In Wells v. UBC and others (No. 5), 2011 BCHRT 176, an employee terminated by the University of British Columbia ("UBC") for benefits fraud was ordered by the BC Human Rights Tribunal to pay UBC $5,000 in costs as a result of her improper conduct during a human rights proceeding.

The order was made pursuant to section 37(4) of the BC Human Rights Code.

The improper conduct in question was misrepresentations she had made to the Tribunal regarding why she had delayed in filing her late complaint.

A story in The Province about this decision can be found here: "Fired worker must cover $5g in costs" (July 8, 2011).

A.B. v. C.D., 2011 BCSC 775

In R. v Cole, 2011 ONCA 218, a criminal law case, the Ontario Court of Appeal ruled that a high school teacher had a reasonable expectation of privacy in the contents of a work laptop computer on which he was entitled to store personal information.

In making this finding, the court pointed in part to the fact that the employer had no clear privacy policy relating to teachers' work laptops, and no policy statement  reserving the right to monitor or search the teachers' laptops.

However, the appeal court further ruled in its March 22, 2011 decision that:  read more »

Sheridan College Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning v. Ontario Public Service Employees Union, 2010 CanLII 72611 (ON L.A.)

See a case summary by law firm Fasken Martineau here: "Tech Employee Fired for Egregious Computer Use - Termination Justified", January 18 2011.

Here's the content of what the BC Teachers' Federation posted on their website today concerning their Charter/legal challenge of Bills 27 and 28 which were enacted by the BC Liberal government in 2002.

The new legislation ended the BCTF's ability to collective bargain class size and composition; guarantees of service from teacher-librarians, counsellors, learning assistance and other specialist teachers;, the length of the school day, and hours of instruction in the school year:

Legal counsel for the BCTF began opening arguments before Madam Justice Griffin in BC Supreme Court on November 15, in what promises to be a significant case determining the rights of teachers and their unions. The BCTF is challenging Bills 27 and 28, imposed by the BC Liberal government in 2002, because teachers believe the legislation violated their right to freedom of association under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.  read more »

Anthony v. The Queen, 2010 TCC 533

In October 2009, I wrote about the PEI Human Rights Commission hearing on mandatory retirement at the University of PEI. The complaint had been brought by three former faculty members at the university. The mandatory retirement policy in question forms part of the collective agreement between the university and the faculty association. 

I can now update this case, although it's a few months after the fact.

The university's VP Finance & Facilities, Gary Bradshaw, issued the following statement on the university's website on June 6, 2010:

Update on Mandatory Retirement: Message from VP Finance & Facilities  read more »

The three cases are:

1. Syndicat de la fonction publique du Québec v. Quebec (Attorney General), 2010 SCC 28
   
2. Syndicat des professeurs du Cégep de Ste-Foy v. Quebec (Attorney General), 2010 SCC 29
3. Syndicat des professeurs et des professeures de l'Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières v. Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, 2010 SCC 30

B.C. Teachers' Federation v. Thorne, 2010 BCSC 953

Gilmar, Melanie v. Alexis Nakota Sioux Nation Board of Education, 2009 CHRT 34

(For a previous decision in which a federally regulated employer was found to have discriminated against a pregnant teacher when it did not renew her contract, see Martin v. Saultaux Band [2002] C.H.R.D. No. 10.)