Judith Allen

The father applied for sole custody of the parties' four-year-old child.

Following separation, the parties initially shared parenting on an alternating weekly schedule.

However, the mother unilaterally terminated this schedule, relocated, and engaged in a pattern of alienating behaviour, including terminating the father's relationship with her older child to whom the father had stood in loco parentis.

The court found the mother lacked the ability to foster a positive relationship between the child and the father.

The father was granted sole custody, with the mother receiving specified access, and child support was ordered to commence after a grace period.

The applicant hospital appealed an arbitrator's preliminary order granting the respondent union an extension of time to proceed to arbitration for a discharge grievance.

The union had missed the 21-day deadline by four days.

The Divisional Court reviewed whether the arbitrator had jurisdiction under s. 48(16) of the Labour Relations Act, 1995 to extend the time limit.

The Court held that because the collective agreement specifically included the referral to arbitration as Step 3 of the grievance procedure, the arbitrator correctly concluded she had jurisdiction to extend the time.

The appeal was dismissed.

The appellant company appealed an order allowing the respondent union's claim to proceed in court, arguing that an arbitrator had exclusive jurisdiction over the dispute based on the Weber principle.

Previously, the union had filed a grievance, but the appellant argued the arbitrator lacked jurisdiction, leading the arbitrator to dismiss the grievance.

The union then sought relief from the Unemployment Insurance Commission and subsequently the courts.

The Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal, holding that the issue of arbitrability was res judicata due to the arbitrator's final decision and a previous court ruling.

The appellant was precluded from re-litigating the jurisdictional issue or raising new evidence that could have been presented earlier with due diligence.

The appeal concerned whether a labour arbitrator had exclusive jurisdiction to determine an employee’s entitlement to long term disability benefits payable under an insurance policy maintained pursuant to a collective agreement.

The court held that recent jurisprudence, including Pilon, did not extend arbitral jurisdiction to a dispute between an employee and an insurer over policy benefits where the issue was the insurer’s liability under the policy.

The arbitrator also erred in joining the insurer as a party defendant where no dispute properly implicating the insurer was before him.

The appeal was dismissed and the Divisional Court’s order quashing the award was upheld.