Edmonton Employment Law

Every election time, we have debates about strategic voting and electoral reform. With the unusual recent result in Ontario where the Ontario Liberals and NDP scored equal numbers of votes, but with vast disparities in resulting seat counts, it's even more striking. Our oddly-named "first past the post" (FPTP) system has some pretty deep and obvious flaws, and is unpopular, but we're far from consensus on how to replace it. The two central proposed replacements are 'ranked ballots', where you can select 'second' and 'third' choices on your ballot (which I'll call IRV, for 'instant runoff voting'); and 'proportional representation' (PR), which allocate seats based on vote percentages. However, there are as many different types of PR system as colours in the rainbow. There's a large undercurrent of support for PR as a concept, but you don't see a lot of people getting into the nuts and bolts of the model they want. Eve...

 I've made the observation before that, as government reduces rules relating to the pandemic, employers may be in a situation of needing to make their own decisions to maintain a safe workplace. As various Provinces have removed isolation mandates, then, it may not be the case that employers are entitled to simply shrug and allow symptomatic/COVID-positive individuals into the workplace. An employer owes obligations to maintain a safe and healthy workplace. I would argue that there are circumstances where knowingly allowing a COVID-positive individual in the workplace, without other precautions, would violate that duty. Or, alternatively, where it may discriminate against people on the basis of disability. Create and Follow a Policy The biggest red flag I've seen so far is that some employers have inconsistent practices and communications regarding COVID positives - for instance, an environment where one manager might send out company-wide notifications about close contacts (...

 More drama out of the political circles in Alberta. Collin May, the recently-appointed Chief of the Alberta Human Rights Commission and Tribunals (AHRC) was fired today. This is unusual for a few reasons. Firstly, he was only in the role for about two months. Secondly, he was fired by the same guy who appointed him - Tyler Shandro, the Minister of Justice. Shandro asked May for his resignation earlier this week; May refused; so today the Lieutenant Governor issued an Order in Council rescinding May's appointment . There's a back story here. Let's start with the beginning. A Questionable Appointment My information, through the grape vine, is that there are personal connections between May and Shandro. I haven't been able to find corroboration of this that isn't at least double-hearsay, so it's worth taking with a grain of salt, but the reality is that May wasn't the best on-paper candidate in the first place. May graduated law school in 2009, making him pret...

Interesting new case out of BC: Cho v. Cafe La Foret . (Hat tip to Jennifer Chan.) An employee sexually harassed his subordinate, refused to sign an affidavit admitting to misconduct, and was dismissed for cause. The Court awarded him damages for wrongful dismissal. There were some disagreements on the facts, but I'm going to cut through them and go straight to a few of the court's findings. Cho had touched his subordinate inappropriately, in a sexual manner It was a gross error of judgment, not for sexual gratification or with mal fide  intentions The touching was unwelcome, and Cho realized it was unwelcome Though the complainant alleged it, the court did not find that a prior history of harassing conduct was proven The Employer decided that it could keep Cho employed if he signed a 'written apology' Cho agreed to provide a written apology Instead of an apology letter, the Employer put to Cho an 'affidavit' which was materially different from the apology he ha...

 Here's a story I've been following for three years, since I moved into the west end: There's a compost facility that has regularly been implicated in stinking up the neighbourhood. CleanIt GreenIt (CiGi) has operated in west Edmonton, in the industrial park on the southwest side of the Yellowhead and the west leg of the Henday, since 1998. Compost facilities are regulated by Alberta Environment and Parks (AEP) under the Environmental Protection and Enhancement Act . In order to operate, they require a type of Provincial license - either a 'registration' or an 'approval'. Registrations are relatively summary regulatory processes, whereas approvals involve more detailed regulatory oversight. Initially, CiGi proceeded by way of Registration, and the Province gave it to them. In hindsight, there are issues that have caused AEP to regret that decision. The context of the west end has changed dramatically over the years. When CiGi opened, there weren't many r...