Employment and Labour Law - SCJ

The court dismissed IBM Canada Ltd.'s appeal from an endorsement refusing to strike certain paragraphs from Bruce Maule’s Fourth Amended Statement of Claim in a wrongful dismissal action.

The court found that the pleadings regarding systemic age discrimination and the employment circumstances of other IBM US employees were relevant, not overly broad, and not an abuse of process.

The court held that the pleadings were sufficiently particularized and provable, and that any concerns about discovery scope or prejudice could be managed at trial.

The decision affirms the importance of allowing claims of systemic discrimination to proceed where material facts are pleaded.

The plaintiff, Robert Barlow, brought a motion for default judgment against his former employer, 6HARMONICS INC., for wrongful dismissal and breach of contract.

The defendant failed to defend the proceeding and was noted in default.

The court found that the employment agreement entitled the plaintiff to nine months’ pay in lieu of notice, and the defendant had only paid two weeks’ pay.

The court awarded the plaintiff $184,166.69 in damages, partial indemnity costs, and pre-judgment interest.

Claims for additional damages for mental distress were rejected due to lack of evidence.

The court found that King Ursa Inc. constructively dismissed Joanna S. McFarlane by demoting her and reducing her salary after her return from maternity leave.

The employer failed to prove that McFarlane did not mitigate her damages.

The court awarded her twelve months’ notice, calculated damages, and moral damages for the insensitive handling of her employment, but declined to find discrimination or award punitive damages.

The court considered cross-motions for summary judgment between Kishan Patel (and his company TechSpirer Inc.) and ITCAD Tech Inc. regarding unpaid invoices and the enforceability of a non-competition clause in a consulting agreement.

The court found that TechSpirer Inc. was an independent contractor, not an employee, and that the non-competition clause was valid and enforceable.

Damages were awarded to both parties, with the plaintiffs receiving unpaid invoices and punitive damages, and the defendant receiving partial damages for breach of the non-compete.

The court also addressed issues of frustration, repudiation, and costs.

The court held that Richard Turcotte was constructively dismissed by Grenville Management Inc. when he was unilaterally laid off during the COVID-19 pandemic, as the employment agreement did not permit such a layoff without his consent.

The court rejected the employer’s argument that pandemic-related regulations suspended the right to claim constructive dismissal at common law.

Turcotte was awarded 16 months’ pay in lieu of notice, with no punitive or moral damages, as the employer’s conduct, while problematic, did not meet the threshold for such awards.

This costs endorsement addresses the allocation of costs following a motion for injunctive relief brought by Mondee, Inc. and related plaintiffs against Voyzant Inc. and several individual defendants.

The court granted limited injunctive relief to Mondee, primarily the return and destruction of its information, but dismissed broader relief sought against the defendants.

The court found that the defendants were more successful on the substantive issues and awarded costs to Voyzant Inc. and the non-Binning departing employees, while denying costs to Jasvinder Binning due to his conduct.

The court declined to award Mondee its costs, holding that costs should generally be reserved to the trial judge where a trial is likely.

The plaintiffs brought a motion to compel answers to refusals and questions taken under advisement from the examination for discovery of the defendants’ representative.

The court considered the scope of discovery in a class action, focusing on whether the questions related to certified common issues.

The court ordered answers to certain questions and refusals to others, based on relevance and proportionality to the common issues.

No costs were awarded, as both parties had almost equal success.

The court granted summary judgment in favour of Adam Boyle in his wrongful dismissal claim against Salesforce.com Canada Corporation.

The court found the termination clause in Boyle’s employment contract unenforceable due to ambiguity and non-compliance with the Employment Standards Act, 2000.

Boyle was awarded pay in lieu of reasonable notice for eight months (after a three-month reduction for late production of mitigation evidence), pro-rated bonus and RRSP contributions, and benefits.

Claims for aggravated, punitive, and special damages were dismissed.

The defendant, The Corporation of the Township of Ignace, sought an adjournment of the trial for a wrongful dismissal and breach of contract claim brought by the plaintiff, Lynda Marie Joan Colby, pending the outcome of a related appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada in another case involving the same defendant and similar issues.

The court dismissed the motion, finding that the main claim to be advanced at trial—breach of contract—would not be affected by the pending appeal, and that adjourning the trial would set a problematic precedent.

The plaintiff, Justin Ngan, brought a motion to partially discontinue his claim, amend his pleadings, and certify the action as a class proceeding regarding the calculation of holiday and vacation pay by The Bank of Nova Scotia.

The defendant consented to the motion.

The court granted the orders, finding the amendments and discontinuance reasonable and the class action appropriate for certification.

