On March 15, 2019, the Ministry of Education outlined several new initiatives in a plan entitled “Education that Works for You” which will have a significant impact on the school board sector. In this School Board Update, we summarize the key initiatives.
Tag: Human Rights Code
Reaching Out – Fourteenth Edition
Dear Friends, Welcome to our Winter 2019 edition of Reaching Out. The last 18 months have been a tumultuous time in employment law in Ontario. We saw the introduction of sweeping changes to the Employment Standards Act, 2000 and Labour Relations Act, 1995 in January 2018, only to see many of them repealed in January…
Tribunal Confirms Human Rights Issues Need not be “Explicitly Decided” to Have Been Appropriately Dealt With in Another Proceeding
In Hewitt v. HTS Engineering Ltd., the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario (Tribunal) addressed the issue of whether the Ontario Labour Relations Board (Board or OLRB) had appropriately dealt with the substance of an Application. The decision confirms that human rights issues do not need to be explicitly at issue in another proceeding in order to…
Tribunal Finds that Denial of Coverage for Medical Cannabis under Employer’s Benefit Plan is not Discriminatory
The Ontario Human Rights Tribunal (the Tribunal) recently held that the decision to deny coverage for medical cannabis coverage under an employer’s benefit plan is not discrimination under the Ontario Human Rights Code (Code) when the decision to deny coverage is unrelated to an applicant’s disability or another protected ground. In Rivard v. Essex (County),…
That’s a Wrap – Final School Board Update of 2018
In this School Board Update, we review two recent decisions which will be of interest to school boards. The first is an arbitration decision which considers the Ontario teacher performance assessment (TPA) process in a case where the termination of a teacher’s employment was upheld. The second is a decision of the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario which concluded that a school board was not in violation of the Human Rights Code when it did not provide Applied Behavioural Analysis / Intensive Behavioural Intervention to a young student.
HRTO Dismissal of Application for Delay of One Day Upheld by Appellate Court
In a useful decision for employers, the Ontario Divisional Court has confirmed that the one-year timeline for filing an application with the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario (Tribunal) will be strictly enforced. The decision provides a valuable warning to applicants that the time limits required to bring a complaint are indeed requirements and will only…
Welcome Back to School!
With this edition of our School Board Update, we’d like to welcome you back to a new school year. In this Update, we discuss a recent policy of the Ontario Human Rights Commission with respect to accessing education for students with disabilities, which notes that while advances have been made in this area, there is still much work to be done.
CAPDHHE Newsletter Features Article by Njeri Damali Sojourner-Campbell on Responding to Human Rights Complaints in the Workplace
The summer 2018 edition of the Canadian Association for the Prevention of Discrimination and Harassment in Higher Education (CAPDHHE)’s newsletter features an article authored by Hicks Morley lawyer Njeri Damali Sojourner-Campbell.
Requiring Proof of Eligibility to Work in Canada on a Permanent Basis Discriminatory
In a recent decision released by the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario, the Tribunal found that an employer discriminated against a potential employee on the basis of citizenship when it required proof of eligibility to work in Canada on a permanent basis as a condition of employment.
Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario Decision on Post Age 65 Benefits Raises Important Issues
The recent decision from the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario (Tribunal) in Talos v. Grand Erie District School Board raises important issues about the provision of benefits to employees aged 65 and older. In Talos, the Tribunal found that section 25 (2.1) of the Ontario Human Rights Code (Code), which effectively permits employers to cease providing employees with benefits at age 65, is unconstitutional. More specifically, the Tribunal held that this age-based “carve out” from Code protection violates the equality guarantee under section 15 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms (Charter) and cannot be justified under section 1 of the Charter as a reasonable limit.