COVID-19 and Reasonable Notice Calculations – The State of Affairs at the End of May 2021

It is the end of May 2021. The COVID-19 pandemic has been a reality for approximately 15 months in Ontario. The legal system has changed in ways seemingly unimaginable at the end of 2019: Appearances for scheduling matters by video rather than in-person attendance? Remote commissioning of affidavits? Full blown hearings by video conference? Service of documents by email rather than the beloved fax?! The procedural elements of the legal landscape of 2021 are practically unrecognizable from what it was a year and a half ago.

So what of the substantive law of wrongful dismissal and the calculation of reasonable notice?

Since the pandemic was declared, plaintiffs’ counsel has advanced the position that the disruption associated with same means an automatic extension of the reasonable notice period due to dismissed employees. But has the judiciary agreed?

ONCA Upholds Termination for Just Cause of Fiduciary

“A fiduciary who knows about wrongdoing committed against the beneficiary has a duty to tell the beneficiary.” That important lesson was the key takeaway from a decision of the Court of Appeal for Ontario upholding a termination of employment for just cause: Dunsmuir v. Royal Group, Inc., 2018 ONCA 773 (CanLII)