaign, bullying remains a serious and persistent problem in the ...

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 ...