I have questioned the teeth of the Accessibility of Ontarians with a Disability Act (“AODA”) in my past blog post, Where’s the Teeth?.
While the fines for non-compliance are huge (up to $100,000 per day – see section 83 of AODA Reg 191/11), the regime relies on the Ministry of Community and Social
The Ontario provincial government just released proposed regulations for the accessibility of the built environment. The standard introduces various amendments to AODA’s Integrated Accessibility Standard (Reg 191/11), including the introduction of the new Part IV.1, entitled Design of Public Spaces Standards (Accessibility Standards for the Built Environment).
The new Standard will only apply
For any fellow space geeks out there, the last few week have been a very exciting NASA adventure, with Curiosity landing on Mars and transmitting amazing photos back to earth. Videos and photos of the NASA employees erupting with joy after the 7 minutes of silence during the landing were very moving. I love such
Terminating an employee’s employment without cause in Canada comes at a price. The various employment acts and codes set out the requirements for termination notice or pay in lieu of notice (and in Ontario and federal workplaces, severance pay in addition to termination pay). The required termination period will range from 1 to 8 weeks
Many Ontario employees will be surprised to learn that the Civic Holiday on the first Monday of August is not a statutory holiday in Ontario. If your private sector workplace offers the day off, it is a perk, not a requirement. The Ontario Employment Standards Act is silent on this holiday, and while many collective
Last week, the Human Rights Tribunal released a very interesting decision in which discriminatory comments made by a union president on the union’s blog raised the issue of competing human rights – namely the right to be free from discrimination in the workplace vs the right to freedom of expression and association: Taylor-Baptiste v. Ontario
Over the last few months, I have been working with a colleague from our IP practice group (Stephanie Vaccari) and from our Competition & Technology practice group (Arlan Gates) to develop a cross-disciplinary social media team at my office. Together, we have been able to tackle social media issues from all
Over the last couple of months, there has been an interesting debate in Canada and the US about whether an employer can ask for a social media password. For some of the highlights of the conversation in Ontario, see:
Last Thursday, the Ontario Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner released its new guide for online reference checks. In the face of the recent debates about whether an employer can request personal social media passwords during job interviews, the release of this document is quite timely.
The guideline is entitled, Reference Check: Is Your
As a nod to the increasing frequency and complexity of social media issues in the workplace, this year’s Law Society of Upper Canada’s Special Lectures is “Employment Law and the New Workplace in the Social Media Age”. As a two day presentation on April 25 and 26, 2012, the schedule presents a broad