On October 22, 2021, the Federal Court dismissed an application by the Right to Life Association of Toronto and Area (TRTL), which sought to challenge the Federal Government’s decision to deny it funding for the 2018 Canada Summer Jobs program because its president refused to sign an attestation that the job and the organization’s mandate respected human rights, including reproductive rights. Continue reading →

Wassim Garzouzi recently published a chapter in the edited collection, Collective Bargaining in Higher Education. Wassim’s chapter addresses the myth of academic exceptionalism in organizing and collective bargaining within academia, examined through the lens of a successful organizing drive and first contract achieved by the part-time law professors at the University of Ottawa.

The chapter is available here. The interest arbitration decision referred to in the chapter can be found here.

The Office and Professional Employees International Union (OPEIU) was successful in two grievances challenging ORNGE’s Drug and Alcohol Policy. Specifically, the OPEIU challenged the ORNGE’s “zero-tolerance” approach to medical cannabis, and its practice to treat prescribed medicinal cannabis differently from other types of medication.

Arbitrator Gail Misra declared ORNGE’s policy to be discriminatory and unreasonable. She concluded that “having a blanket edict that if an employee can only use medical cannabis to treat their illness, they cannot do a safety sensitive job, is draconian and inflexible, and is not supported by the [Canadian Human Rights Act] or the jurisprudence.”

As a result, Arbitrator Misra declared the policy to be “unreasonable to the extent that it fails to treat prescribed medicinal cannabis as a “medication”.  Furthermore, “having found that Ornge’s inflexible position regarding cannabis use in a safety sensitive position is unreasonable, I also find that the Policy was drafted in a discriminatory manner in that it does not properly provide for accommodation to the point of undue hardship for those working in a safety sensitive position, who, due to their medical condition, are prescribed cannabis for medical treatment purposes.”

The OPEIU was represented by Wassim Garzouzi, Julia Williams and Patt Gibbs.

The decision can be accessed here.

• infringes the core jurisdiction of the superior courts and breaches section 96 of the Constitution Act, 1867 by absolving itself from any liability and denying First Nations children in care the right to access the courts;

• denies First Nations children substantive equality and equal benefit of the law on the grounds of age, race, aboriginality-residence and family status, contrary to section 15 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms;

• denies First Nations the rights, benefits and opportunities promised to First Nations children in care by Canada pursuant to s. 91(24) of the Constitution Act, 1867 and has therefore passed law that is beyond the province’s constitutional authority; and

• violates the honour of the Crown and breaches its fiduciary duty owed to First Nations children in care.

Our firm offices will close on Sept 30 to mark the National Day of Truth and Reconciliation and to take time to learn about and reflect on the lasting impact of residential “schools”, the racist beliefs behind them and their harmful and shameful legacy.

As the school year gets underway again, Alison McEwen welcomes back students to her Employment Law class in the University of Ottawa’s Common Law program, which she will be teaching again this fall term.

On September 23, 2021, James Cameron presented as part of the County of Carleton Law Association’s second virtual Six-Minute Employment Lawyer update. James presented on the interconnections between Long-Term Disability claims, the duty to accommodate disabilities in the workplace, and wrongful dismissal cases.