LANCASTER: Labour Law alerts

Supreme Court denies leave to appeal ruling allowing forced retirement of Air Canada pilots In a decision that ends a grueling almost-seven-year legal saga, the Supreme Court of Canada denied leave to appeal a ruling by the Federal Court of Appeal that a discriminatory provision of the Canadian Human Rights Act (CHRA) allowing mandatory retirement was saved by s.1 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms as demonstrably justified in a free and democratic society, with the result that Air Canada did not breach the Charter rights of some 200 pilots by forcing them to retire at age 60. Read full report Supreme Court refuses to review ruling that a deceased employee's separated wife, who is designated as a beneficiary, not his common law spouse, is entitled to his pension plan death benefit In a move that surprised many pension experts, the Supreme Court of Canada denied leave to appeal a ruling by the Ontario Court of Appeal that, following the pre-retirement death of a pension plan member, it was his wife – from whom he had long been separated but whom he had designated as the beneficiary of a death benefit under his pension plan – who was entitled to the benefit, rather than the common-law spouse with whom he had been living. Read full report Labour boards are not protected by constitutional guarantee of judicial independence, Sask appeal court rules The Saskatchewan Court of Appeal dismissed, for the second time, an appeal by the Saskatchewan Federation of Labour and several unions relating to the firing of provincial Labour Relations Board adjudicators. Ruling that the Board does not attract constitutional guarantees of judicial independence, the Court held that a statutory provision that enabled the newly elected provincial government of Premier Brad Wall to fire the chair and two vice-chairs of the Board in 2008 was not unconstitutional. Read full report