BC's Information and Privacy Commissioner, Elizabeth Denham, issued a news release yesterday in which she confirmed that her office:

• has been examining the issue of employment-related criminal records checks for several months; and 

• will take the recent concerns voiced by the BC Civil Liberties Association ("BCCLA") about the PRIME police database into consideration.

PRIME stands for "Police Records Information Management Environment".

The Commissioner's release goes on to state:  read more »

In the May 14, 2010 labour arbitration decision in Vancouver (City) v. Vancouver Firefighters' Union, Local 18 (Police Records Checks Grievance), [2010] B.C.C.A.A.A. No. 81, a BC arbitrator addressed whether an employer could introduce a policy that would require unionized employees in certain designated positions to submit to updated criminal record checks every five years.

Jennifer Roper, at Roper Greyell in Vancouver, has written an article about this decision ("Can Employees be Required to Submit to Criminal Record Checks?") for the firm's September 2010 newsletter.  read more »

Andrea York, a lawyer at Blakes, wrote a paper entitled, "Privacy In Practice: Top 10 Workplace Q&As" for the Six-Minute Employment Lawyer conference that was presented by The Law Society of Upper Canada in Toronto on June 15, 2010. 

The 10 questions she addresses are:  read more »

"Employee Backgroud Checks and References" is the topic of Vancouver law firm, Bull, Housser & Tupper's January 29, 2010 labour and employment law newsletter. You can read it here.

"Periodic Criminal Record Checks May Infringe Privacy Right" is the title of the most recent labour and employment newsletter from Vancouver law firm Bull, Housser & Tupper. You can read it here.  

Jennifer Wiegele at Harris & Company prepared a paper on, "Privacy Issues in Pre-Employment Screening" for the Continuing Legal Education Society of BC's May 2009 Employment Law Conference - 2009.

Balogun v. Canada, 2009 FC 407

In Orders P2006-006 and P2006-007, the Alberta Privacy Commissioner ruled that the former employer and the prospective employer had complied with the Alberta Personal Information Protection Act in relation to information disclosed during a reference check.

"Critical Issues in the Hiring Process" (December 1, 2007)  is the title of a paper written by two lawyers at Blaney McMurtry LLP on Ontario, Elizabeth Forster and Goli Garakani.

Janice Payne and Aman Sidhu at law firm Nelligan O'Brien Payne in Ottawa have written a paper on "Tort Claims Against Third Parties in Wrongful Dismissal Actions" (November 2007). The paper was prepared for The Advocates' Society Annual Fall Convention.  It addresses the following two tort claims:

1. Tort of interference with business/economic relations; and
2. Tort of inducing breach of contract.