Expanding into Canada? Compare Employer of Record (EOR), Professional Employer Organization (PEO), and staffing agencies. Learn which model best fits your hiring, compliance, and payroll needs.
Continue Reading Choosing the Right Employer Service Model in Canada: PEOs vs EORs vs Staffing Agencies
Happy Canada Day! As we celebrate everything that makes Canada both great and unique (personally as food lovers we’d like to mention poutine and butter tarts) we can’t help (because we’re lawyers) but reflect on what makes Canadian employment law so uniquely…Canadian.
Whether you’re running a business in Canada, or supporting HR for one, it helps to understand how our workplace laws differ from other countries, especially our neighbors to the south, and how new rules like updates to Ontario’s Employment Standards Act (“ESA”) effective July 1, 2025) continue to shape our employer obligations.
Let’s break it down.Continue Reading Oh Canada, Oh Compliance: What Employers Need to Know About Our Unique Canadian Workplace Laws
As tensions rise between the United States and Canada (and other countries), many American businesses are reevaluating their global strategies.
The evolving U.S. trade policy, marked by tariffs, export restrictions, and geopolitical uncertainty, has pushed companies to seek more stable and accessible markets. Enter Canada: a relatively politically stable, resource-rich, and business-friendly country with a skilled workforce and strong legal framework.Continue Reading Crossing North: A Playbook for U.S. Employers
AI tools are quietly making their way into Canadian workplaces—helping with scheduling, hiring, performance management, and even discipline. But for unionized employers, using AI isn’t just a management decision. It’s a collective bargaining issue.
While only a small percentage of Canada’s workforce is unionized, these workplaces often lead the charge on new standards, so what happens here often sets the tone everywhere else.Continue Reading AI in the Unionized Workplace: What Employers Need to Know
The threat, uncertainty and financial hardship of U.S. tariffs are causing significant disruption for Canadian businesses – shrinking profit margins, reducing demand, and forcing difficult staffing decisions.
If your business is facing economic uncertainty due to tariffs, temporary layoffs might seem like a reasonable solution. However, employment laws in Canada impose strict rules on layoffs, and missteps can result in unintended liability.Continue Reading Tariff Turmoil? Temporary Layoff Tips for Canadian Employers
As employment lawyers, we all have times when we wish our employer-side clients had come to us for advice before making certain decisions. There’s a lot that can be done to protect an employer who seeks assistance early in the process – especially if it involves a termination. Costs can be reduced, risks can be mitigated, and whole potential areas for future disputes can be eliminated entirely with careful consideration and planning.
The result of failing to get proper employment law advice can be catastrophic. Not only can it be exceedingly expensive, but the reputational damage for an organization can be profound. And if you’re an employer who has made some mistakes in the process – do not double down on those errors by adopting unreasonable and ill-supported litigation strategies. The patience of Canadian courts has worn thin and there appears to be an increased willingness to award moral and punitive damages, as well as substantial cost awards, when finding that employers have behaved badly. 2023 has produced some truly prodigious decisions on this front. Here are my top three 2023 cases in which employers f***ed around and found out.Continue Reading Bad Employer Conduct – 2023’s Top 3 Most Scathing Canadian Employment Law Decisions