The class includes employees who received incentive or variable compensation, and the common issues focus on whether such compensation should be included in statutory pay calculations under the Canada Labour Code.

The court granted the defendants' motion to dismiss the plaintiffs’ action as statute-barred under the 15-year ultimate limitation period in the Limitation Act, 2002.

The plaintiffs, Bruce G. Johnston and Judith A. Walker, claimed wrongful expulsion from their union and denial of full pension benefits.

The court found that all material facts were known or discoverable by 1994/95, and the ultimate limitation period had expired long before the action was commenced in 2021.

The court also rejected arguments based on concealment, breach of contract, unjust enrichment, and the expulsion being void ab initio.

The court considered two motions: the plaintiff’s motion to restore the action to the trial list and the defendant’s motion to dismiss for delay.

The court found that the plaintiff failed to provide a reasonable explanation for significant periods of delay and failed to demonstrate that the defendant would suffer no non-compensable prejudice if the action proceeded.

The court dismissed the plaintiff’s motion to restore and granted the defendant’s motion to dismiss for delay, awarding costs to the defendant.

The court denied the defendants' motion to adjourn a scheduled trial pending the outcome of a Workplace Safety and Insurance Appeals Tribunal (WSIAT) application.

The court found that the defendants delayed bringing the application and that the interests of justice, including the plaintiff's need for timely resolution and access to treatment, outweighed the defendants' arguments.

The court ordered the trial to proceed as scheduled and awarded costs to the plaintiff.

The court considered a motion by the defendant to strike portions of the plaintiff’s statement of claim in a wrongful dismissal action.

The impugned pleadings alleged similar acts of unsafe practices and unfair treatment of other employees.

The court held that these pleadings were relevant and not improper, as they provided context for the plaintiff’s claims and notice to the defendant.

The motion to strike was dismissed, and costs were awarded to the plaintiff.

This decision addresses whether software developed by an employee (Vladimir Krougly) while employed at Nexus Solutions Inc. was created in the course of employment, such that Nexus would own the copyright in the software (Limedas) later commercialized by Limesoft Inc. The court finds that although Krougly was the author of the software, it was not created in the course of his employment with Nexus, and thus Nexus is not entitled to a proprietary remedy under copyright law.

The court reviews the factual background, credibility of witnesses, expert evidence, and the legal framework for copyright ownership in the employment context.

The court granted summary judgment in favour of the plaintiff, Moyra Miller, finding that she was wrongfully dismissed by Alaya Care Inc. The court held that the termination provisions in the employment agreement and offer letter were unenforceable as they violated the Employment Standards Act, 2000, and did not clearly rebut the presumption of reasonable notice at common law.

The court found that Miller was induced to leave secure employment, and awarded her damages based on a 14-month reasonable notice period, including lost salary, benefits, bonus, and RSUs.

The court considered a summary judgment motion in a wrongful dismissal case.

The enforceability of the "with cause" and "without cause" termination provisions in the plaintiff's employment contract was at issue.

The court found both provisions unenforceable because they contravened the Employment Standards Act, 2000, following the reasoning in Dufault v. The Corporation of the Township of Ignace and Perretta v. Rand A Technology Corporation.

As a result, the defendant's motion for summary judgment was dismissed, and a further hearing was ordered to determine damages.

The court dismissed the plaintiffs' motion for summary judgment and granted the defendants' "boomerang" motion for summary judgment, dismissing the plaintiffs' claim.

The case involved a dispute over entitlement to shares and options following the termination of a consulting arrangement.

The court found that the contract was not a fixed-term contract and that the plaintiffs were not entitled to unvested shares or options after their engagement ended.

The court also addressed the application of res judicata, finding that the plaintiffs should have sought all relief in a single proceeding, but ultimately decided the matter on the merits of the contract.

The court dismissed an anti-SLAPP motion brought by Zhou Chen, a former employee of Diverse Transportation, who had sent disparaging messages to Diverse’s customers linking payment demands to allegations of misconduct.

The court found that Chen’s communications were not genuinely in the public interest but were instead a façade for a private employment dispute and debt collection.

The decision clarifies the threshold for public interest under section 137.1 of the Courts of Justice Act and affirms that anti-SLAPP protections do not extend to private disputes disguised as matters of public concern.

The decision addresses motions by the plaintiff to amend his Statement of Claim to add explicit human rights claims previously advanced before the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario (HRTO), and to add two new defendants.

The court grants leave to amend to add the Code-related claims, finding that the amendments do not introduce new causes of action but rather new remedies arising from the same factual matrix.

The court denies leave to add new defendants, as claims against them are statute-barred.

The court also addresses costs thrown away on an abandoned injunction motion, awarding partial indemnity costs to the defendants.