Chairs of the event were Malcolm J. MacKillop of Shields O’Donnell MacKillop LLP and Christine M. Thomlinson of Rubin Thomlinson LLP.

Speakers included:

The Honourable Madam Justice Susan G. Himel of the Superior Court of Justice

Sharan K. Basran, Legal Counsel, Manager of Legal Services, Human Rights Legal Support Centre

Scott D. Bergman, Cooper and Sandler LLP

Lauren M. Bernardi, Bernardi Human Resource Law

Matthew L.O. Certosimo, Borden Ladner Gervais LLP

Richard J. Charney, C.S., Ogilvy Renault LLP

Mary Beth Currie, Bennett Jones LLP

Michael P. Fitzgibbon, Watershed LLP

Jeffrey Goodman, Heenan Blaikie LLP

M. Norman Grosman, Grosman, Grosman & Gale LLP

Michael F. Horvat, Ogilvy Renault LLP

Malcolm J. MacKillop of Shields O’Donnell MacKillop LLP

Dan Michaluk, Hicks Morley

Natasha A. V. Miklaucic, Borden Ladner Gervais LLP

N. Nicole Nussbaum

Jim Patterson, Bennett Jones LLP

Michael E. Royce, Lenczner Slaght Royce Smith Griffin LLP

Janice Rubin, Rubin Thomlinson LLP

Stuart E. Rudner, Miller Thomson LLP

Jason Squire, Lerners LLP

Christine M. Thomlinson, Rubin Thomlinson LLP

Elizabeth Traynor, Siskinds LLP

Michael D. Wright, Cavalluzzo Hayes Shilton McIntyre & Cornish LLP

John Yach, Shields / Hunt

Andrea York, Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP

Loreta Zubas, LLM, C.S., Zubas + Associates

The case was an appeal of the Ontario Court of Appeal decision in Fraser v. Ontario, which is currently pending judgment at the Supreme Court of Canada.

The moot was judged by Paul Broad, Barry Brown, Aida Gattfield, Bob Atkinson, and Margaret Szilassy.

UWO Law hosted the 2009 Labour Law Lecture & Conference on Equity in the Workplace: 25 Years After the Abella Report.

Hon. Justice Rosalie Abella of the Supreme Court of Canada delivered the keynote speech on Oct. 30, 2009. Kamila Pizon, a 3L at UWO Law, did a write-up on the speech available from Canadian Lawyer magazine and the school website.

The conference itself was held the following day, on Oct. 31, 2009.  Brian Burkett, partner at Heenan Blaikie LLP, provided the introduction and overview.

The first panel, on the evolution of employment equity, was chaired by The Honourable Madam Justice Rosalie Abella, and featured Carol Agocs of The University of Western Ontario, David Lepofsky, Chair of Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act Alliance, and Nan Weiner of NJ Weiner Consulting.

The second panel discussed policy perspectives on employment equity. It was chaired by Elizabeth MacPherson of the Canada Industrial Relations Board, and featured Patricia Hughes of the Law Commission of Ontario, Elizabeth McIsaac of the Toronto Region Immigrant Employment Council, and Tom Patch of the University of British Columbia.

Raj Anand of WeirFoulds LLP provided a keynote luncheon speech.

The third panel provided some international perspectives on employment equity. Kevin Whitaker, Chair of the Ontario Labour Relations Board chaired the panel that consisted of Harish Jain of McMaster University, who spoke of successes in Malaysia, India and elsewhere, Natasha Martin of the Seattle University School of Law, who covered the implications of President Obama’s election, and Michael Stein of Harvard Law School.

Raj Anand of WeirFoulds LLP chaired the fourth panel, providing legal perspectives on employment equity.  Mary Cornish of Cavalluzzo Hayes Shilton McIntyre Cornish LLP provided a union side perspective, while Nitya Iyer of Heenan Blaikie LLP gave a manager side overview. Michael Lynk, Associate Dean at The University of Western Ontario, also added his insight.

Justice Rosalie Abella of the Supreme Court of Canada

This year’s competition addressed a hypothetical appeal of the Supreme Court of Canada’s decision in Evans v. Teamsters Union No. 31, which centered around wrongful dismissal and the duty to mitigate damages by returning to work for an employer.

Their convention, held once every three years, was hosted in Vancouver.

The keynote speaker for the event was Madame Louise Arbour, former justice of the Supreme Court of Canada.  Notes from the talk can be found on Law is Cool.

The case centered around the issue of mandatory retirement, and whether it would uphold a Charter challenge.

The problem was based on a real case at the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal, Vilven v. Air Canada, 2007 CHRT 36, and used cases such as McKinney v. University of Guelph (1990), 76 D.L.R. (4th) 545 (S.C.C.), and Re CKY-TV and C.E.P., Local 816 (Kenny) (2008), 175 L.A.C. (4th) 29 (Peltz).