Diana Mansour

Diana Mansour is a litigation lawyer in Hicks Morley’s Toronto office. She provides advice and representation to management in both the private and public sectors on numerous issues such as wrongful dismissal and disability claims, class actions, defamation, wrongful competition, historic sexual abuse claims, judicial reviews and appellate litigation. Diana received her Juris Doctor from…

Larissa V. J. Putt

Larissa Putt is a labour and employment lawyer in Hicks Morley’s Waterloo office. She provides advice and representation to employers in both the private and public sectors on a wide range of labour and employment issues including grievance arbitration, labour disputes, collective bargaining and human rights advocacy work. She also provides employers with practical guidance on a wide array of statutory compliance related matters including employment standards compliance.

Michael Babe

Michael Babe is a labour and employment lawyer with Hicks Morley’s Ottawa office. He provides advice and representation to management in both the public and private sectors on a broad range of labour, employment and human rights matters. Michael has experience with wrongful dismissal claims, human rights complaints and labour disputes. Michael has appeared before…

Ontario Tables 2021 Budget

On March 24, 2021, the Ontario government tabled its 2021 Budget, Ontario’s Action Plan: Protecting People’s Health and Our Economy (Budget), and introduced supporting implementation legislation, Bill 269, Protecting the People of Ontario Act (Budget Measures), 2021.   In this FTR Now, we highlight certain aspects of the Budget that are of broad interest to…

Clare Wooland

Clare Wooland is a pensions, benefits and compensation lawyer in Hicks Morley’s Toronto office. She provides strategic and practical advice to employers and administrators on the regulatory, governance, taxation and human resources aspects of retirement, group benefits and incentive compensation arrangements.

Arbitrator Rules That Virtual Class Prep Time Arrangement Violates Collective Agreement

On March 5, 2021, Arbitrator Susan Stewart released an award (Award) between the Hamilton Wentworth District School Board (Board) and ETFO dealing with preparation time (prep time) for remote learning elementary teachers in its virtual classes during the current 2020-21 school year. The grievance alleged that the Board had failed to provide prep time in…

Important Updates Regarding Employment Insurance Regular Benefits, Recovery Benefits, and Upcoming CEWS Claim Periods

In the latest evolution of the federal government’s response to the ongoing global COVID-19 pandemic, on February 19, 2021, the government announced that it would be introducing regulatory and legislative amendments to increase the number of weeks of benefits available for Employment Insurance (EI) regular benefits, as well as the Canada Recovery Benefit (CRB), the…

Ministry of Education Releases New “School Board Teacher Hiring Practices” PPM

On February 22, 2021, the Ontario Ministry of Education (Ministry) released the much anticipated Policy/Program Memorandum No. 165 (PPM 165) regarding “School Board Teacher Hiring Practices.” PPM 165 comes in response to the revocation of Ontario Regulation 274/12 “Hiring Practices” and will replace the Interim policy for school board hiring practices. The PPM is effective…