Hicks Morley’s Frank Cesario was quoted in the January 21, 2013 edition of Law Times magazine in an article entitled “Cole prompts vigorous debate on privacy at work”. The Supreme Court of Canada’s recent decision in R v. Cole suggests that employees do retain some reasonable expectation of privacy in personal data stored on employer-owned…
Practice Area: Information, Data Security & Privacy
BYOD Policy – Charting A Good Path To Higher Ground
The desire to use personal mobile devices to undertake work has risen like the incoming tide. Employers must make a choice: turn the tide on the use of personal devices by re-enforcing an outright ban or chart a thoughtful path to higher “Bring Your Own Device” or “BYOD” ground. Employers that do neither will sink…
Preparing for Canada’s New Anti-Spam Legislation
Canada’s new anti-spam legislation is coming soon. Commonly referred to as “CASL”, the new legislation will impose strict obligations that apply to a range of business emails and other electronic communications that you might not consider to be “spam”. All businesses, even those without formal email marketing programs, should assess their potential exposure to CASL…
Proposed Anti-spam Regulations Published
On January 5, 2013, Electronic Commerce Protection Regulations (“ECP Regulations”), proposed under Canada’s Anti-spam Legislation (“CASL”*), were published. As previously reported, the CASL enacts comprehensive anti-spam legislation relating to the sending of commercial electronic messages (“CEMs”). The CASL has not yet been proclaimed into force, with the exception of certain Personal Information Protection and Electronic…
Reaching Out – Second Edition
Dear Friends, Happy Holidays! Since our first edition of Reaching Out this past summer, the fall has managed to fly by and we find ourselves already gearing up for the holiday season. We hope you found our first edition of our social services update informative and we always appreciate your feedback. In our Winter edition,…
Regulatory Proposal Issued Regarding School Bus Driver Requirements
On November 22, 2012, the Ontario government (Ministry of Education) issued a regulatory proposal regarding the requirement that school bus drivers have a clear criminal record check report in order to qualify for and hold the requisite driver’s licence. That requirement is currently found in a regulation under the Highway Traffic Act. Under this proposal,…
Check your email recipient list before you press “send”
Employers must take care not to press the “send” button too soon as inadvertently copying an incorrect person on an email communication can have unintended results. In Fernandes v. Marketforce Communications, an employer emailed information to its lawyer setting out concerns regarding the continued employment of an employee. By mistake, that employee was copied on…
2012 Fall Edition
FOCUS ON 40TH ANNIVERSARY A “client first” culture – 40 years of Hicks Morley excellence LEGAL DEVELOPMENTS Recent case imposes Criminal Code fines for workplace health and safety violations Healthy email use for corporations: Ten tips PROFILE Covering all the bases Download PDF
Supreme Court of Canada Grants Leave in Cyber-Picketing Case
The Supreme Court of Canada has granted leave to appeal in United Food and Commercial Workers, Local 401 v Alberta (Attorney General), a decision from the Alberta Court of Appeal which raised extremely broad questions about the constitutionality of Alberta’s commercial sector privacy statute in disposing of a dispute about the right of a union…
Supreme Court of Canada Discusses the Reasonable Expectation of Privacy in Workplace Computer
The Supreme Court of Canada has issued a significant decision regarding workplace privacy. In R. v. Cole, it unanimously held that employees have a diminished, but reasonable, expectation of privacy in personal information stored on an employer-issued computer. Employers may continue to access information stored on their work systems for their legitimate purposes, though they…