Canada: Dismissal Without Hearing Of Human Rights Complaint Upheld By Ontario Court

In Gill v Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario, the Ontario Divisional Court concluded that it is appropriate for the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario (the “Tribunal”) to summarily dismiss an application where its prior jurisprudence suggests that the application has no reasonable prospect of success.

Gill was a suppression firefighter who was terminated at age 60 pursuant to a mandatory retirement provision in the collective agreement between the Hamilton Professional Firefighters’ Association (the “Association”) and […]

By | September 19th, 2014 ||

Employer's Electronic Communications Policy Negates Expectation Of Privacy In Employee's Work Computer

Adding its voice to the growing body of cases illustrating the importance of electronic communications policies, a federal court in Virginia ruled earlier this year that an employee had no reasonable expectation of privacy in personal files stored on his work computer where his employer maintained a policy that clearly informed him that he should have no such expectation. Walsh v. Logothetis (E.D. Va. Jan. 21, 2014).

The plaintiff in the case, Thomas Walsh, began […]

By | September 10th, 2014 ||

Canada: No OHSA Charges Laid In Death Of Alberta Youth Home Worker

A 19-year-old has pleaded guilty to second-degree murder after he stabbed to death a youth worker at a supported independent living facility in Alberta in 2012. At the time of her death, the worker was working alone overnight. The boy was a resident of the home, which taught life skills to teens.

The Canadian Press reports that although Alberta Occupational Health and Safety investigated the death and provided the results of its investigation to the […]

By | September 9th, 2014 ||