American millionaire Jonathan Lehrer denied bail after being charged with killing Canadian couple
American millionaire Jonathan Lehrer, one of two men charged in the killings of a Canadian couple in Dominica, has been denied bail.
With workplaces mandating vaccines, employees with medical exemptions wonder what will happen to them. One lawyer says that regardless of vaccination status, employees should be paid severance if they lose their job over vaccine requirements.
As Canada tries to return to a pre-pandemic normal, workplaces are grappling with enforcing vaccine mandates for their employees, and some employees are learning in real-time the legality of such mandates.
"An employer can't force you to put a needle in your arm, but they can make your continued employment conditional on having received a vaccine. And for those employees who choose not to vaccinate, they can be fired," employment lawyer Daniel Lublin told CTV's Your Morning on Thursday.
Regardless of vaccination status or why they opted out of getting vaccinated, those employees should be paid severance, he added.
How vaccine mandates are being handled differs across businesses and industries. Some employers, such as Air Canada and some Ontario hospitals, are opting to terminate or put unvaccinated employees on unpaid leave if they don’t have a medical exemption. Other companies, such as Canada’s major banks, are allowing unvaccinated workers to return to the workplace, but they will have to complete regular COVID-19 testing.
Proving medical exemption for the vaccine has become more difficult, Lublin said. Where a doctor's note used to suffice, he said, he's seeing more employers question the authenticity of doctor's notes they are provided.
"That's not how the human rights law should be interpreted," he said.
For employees who provide a medical exemption and are still dismissed, it could be considered discrimination.
"That would be a discriminatory termination, an individual can sue for both wrongful dismissal and human rights damages," Lublin said. "And in human rights courts, in addition to receiving wage loss recovery, you can potentially sue for reinstatement with back pay."
Much of this, though, still needs to be tested in courts. Lublin said that some of these cases are still working their way through the legal system and could be highly dependent on which industry is involved.
"It's going to be very industry-specific. In certain industries, such as health care, there's probably a far greater case to be made for mandatory vaccinations," he said. "But in other industries where you can have adequate social distancing and employees can work remotely or in a hybrid basis, it may be more difficult for employers to uphold hardcore mandatory vaccination policies."
American millionaire Jonathan Lehrer, one of two men charged in the killings of a Canadian couple in Dominica, has been denied bail.
Cabinet minister Dominic LeBlanc says he plans to run in the next election as a candidate under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's leadership, amid questions about his rumoured interest in succeeding his longtime friend for the top job.
A male columnist has apologized for a cringeworthy moment during former University of Iowa superstar and college basketball’s highest scorer Caitlin Clark’s first news conference as an Indiana Fever player.
Health Canada will change its longstanding policy restricting gay and bisexual men from donating to sperm banks in Canada, CTV News has learned. The federal health agency has adopted a revised directive removing the ban on gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men, effective May 8.
The United States has vetoed a widely backed UN resolution that would have paved the way for full United Nations membership for the state of Palestine.
Bayer announced Thursday it is recalling two lots of its hydraSense Baby Nasal Care Easydose due to a potential contamination.
Technology from the 19th century has been brought out of retirement at a Newfoundland gardening store, as staff look for all the help they can get to fill orders during a busy season.
Kevin the cat has been reunited with his family after enduring a harrowing three-day ordeal while lost at Toronto Pearson International Airport earlier this week.
A group of suspects that allegedly defrauded seniors across Ontario and other parts of Canada using a so-called emergency grandparent scam appear to have ties to 'Italian traditional organized crime,' according to an investigator involved in the OPP-led probe.
Kevin the cat has been reunited with his family after enduring a harrowing three-day ordeal while lost at Toronto Pearson International Airport earlier this week.
Molly Knight, a grade four student in Nova Scotia, noticed her school library did not have many books on female athletes, so she started her own book drive in hopes of changing that.
Almost 7,000 bars of pure gold were stolen from Pearson International Airport exactly one year ago during an elaborate heist, but so far only a tiny fraction of that stolen loot has been found.
When Les Robertson was walking home from the gym in North Vancouver's Lower Lonsdale neighbourhood three weeks ago, he did a double take. Standing near a burrow it had dug in a vacant lot near East 1st Street and St. Georges Avenue was a yellow-bellied marmot.
A moulting seal who was relocated after drawing daily crowds of onlookers in Greater Victoria has made a surprise return, after what officials described as an 'astonishing' six-day journey.
Just steps from Parliament Hill is a barber shop that for the last 100 years has catered to everyone from prime ministers to tourists.
A high score on a Foo Fighters pinball machine has Edmonton player Dave Formenti on a high.
A compound used to treat sour gas that's been linked to fertility issues in cattle has been found throughout groundwater in the Prairies, according to a new study.
While many people choose to keep their medical appointments private, four longtime friends decided to undergo vasectomies as a group in B.C.'s Lower Mainland.