Client Education

You’d like to learn about important legal issues that affect you and your members, wouldn’t you?

Our clients work hard to meet their obligations in complicated and constantly changing legal, regulatory and economic environments. We’re here to help. That’s where our client education program, Leading Questions, comes in.

Leading Questions events address the issues that confront you and your organization. They are held regularly, and include seminars, workshops, podcasts, guest speakers, and more. We answer the questions you’ve been wondering about, as well as those you didn’t even know you had.

Many of you may recall our successful Laws & Bagels client seminars held some years ago. Those seminars addressed many legal issues of importance to our clients. Leading Questions carries on that tradition, but offers other ways to engage and learn in addition to traditional client seminars.

Since the start of the pandemic, Goldblatt Partners has been offering client seminars via Zoom, which has allowed many more of our clients to participate, including those outside the Greater Toronto area.

If you are a Goldblatt Partners client, and would like to receive registration information for Leading Questions events, please email: leadingquestions@goldblattpartners.com and ask to be added to our mailing list. Make sure to indicate which organization you work for.

If you’re already on our email list, all you need to do is keep an eye out for the invitations to the seminars, typically sent about 3-4 weeks in advance of each seminar.

WINTER/SPRING 2023

Here are the webinars we will be holding in the coming months.

2022: The Year in Review
Tuesday, January 10, 2023, 10:00 – 11:30 a.m.

The New Year begins with a celebration of our lawyers’ best wins and notable cases from 2022, featuring a dozen of our lawyers presenting on:

• New arbitral decisions on vaccination policies and holiday entitlements to the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, amongst others;
• The Ontario Superior Court’s recent decision overturning Bill 124;
• Our public interest litigation and interventions, including the triple femicide inquest in Renfrew County, a youth-led climate rights lawsuit against the province of Ontario, and a new constitutional challenge against Canada’s sex work laws;
• The legal issues arising from the government’s now-withdrawn illegal strike application related to its now-repealed Bill 28;
• And more!

Don’t miss this opportunity to start 2023 up to date on the latest developments in labour and social justice law.

Rising Tides: Federal Pay Equity on the Horizon
Tuesday, February 28, 2023, 10:00 – 11:30 a.m.

Be sure to join us on February 28, 2023 for our next Leading Questions Webinar, Rising Tides: Federal Pay Equity on the Horizon.

Our pay equity team will bring you up to speed on some of the developments happening in that area and some of the challenges they’ve been involved in to date to help you understand what you can expect as the deadline to develop pay equity plans approaches.

Navigating Requests for Medical Information
Tuesday, April 13, 2023, 10:00 – 11:30 a.m.

It can be challenging to find the right balance between an employer’s legitimate interest in an employee’s medical information and the employee’s might to privacy. Join David Sworn, Saneliso Moyo and Anna Goldfinch as we answer questions such as:

• When can an employer ask for a medical note?
• What questions can an employer ask and what questions are off side?
• How are requests for medical different when an employee is requesting sick leave, returning to work, or requiring accommodation?
• When can an employer request an Independent Medical Evaluation or a doctor-to-doctor consult
• Can an employer use a third party to collect medical information?
• Can an employer conduct surveillance where they suspect sick leave abuse?

This webinar is a must for new union reps and experienced ones too who provide advice to members navigating requests for health information.

Free Expression, Criticism and Confidentiality in Labour
Wednesday, May 24, 2023, 10:00 – 11:30 a.m.

Our labour and civil litigation lawyers will canvass the legal issues related to the legal consequences for criticism and public statements about employers or union officials, as well as trends and best practices in settlement agreement clauses for confidentiality, non-disclosure or non-disparagement. They will cover issues including:

• How does labour law treat off-duty statements by employees criticizing their employer? What if the employee is also a union official?
• Can union officials – whether employees or not – face civil legal consequences for statements made about an employer?
• What recourses are available where unions or union officials face unjustified or harassing statements?
• What are the current trends around confidentiality or non-disclosure clauses in settlement agreements?
• Best practices when negotiating settlement agreements, where the employer is looking for a confidentiality or non-disclosure clause?

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Client-specific seminars and training

We regularly speak at in-house educational events organized by our clients for their own staff and representatives. The legal issues we’ve been asked to address in recent months include: social media in the workplace; how to navigate the grievance and arbitration process; human rights issues in collective bargaining; family status discrimination; pay equity; and an update on recent arbitration cases.

We are always available to help you with your in-house seminars. If you would like us to speak at an event you have organized, or to develop a seminar, webinar, or workshop for your organization, please contact Kelly Doctor.