Mental Distress and Punitive Damages in a Long Term Disability (LTD) Claim

[This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice, which cannot be given without consideration of your individual circumstances.] In Godwin v Desjardins Financial Security Investments Inc.[1], the Supreme Court of British Columbia found that the Insurer breached its duty of good faith by failing to assess the plaintiff’s disability claims in a fair and balanced manner. Moreover, the Court awarded damages for mental distress in... Read More

David Yazbeck Retained as Canadian Expert Panelist on Whistleblower Protection Law

David Yazbeck has recently been retained as a Canadian Expert Panelist for the European Commission, as part of a study examining whistleblower protection laws and empirical evidence of such protections. The Panel is conducting its whistleblower study so that the Commission can learn what is working and what is not working in terms of whistleblower protection in many jurisdictions. The larger study aims to: Map the existing rules on whistleblower... Read More

Morgan Rowe Presented on Employment Rights at UOttawa

On October 11, 2017, Morgan Rowe spoke to University of Ottawa students as part of the “Introduction to the Study of Law” class. She presented on issues related to the life of an employment contract, from formation to termination, as well as workers’ rights during employment. Morgan specifically addressed issues that arise when employment contracts conflict with the Employment Standards Act. Read More

Megan Fultz Co-Authors a Ground-Breaking Report on Legalization of Cannabis

Megan Fultz, one of RavenLaw’s 2017 Human Rights/Social Justice interns, is co-author of a ground-breaking report on the legalization of cannabis which was published by the Global Strategy Lab of the uOttawa Centre for Health Law, Policy and Ethics.  The report titled “Reconciling Canada’s Legalization of Non-Medical Cannabis with the UN Drug Control Treaties”, identifies the legal barriers the government will face with the legalization of cannabis and proposes innovative... Read More

Morgan Rowe to Present at Council of Canadians with Disabilities Conference

On November 30, 2017, Morgan Rowe will present at the 3rd Annual Council of Canadians with Disabilities Conference. This year, the conference will be addressing the duty to accommodate. Morgan will be presenting on issues related to accommodating disabilities in education. CCD is a national human rights organization of people with disabilities working for an inclusive and accessible Canada. For more information or to register, please visit the conference’s event... Read More

ODSP Rate Increase for Medical Travel: Moving in the Right Direction

RavenLaw gratefully acknowledges the contribution of this post by summer student Emily Cumbaa A recent case before the Ontario Divisional Court examined ODSP’s reimbursement rate for medical travel. After many years of receiving reimbursement that only covered their operational travel costs, Ontarians who are on disability support can now seek reimbursement at a rate that covers both operational and ownership costs associated with their travel for medical treatments, such as... Read More

RavenLaw Appears Before Supreme Court on Pay Equity Challenge

On October 31, 2017, RavenLaw appeared before the Supreme Court of Canada to argue in support of a Charter challenge to certain restrictive portions of Québec’s pay equity legislation. In particular, in 2009, the Québec government made changes to its pay equity law which required employers to review their wage rates every five years to determine whether changes to wages had resulted in wage discrimination. However, the 2009 amendments to... Read More

Federal Court of Appeal Upholds Employee Grievance Rights

In a recent decision, the Federal Court of Appeal conclusively determined that federal public service adjudicators may hear and decide on cases where the Federal Government revokes an employee’s reliability status and then terminates her for the loss of that status. The adjudicator in the case at hand had found that the employer did not have a legitimate concern that the Grievor posed a security risk when it decided to... Read More

RavenLaw Appears Before Supreme Court on Pay Equity Challenge

On October 31, 2017, RavenLaw appeared before the Supreme Court of Canada to argue in support of a Charter challenge to certain restrictive portions of Québec’s pay equity legislation. In particular, in 2009, the Québec government made changes to its pay equity law which required employers to review their wage rates every five years to determine whether changes to wages had resulted in wage discrimination. However, the 2009 amendments to... Read More

Canadian Human Rights Commission decision on medicinal marijuana case overturned for a second time

For the second time, a decision of the Canadian Human Rights Commission to dismiss a complaint regarding discrimination related to medicinal marijuana has been set aside by the courts. In McIlvenna v Bank of Nova Scotia, the Federal Court found that the Commission breached its duty of fairness and ignored obviously crucial evidence supporting a complaint that Scotiabank had called in a mortgage because of the presence of medicinal marijuana... Read More