Editor’s note: If you or anyone you know is struggling with mental health there are a number of ways to get help, including by calling Talk Suicide Canada at 1-833-456-4566. A list of local crisis centers is also available here. Peel police are asking members of the public to be on “alert” for items containing sodium nitrite, including hoods and masks, as the investigation into the online sale of the lethal substance continues. In a video posted to YouTube on Friday, Peel police provided an update on their investigation into Kenneth Law, the Mississauga man accused of selling sodium nitrite and other dangerous materials to customers at risk of suicide.…
Category: Law News
This scientist shaped a new law that moves Canada away from toxicity testing on animals
For decades, researchers have relied on animals to test whether chemicals are toxic to humans. But science has developed alternatives, and a new Canadian law will require them to move in those directions. This week, Bill S-5 was passed by the Senate and was given a royal assent. It includes language that brings Canada closer to “modernized toxicity testing,” according to a Windsor researcher who helped shape the legislation. Charu Chandrasekera says laboratories of the future will be forced to turn to other methods to determine whether chemicals are safe — instead of using rats, mice and dogs.Windsor Morning7:42Animal TestingFor decades, researchers have relied on animals to test whether chemicals are toxic to humans.…
First successful federal age discrimination case leads to $232,000 awarded to employee who was “forced to retire”
Age discrimination has been an area of some discussion with human resources and people and culture teams with concerns over fitness for work, use of technology, physical ability and ability to adapt and change are brought into question. There are of course some positions where there are specific legal obligations around age retirement. However, in Australia most discrimination cases have been battled out in general protections claims or state discrimination cases. The Federal Court of Australia case of Gutierrez v MUR Shipping Australia Pty Limited (No 2) [2023] FCA 567 now represents a landmark for age discrimination in the federal space as a now 73 year old accountant has taken on his Employer and won a substantial payout of $232,000.…
Canada passes new law to promote Francophone immigration
Published on June 16th, 2023 at 05:42am EDTCanada has passed a new law that emphasizes the importance of the French language in Canada by prioritizing francophone immigration and minorities outside Quebec. Discover if You Are Eligible for Canadian Immigration Bill C-13 introduces, for the first time, immigration into the Official Languages Act (OLA). The OLA is the federal statute that makes English and French the official languages of Canada. The new law modernizes the Official Languages Act to recognize that French, as an official language of Canada, is being threatened and must be protected. It is divided into three parts.…
US restricts Ugandan officials travel in wake of anti-LGBTQ law | LGBTQ News
US President Biden had previously said said cuts and sanctions were possible in response to the law.The United States has imposed travel restrictions on Ugandan officials in the wake of an anti-LGBTQ law signed by President Yoweri Museveni last month. The law has been condemned as one of the harshest in the world. Among other provisions, it is stated the death penalty for someone convicted of “aggravated homosexuality”, an offense that includes transmitting HIV through gay sex. It also carried a life sentence for same-sex intercourse and a 20-year sentence for promoting homosexuality. In a brief release on Friday, US Department of State spokesman Matthew Miller said the measures were in response to human rights abuses – “including those of LGBTQI+ persons” – and corruption.…
Residential schools: Report on denialism in Canada
OTTAWA – Canada should give “urgent consideration” to legal mechanisms as a way to combat residential school denialism, says a new report from the independent special interlocutor on unmarked graves. Justice Minister David Lambetti said he was open to such a solution. Kimberly Murray made the call in an interim report released Friday, just over a year after she was appointed to an advisory role focused on how Ottawa can help Indigenous communities search for children who died and disappeared from residential schools. The former executive director of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada spent much of the past year traveling the country and hearing from different communities, experts and survivors.…
Canadians have the right to a healthy environment with the passage of new laws
Article content Changes to the Canadian Environmental Protection Act enshrining the right to a healthy environment have passed into law.Article content The federal government has been working on the legislation for several years, and introduced the latest version in the Senate in February. It also adds a sentence to the act guaranteeing that every Canadian has the right to a healthy environment and makes it a duty of the government to protect that right. The government now has up to two more years to define how that right will be implemented when it comes to enforcing the act. Critics have said the law would be stronger if that right were enshrined in the Constitution, but the government is not interested in that change.…
Workplace Bullying vs Reasonable Management Action: Firmness does not mean Harshness
[An] instruction is not the same thing as a disciplinary measure, and firmness does not equate to harshness.Deputy President Alan Colman Trainor v Council for Christian Education in Schools and others [2023] FWC 1272 (30 May 2023) People managers are constantly dealing with ever evolving deadlines, targets and expectations. An area of constant concern is people and especially when it comes to courageous or difficult conversations. If an employee is performing poorly, engaging with misconduct or just doing inappropriate behavior, the line between what is reasonable management action versus workplace bullying can seem to be blurred. A recent case of Trainor v Council for Christian Education in Schools and others [2023] FWC 1272 (30 May 2023) seems to demystify this further for those in human resources, people and culture and people management positions.…