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Administrative Law

  • Photo: "IMG_20160909_162859" by pallavisharmaduffy is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0
In Greig v Desjardins Financial Security Life Assurance Company, the British Columbia Supreme Court recently chastised another long term disability (LTD) provider for wrongfully denying benefits to an injured employee. Mr. Greig was employed by a British Columbia school district and...

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  • Photo: "Canada Post Truck" by Duncan Rawlinson - Duncan.co - @thelastminute is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0 http://Duncan.co/canada-post-truck
Last week, we looked at the much anticipated Vavilov decision, in which the Supreme Court of Canada rewrote the analytical framework to be applied in judicial reviews of administrative decisions. The Court applied this new framework in the second decision, Bell...

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  • Photo: "Project 365 - Day 207" by SqueakyMarmot is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 cc-iconby license icon
The Supreme Court of Canada recently released three much anticipated administrative law decisions. This week we will look at the first decision. Next week we will discuss the other two. All three decisions relate to the “standard of review” applied...

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  • Photo, Pexels: woman-sleeping-935777
The B.C. Court of Appeal recently released a decision in which justice was done in a very sad case.  The case involved a woman named Ms. Tanious. Just before starting a new job in 2005, she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis...

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  • Image: "Search." by Jeffrey Beall is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0
When an organization becomes aware of a potential problem, such as sexual harassment, discrimination, drug use or trafficking, embezzlement or safety violations, one of the first things to do is investigate. Whether you are a complainant, an employee under investigation, a...

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  • Photo: "SA teachers to strike today" by publik16 is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
Some believe that class sizes in Okanagan schools are rigidly limited to a certain number of students: 20 in kindergarten, 22 in grades 1-3, 28 in intermediate split classes, 30 in certain other classes, and so on. This is not...

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  • Photo: "Learning to read" by montessori toolkit is licensed under CC BY 2.0
Last week, we began looking at the ongoing dispute between the B.C. Teachers’ Federation (BCTF) and the B.C. government.    In 2011 and 2014, two British Columbia Supreme Court decisions sided with the BCTF. Both decisions held that the government’s attempts...

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  • Photo: "IMG_1500" by critical_matt is licensed under CC BY-ND 2.0
British Columbia teachers are presently without a collective agreement. The issues go back decades. The most recent iteration dates back about 17 years.  Class size and class composition have been key issues. Class composition refers to the number of special needs...

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  • Photo: "104:365 - a little justice" by orangesparrow is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
Do you assume that a union means greater protection for workers?  Sometimes this is certainly true.  In many cases, however, it is not.   When a union fails to file a grievance on behalf of a unionized worker, or fails to pursue...

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  • Photo: "We tried to save the innovation economy" by henribergius is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0
What happens when a smoker does not want to stop smoking, but whose adjacent neighbor is a non-smoker with a health condition? Let's say the health condition worsens with exposure to second-hand smoke.  Let's also say they live in a...

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