Ravenlaw is delighted to announce that the Supreme Court of Canada has ruled that pensioners at Manitoba Telecom Services (MTS) are entitled to compensation for the $43 million of surplus pension contributions made to MTS prior to its privatization.  This ruling, worth well over $100 million with interest, ends a long legal battle for these workers and their unions.

Congratulations to Brian Meronek, Kris Saxberg and Tomas Masi of D’Arcy & Deacon. James Cameron and Andrew Astritis appeared as co-counsel in the appeal.

Full text of the decision can be found here.

On March 21, 2013, James Cameron participated on a panel on persons with high-conflict personalities and how to deal with them in the workplace.

People who have a pattern of creating or increasing conflict with others can be characterized as people with ‘high-conflict personalities.’ With these individuals, the issue in dispute doesn’t cause the tension; rather, the individual’s personality causes the tension. People with high conflict personalities may have underlying personality disorders, or traits of a personality disorder. In this session experts will identify high conflict patterns of behaviour, provide information on common personality disorders, and discuss legal considerations and dispute resolution techniques relevant to dealing with conflict in the workplace.

For further information, please visit the Lancaster House website.

David Yazbeck will co-chair the Lancaster House Ottawa Labour Law Conference, on May 16-17 at the Ottawa Conference Centre.

Raven, Cameron, Ballantyne and Yazbeck, LLP/s.r.l. takes great pride in helping working people across Canada. Doing so means we need a national presence and greater communications channels. To this end, we have created a brand new website that provides a greater level of access to our services.

The new Ravenlaw.com includes:

• Information about Ravenlaw and our values.
• Profiles and contact details of our lawyers, staff and students.
• Fields of expertise for each lawyer.
• News and updates from Ravenlaw.
• Career oppurtinities.
• Articling opportunties for students.
• A comprehensive directory of contact details, including social media.

Our website, like our practice is completely bilingual, available in both English and French.

Our new website is fully accessible and browsable by users with assistive technology. The site is also responsive, which means it will be dynamically rendered to be viewable on your desktop, tablet or smartphone. Our goal was to create an intuitive and dynamic website that anyone can access at any time.

Design and development was done by Ottawa-based agency Soshal. Soshal works with purpose-driven organizations to build effective websites that focus on helping people.

We welcome your feedback on the new Ravenlaw.com, and how we can continue to improve our website. Please send your feedback to info@ravenlaw.com.

Andrew Raven will speak at the Lancaster House  Ottawa Labour Law Conference, on May 15, 2003, on employers’ responsibilities to accommodate employees’ family responsibilities.

There is a growing understanding that employers, unions and employees must work together to assist workers in maintaining a functional balance between work life and family life. A failure to accommodate an employee’s family care obligations may be found to be discrimination on the part of the employer. It is important for workplaces to have clear policies and processes in place to assess family care issues as they arise and to implement accommodative measures where appropriate.

On November 8, 2014, James Cameron from Raven, Cameron, Ballantyne & Yazbeck LLP will be speaking before members of the Association of Professional Executive of the Public Service of Canada APEX.   James’ presentation on “Rights, Responsibilities, and Realities – Employment Law Matters for Government Executives” will highlight some surprising realities for APEX members.

Government executives may be surprised to learn that as they progress up the hierarchy, their access to basic employment law rights may actually narrow. What employment law rights and responsibilities government executives still possess or may access will be the focal point of this talk. The members will hear about basic legal principles governing demotions, terminations, changes to duties, severance packages, and other topics. Successful negotiation strategies, based on real-life experience with many Government Executives, will be discussed.

On June 7th, David Yazbeck and James Cameron will speak on Post Traumatic Stress Disorder at a conference organized by REACH Canada.  REACH has offered lawyer referrals and public education for individuals living with disabilities since 1981.  Ravenlaw is a long-term, proud supporter of REACH.

For more information, and to register for the conference, please visit the REACH website:  http://www.reach.ca/?action=site.show&lid=26&comaction=view&eid=NAXRU-6L6T4-QY6T6

Raven, Cameron, Ballantyne and Yazbeck LLP is pleased to announce the launch of the Alison Dewar Scholarship in Women’s Equality, Labour and Human Rights Law.

This scholarship was created by the firm in partnership with the National Association of Women and the Law (NAWL), in memory of our dear friend and colleague who died on October 17, 2013. The scholarship will be available annually to a female student at the University of Ottawa’s Faculty of Law who demonstrates a commitment to pursuing a career in women’s equality and union-side labour, workers’ rights or human rights law. Alison devoted herself to this work and our firm is excited to support future lawyers who share her passion for these issues.

For more information on the scholarship please visit the University of Ottawa’s scholarship and bursary webpage <https://bourses.uottawa.ca/p/a/13364/> or contact the Financial Aid Administrator at the University of Ottawa’s Common Law Section. The deadline to apply is November 30, 2014.