Early in 2016, we reported on a case in which the Ontario Superior Court articulated a new private tort: “public disclosure of embarrassing private facts.” The plaintiff in that case had been coaxed by a former boyfriend (the defendant) to send him a sexually explicit video of herself. Despite promising the plaintiff confidentiality, the defendant…
Publication Type: Blog Post
Ontario Establishes Shared Health Services Agency for LHINs
The Ontario government has filed a new regulation under the Local Health System Integration Act, 2006 (Act) to further support recent reforms to the province’s frontline healthcare service delivery model. Now in effect, O. Reg. 456/16 formally establishes the “Health Shared Services Ontario” Agency (Agency) pursuant to the regulatory powers set out in section 39…
EI Regulations Amended, Implementing Reduced One-Week Waiting Period
As expected, key amendments to the federal Employment Insurance Act reducing the Employment Insurance (EI) waiting period from two weeks to one week were proclaimed in force effective January 1, 2017…
Tribunal Sets Out New Test for “Danger” under Canada Labour Code
In an important decision for all federally regulated employers, the Occupational Health and Safety Tribunal of Canada (OHSTC) released its first decision interpreting the new definition of “danger” under the Canada Labour Code (Code)…
Procedural Power of Courts Not Constrained by PIPEDA
In Royal Bank of Canada v. Trang, the Supreme Court of Canada held that the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) does not interfere with the procedural powers of a court. The decision arose out of a situation in which past judicial interpretation and application of PIPEDA had impeded the ability of the…
Reminder: Universities and Colleges to Have Student-Specific Sexual Violence Policies in Place by January 1, 2017
On January 1, 2017, amendments to the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities Act and the Private Career Colleges Act, 2005 made by Bill 132 (Sexual Violence and Harassment Action Plan Act (Supporting Survivors and Challenging Sexual Violence and Harassment), 2015) come into force…
An Update on “Minimum Standards Only” Termination Clauses
The Ontario Superior Court has issued several decisions over the past few years which have found “minimum standards only” termination provisions in employment contracts to be unenforceable. Thus, employers are in the unexpected position of being liable for reasonable notice at common law…
New Definition of “Spouse” in Ontario to Affect Plan Administration, Insurance & Succession Rules
Pending legislative changes to the definition of “spouse” in Ontario are set to impact pension plan administration and insurance claims in Ontario, further to amendments recently enacted by Bill 28, All Families Are Equal Act (Parentage and Related Registrations Statute Law Amendment), 2016…
Ten Incident Response Tips – Part 2
In Part 1 of this two-part series on data security incident response, we identified five “norms” to guide your incident response process…
Appellate Court Clarifies Use of Subsequent Conduct Evidence in Resolving Ambiguous Contract
In an important decision regarding the law of contractual interpretation, Shewchuk v. Blackmont Capital Inc., the Ontario Court of Appeal considered when the subsequent conduct of parties can be considered in interpreting a contract made between those parties…