Talking to York University students these days, the 2008-2009 strike seems like a distant memory. Four years ago, however, the strike was all that they were talking about. It was the longest faculty strike in Canadian university history. All in all, starting November 2008, over 50,000 students were locked out and over 3,000 teaching assistants [...]

Chinese Company Can Be Charged in Case Involving the Deaths of Two Temporary Workers Over the past few years, billions of dollars have been funneled into Alberta’s oil sands. The Chinese, in particular, have a voracious appetite for Canadian natural resources. While most Canadians welcome foreign investors, who inject money into the economy, build infrastructure, [...]

Conflict with the Covenant: German Court Bans Religious Circumcision After a medical complication arising in a circumcision performed on a four year old Muslim boy, a Cologne court ruled that circumcising young boys on religious grounds equated with bodily harm – even if the parents had consented to the practice. In this decision, the court [...]

With the advent of social media and technology in the professional world, workplaces have become far more flexible in terms of the physical location of the actual work done by employees. In Canada, the terms “work from home” and “telework” are often used interchangeably to reflect arrangements where an employee can set up and use [...]

Saskatchewan Essential Services Legislation Deemed Unconstitutional A Saskatchewan Court of Queen’s Bench justice recently struck down a controversial piece of legislation that denied public sector workers the right to strike. The legislation was deemed unconstitutional for infringing on public sector workers’ rights to freedom of association, guaranteed by section 2(d) of the Charter of Rights [...]

Labour arbitration affords an economical, accelerated and informal mechanism to maintain peaceful industrial relations and address the economic needs of an enterprise. Arbitrators adjudicate disputes by interpreting the language of the collective agreement, hearing evidence, and determining the obligations of the employer and the union. When arbitration decisions are challenged, the legal approach taken by [...]

In April, the Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) handed down its latest pronouncement on the relationship between the Charter’s guarantee to freedom of association and the collective bargaining process in Ontario (AG) v. Fraser (Fraser). In Fraser, a majority of the Court determined that Ontario’s Agricultural Employees’ Protection Act (AEPA) is consistent with the Charter’s s. 2(d) guarantee [...]

In April, the Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) handed down its latest pronouncement on the relationship between the Charter’s guarantee to freedom of association and the collective bargaining process in Ontario (AG) v. Fraser (Fraser). In Fraser, a majority of the Court determined that Ontario’s Agricultural Employees’ Protection Act (AEPA) is consistent with the Charter’s s. 2(d) guarantee [...]

In April the Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) handed down its latest pronouncement on the relationship between the Charter’s guarantee to freedom of association and the collective bargaining process in Ontario (AG) v Fraser (Fraser). In Fraser, a majority of the Court determined that Ontario’s Agricultural Employees’ Protection Act (AEPA) is consistent with the Charter’s s. 2(d) guarantee [...]

Originally argued in front of the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) last fall to lively online and media debate, the recent decision of NASA v. Nelson (2011) 562 U.S. (pdf link) was released on January 19, 2011 to considerably less fanfare in the blogosphere. As discussed in my prior post about this case, [...]