Jewitt McLuckie is proud to announce that Associate Cole Boucher has done notable and valuable pro bono work for a client.

Our client was assessed by the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) as owing the Program more than $10,000. She believed at least some of these debts had been improperly assessed and challenged the ODSP’s assessment at Ontario’s Social Benefit Tribunal. On short notice, Cole helped our client prepare her submissions to the Tribunal. The Tribunal reviewed the evidence and submissions and issued a decision finding that over $8,700 of the debts claimed by the ODSP were improperly assessed and could not be collected upon.

Pro bono work is an important part of our firm’s legal practice. We believe that practising law is a privilege, and we seek appropriate opportunities to support people in circumstances in which they would not otherwise be able to assert their legal rights.

Jewitt McLuckie is proud of Jeff Meleras who obtained an important victory for his client when faced with a motion to strike their lawsuit.

In Locke v Ontario Police Services et al, the Ontario Superior Court dismissed the defendants’ motion to strike the plaintiff’s statement of claim that alleges that, in 1999, the plaintiff reported sexual assaults that she had been subject to as a 12-year-old and that the police’s determination that she had consented to the sexual activity constituted malfeasance in public office. The defendants argued that the claim should be struck because it was launched too late and because the lawsuit did not set out facts that can support a claim of malfeasance of public office.

The Ontario Superior Court found that the plaintiff’s claim was not launched too late and that the plaintiff’s lawsuit was proper such that it can proceed. The Court further commented that the notion that the plaintiff could have consented to the sexual assault as a minor fell within the realm of misfeasance, and that to not lay a charge on this basis is a blatant disregard of the law of sexual assault and the Criminal Code.

In Peel (Regional Municipality) v CUPE, Local 966, (2023)354 L.A.C. (4^th), the Union sought a preliminary order directing the Employer to disclose gender incumbency data.  The Employer had refused to provide the data, arguing that the Pay Equity Act is silent as to what pay equity maintenance duties include.  The Employer further argued that, once pay equity is achieved, the obligation to maintain pay equity is the sole responsibility of the Employer and that the Union is only entitled to information to the extent necessary to demonstrate that pay equity has been achieved and maintained.

CUPE argued that, while the Pay Equity Act is silent on the requirement to disclose pay equity information to a Union, the jurisprudence affirms the Employer’s obligation to disclose pay equity information in the context of the duty to bargain in good faith as well as the pay equity maintenance provisions.  The Union specifically relied on section 7 of the Act (which prohibits an employer or bargaining agent from bargaining for or agreeing to compensation practices that, if adopted, would cause a contravention of the Act) and argued that, because section 14.1 requires an employer to negotiate with the bargaining agent where there is a changed circumstance (e.g., a change in the gender predominance of comparator jobs), the Employer’s refusal to disclose the data potentially prevented the Union from meeting its own obligations to members with regard to pay equity maintenance.

Arbitrator Hayes agreed with the Union and directed the Employer to provide the Union with the requested gender incumbency data for all job classifications listed in the parties’ Pay Equity Maintenance Summary.  If you have questions about pay equity, please contact Samantha Lamb at slamb@jewittmcluckie.ca.

In L.N. v Ray Daniel Salon & Spa, 2024 HRTO 179 (CanLII), the Tribunal dealt with an application alleging discrimination in employment based on sex, sexual harassment, sexual solicitations or advances, citizenship and reprisal.  The applicant was a refugee who had fled Iran after experiencing intimate partner violence and recently arrived in Canada.  She was hired by the respondent who spoke Farsi, the applicant’s primary language.  The Tribunal found that, during the course of her employment, the respondent engaged in repeated sexual harassment of the applicant, including three incidents of egregious sexual assaults and physical assault.  He also took advantage of her precarious immigration status and paid her well below the minimum wage because she lacked permanent citizenship and threatened to report her to the police when she tried to enforce her rights by asking to be paid minimum wage.  The Tribunal also found that the respondent engaged in reprisal against her when he filed a lawsuit against the applicant for bringing forward what he described as a “false claim” to the Tribunal.  In total, the Tribunal ordered the respondent to pay $180,000 in damages for injury to the applicant’s dignity, feelings and self-respect which is reportedly the second highest damages award in the Tribunal’s history.  In addition, the Tribunal ordered mandatory human rights training for the managerial staff in the workplace and required the decision to be posted in the workplace.  The Toronto Star has reported that the respondent intends to appeal the decision.

Randy Slepchik successfully represented CUPE 503 in an “LTD Offset” policy grievance filed against the City of Ottawa.  The Union grieved that the Employer was improperly counting time spent by employees working in accommodated positions as time that would reduce their entitlement to Long Term Disability benefits during their own occupation period.  In the decision, an Arbitration Panel chaired by Arbitrator Brian Keller found that the Employer should not have reduced the “own occupation” period as the employees were actively employed and in receipt of wages.

Ottawa(City) v Canadian Union of Public Employees, Local 503, 2023 CanLII 50239 (ON LA)

Dina Mashayekhi defeated a preliminary motion brought by Carleton University when it tried to argue that Arbitrator Kevin Burkett had no jurisdiction to make a determination about a salary adjustment for members of the Carleton University Academic Staff Association.  Arbitrator Burkett sided with the Union on the basis that section 48(1) of the Ontario Labour Relations Act requires there to be an adjudicative process chaired by a neutral third party and that the procedure followed by the University did not meet that test.

Carleton University v Carleton University Academic Staff Association, 2023 CanLII 12176 (ON LA)

Samantha Lamb and Dina Mashayekhi represented the Carleton University Academic Staff Association in Superior Court in a successful challenge to Bill 124, the Provincial Government’s wage restraint legislation.  In the challenge, CUASA, along with a host of other unions, argued that the Act infringed on their members’ freedom of association, freedom of speech and equality rights under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.  Not only were the applicants successful in establishing that the legislation violated their freedom of association under section 2(d) of the Charter but that it was not saved by section 1 of the Charter.  The Government is currently appealing the decision.

Ontario English Catholic Teachers Assoc. v. His Majesty, 2022, 2022 ONSC 6658 (CanLII)

On Thursday, October 26^th John McLuckie will be one of the moderators for the Lancaster House Panel discussion addressing trends and changes to worker’s compensation law.

Jewitt McLuckie is proud to announce that University of Ottawa Law Student Samarah Arafat will be joining us for the 2021-2022 articling term.

Samarah’s background includes research into minimum wage policy in the Asian garment industry, volunteering with Women at the CentrE, where she focused on the intersection between the criminal justice system and women’s rights, as well as advocacy as a caseworker at the University of Ottawa Legal Clinic. Samarah also placed as a semi-finalist in the Nelligan O’Brien Payne Moot Competition.

We hope you’ll join us in warmly welcoming Samarah to Jewitt McLuckie!

Photo by Belinda Fewings on Unsplash