For the 2024 Fall Term, Fathima Cader has been appointed Acting Academic Co-Director at Parkdale Legal Community Services, alongside Osgoode Hall Law School’s Amar Bhatia.
Founded in 1971, the Parkdale legal clinic is one of the oldest community-based legal clinics in North America. The clinic undertakes projects and provide services based on community need and indicia of oppression, especially poverty, racism, violence, and systemic discrimination.
Did Skip the Dishes terminate your employment? We have a dedicated team of Employment Lawyers in Winnipeg, Ottawa, Kingston and Toronto ready to help. Severance packages can be confusing, which is why we’re committed to answering all of your questions and helping you through this uncertain time. Email info@ravenlaw.com to schedule an appointment today with one of our experienced Employment Lawyers to review your termination package and ensure you get a fair deal. You can meet with us in person, by video conference or by phone.
RavenLaw’s Toronto Office is open!
Our new office expands the firm’s ability to represent unions and workers in the Greater Toronto Area. RavenLaw is committed to advancing workers’ rights and progressive causes across Canada. We are now even better positioned to do just that.
The Toronto office is led by Sevda Mansour, who joins RavenLaw after a decade practicing with the largest nursing union in the country. Sevda works alongside Fathima Cader and Sarah Millman in Toronto to represent individuals and unions, across multiple sectors, in cases involving labour, employment, and human rights.
In addition, we are very pleased to announce our association with Jeffrey Sack, KC. RavenLaw has worked closely with Jeffrey over the last six years and our formal association is both exciting and long overdue.
Jeffrey is the author of a number books on labour law, including most recently Winning Cases at Grievance Arbitration, co-authored with Wassim Garzouzi. He is the recipient of the Gerard Dion Award for outstanding contributions to labour law from the Canadian Industrial Relations Association and the Bora Laskin Award from the University of Toronto.
WHERE TO FIND US
375 University Ave Suite 801
Toronto, ON M5G 2J5
T: 416.673.5680
F: 613.567.2921
E: info@ravenlaw.com
We now have offices in Toronto, Ottawa, Kingston, and Winnipeg, and our lawyers practice in every province and territory in the country. We are proud to offer our services in both French and English.
Ravenlaw is pleased to announce that the Ontario Superior Court has approved the settlement agreement reached in the class action involving employees who were required to pay higher pension transfer amounts because of a change in actuarial assumptions when they transferred from the Ontario Public Service to the Canada Revenue Agency as part of the Ontario Sales Tax Administration Reform Process.
More information and links to download the settlement agreement and the Court’s order are available here.
The Court-ordered notice materials can be downloaded here.
RavenLaw lawyers presented on panels at the annual Canadian Association of Labour Lawyers conference in Quebec City during the week of June 6, 2024. Morgan Rowe moderated and presented on the “Reimagining Workplaces for Workers with Disabilities” panel, Julia Williams spoke on a panel on free expression in the workplace, Fathima Cader was a panelist for the “AI, Algorithms, and Work – What Labour Lawyers Need to Know” session, Dayna Steinfeld moderated and Andrew Astritisspoke on “The Status of Family Status Discrimination” panel, Wassim Garzouzi spoke on the “Interest Arbitration: A Strategic Toolkit” panel, and Sevda Mansour coordinated several panels across the entire conference.
We thank all the union lawyers from across the country who joined us for these sessions and for the conference!
On May 30, 2024, Morgan Rowe will present as part of the County of Carleton Law Association’s Equity Conference. Morgan will appear on a panel discussing approaches to interventions, specifically in the Supreme Court context, on behalf of equity seeking/equity denied groups. The panel will discuss the special considerations involved in providing intervener representation to these groups, as well as practical advice for potential interveners.
For more information or to registry, visit the conference website.
RavenLaw is pleased to announce that a settlement has been reached in a class action involving employees who were required to pay higher transfer amounts because of a change in actuarial assumptions when they transferred from the Ontario Public Service to the Canada Revenue Agency as part of the Ontario Sales Tax Administration Reform Process.
A notice approved by the Court, describing the next steps in the process, is available below. If you are affected by this class action, you should be contacted individually by the Pension Centre with the materials linked below. If you do not receive materials from the Pension Centre by May 15, 2024, and believe that you are a member of this class, please contact pensiontransferclassaction@ravenlaw.com.
April 1, 2024
On April 11, 2024, Jessica Greenwood will be presenting at the Law Society of Ontario’s upcoming Eight-Minute Labour Lawyer event. Jessica will be discussing damages awards that labour lawyers should be aware of and will review recent decisions from the OLRB, HRTO and labour arbitrations which offer insight into the amount of damages that may be awarded in successful harassment, discrimination, and reprisal complaints.
For more information or to registry, visit the event website.
On November 15, 2022, Dayna Steinfeld will be presenting on a panel at The 28th Annual Manitoba Labour Law Review on the topics of employee duties in the unionized workplace, racial discrimination and sexual harassment in the workplace, and privacy protections and limits for unionized workers. Dayna will be presenting on the panel from the perspective of union-side counsel.
The conference is organized and offered by the Centre for Labour-Management Development (Canada) Inc, an organization that works to keep unions and employers informed and up to date on the law and its impact on unionized workplaces in Canada. More information about the conference is available here.
On October 31, 2022, the Ontario Court of Appeal issued a decision, overturning a mitigation decision in a wrongful dismissal case.
The Superior Court judge had found that the Appellant was wrongfully dismissed from her employment and entitled to eight months’ reasonable notice of termination. However, the judge also concluded that the Appellant had failed to act reasonably in her duty to mitigate her losses and therefore reduced her notice period to six months.
On appeal, the Court of Appeal found that the judge’s decision was based on two errors. First, the judge incorrectly held that the Appellant had taken insufficient mitigation steps because she had not applied for lower-paying positions than the one she was terminated from. The Court of Appeal confirmed that the duty to mitigate only requires an employee to look for employment “that is comparable in status, hours and remuneration to the position held at the time of dismissal.” The Court also found that the judge had placed too much weight on the titles of the positions that the Appellant had applied for, without looking at whether the duties were, in fact, comparable to the Appellant’s former position.
Second, the Court of Appeal found that there was no evidence to support the judge’s assumption that the Appellant would have increased her chances of finding new employment if she had made more efforts. The judge could not rely on such an assumption without some evidence to support it. In addition, the Court highlighted that simply assuming that more efforts would increase an employee’s chances of finding new employment did not complete the mitigation test. The legal test required assessing whether the employer had proven that “if reasonable steps in mitigation had been taken by the appellant, [the appellant] would have found a comparable position during the reasonable notice period.” The judge had therefore not performed the right analysis.
As a result, the Court of Appeal overturned the Superior Court’s decision and directed that the Appellant be paid the full eight month notice period, without a reduction due to mitigation.
The Appellant was represented by Morgan Rowe of RavenLaw and Dorian Persaud of Persaud Employment Law.