The Canadian labour and employment law landscape continued to evolve in 2025 with important developments in wrongful dismissal litigation and human rights. In addition, Canadian legislators introduced new laws intended to provide greater pay transparency for Canadian workers.
Together with our and our recent webinar Dentons - Legal updates for Canadian employers: Stay ahead of workplace trends in 2026, this insight summarizes the legal developments that mattered most for Canadian workplaces in 2025.
As we noted in our summer case law update, Ontario remained the key battleground for employers and employees fighting over the enforceability of contractual termination provisions. In Baker v. Van Dolder’s Home Team Inc.,1 the Ontario Superior Court of Justice held that the employer’s termination provision which purported to allow the employer to terminate the employee’s employment without cause “at any time” was unenforceable. In so doing, Justice Sproat noted that he was bound to follow the Court’s precedent in Dufault v. The Corporation of the Township of Ignace2 which had invalidated a similar termination provision on the basis that Ontario’s employment standards laws do not actually permit an employer to terminate an employee’s employment “at any time” (e.g., employees are protected from dismissal due to reprisal and upon their reinstatement from a...
Politico reported Tuesday that Tricia McLaughlin, a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spokesperson who frequently made false statements about violent incidents involving federal immigration of...