One hour. One expert. Every week.
Canada’s employment law event is back — and this year, it fits your calendar instead of fighting it.
Workplace Law Talks returns in 2026 as a national virtual series: eight one-hour sessions, one per week, every Tuesday from Oct. 6 to Nov. 24. No travel. No half-day time blocks. Just 60 focused minutes over lunch (in the east) or a morning coffee (in the west) with the practitioners and experts shaping Canadian workplace law.
Each session pairs a leading voice in employment and labour law with a tight presentation-and-Q&A format. Bring your questions — the last 15 minutes belong to you.
Our 2026 Sponsors
Title Sponsor
Session Sponsors
Supporting Sponsor
Confirmed Speakers
Stuart Rudner
Rudner Law & Rudner ADR
Nathaniel Marshall
Marshall Workplace Law
Lai-King Hum
Hum Law Firm
Ori Schibi
PM Konnectors
Peter Vlaar
In Good Counsel
Isabelle Duclos
Littler LLP
Paul Pulver
Littler LLP
Matthew Badrov
Littler LLP
Sunira Chaudhri
Workly Law
Kelly VanBuskirk
VanBuskirk Law
One registration. Eight sessions. Every recording.
Register once and you’re in for the full series. Can’t make a session live? Every recording lands in your inbox, so you never miss a week.
Who should attend
- Employment and labour lawyers who need to stay current on the rulings that matter
- HR professionals and employee relations specialists handling terminations, accommodation and workplace investigations
- Employers and in-house counsel who want plain-language answers to complicated questions
- Most people can't attend every session live. And that's OK. Your all access pass includes unlimited on-demand viewing of the recordings for any dates you miss.
When
Tuesdays, Oct. 6 to Nov. 24, 2026, noon to 1 p.m. ET | 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. PT
Where
Online — join from anywhere in Canada or around the world.
Format
60 minutes: expert presentation, live Q&A. All sessions recorded.
Single Registration
Includes full access to the entire series of live webinars with unlimited access to recordings post-event for one person. Early bird pricing: $99 plus HST if you register by Oct. 1. (Regular rate: $295)
Team Registration
Includes full access to the entire series of live webinars with unlimited access to recordings post-event for up to 10 people. Early bird pricing: $299 plus HST if you register by Oct. 1. (Regular rate: $495)
Full Schedule
Speaker: Nathaniel Marshall
Oct. 6, 2026 | 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. ET | 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. PT
Navigating Complex Issues in Workplace Investigations
Investigations rarely stay simple. This session tackles scope creep when new allegations emerge mid-process, strategies for managing difficult or uncooperative parties, and how modern forms of discrimination are reshaping what investigators need to watch for. Attendees will leave with practical tools to keep investigations focused, fair, and defensible.
Speaker: Stuart Rudner
Oct. 13, 2026 | 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. ET | 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. PT
Dismissal in Focus: Termination Clauses, Just Cause, and the Post-Baker Landscape
Speaker: Lai-King Hum
Oct. 20, 2026 | 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. ET | 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. PT
Top Legal Issues Faced by HR – and What You Can Do
This session covers five areas causing employers the most trouble right now: termination clauses, where case law keeps narrowing what holds up in court; the duty to accommodate, still widely misunderstood; leaves of absence, where overlapping entitlements create real exposure; and recruitment and hiring compliance, where risk often starts before an offer letter goes out. It closes on coordinating compliance across provinces, with particular attention to Quebec, where language requirements, the Civil Code, and distinct employment standards mean a one-size-fits-all policy rarely survives contact with reality.
Speaker: Kelly VanBuskirk
Oct. 27, 2026 | 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. ET | 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. PT
Birdshots, Bullets, and Bombs: Should Canada Simplify the Workplace Claims Free-for-All?
In some Canadian jurisdictions, a single dismissal following an interpersonal conflict can trigger up to six separate legal claims — wrongful dismissal, a human rights complaint, workers’ compensation, OHSA retaliation, employment standards, and Employment Insurance. Kelly VanBuskirk poses the obvious question — is that reasonable? — then digs into what it means for employers navigating it in real time, including how employees deploy overlapping claims strategically. VanBuskirk also compares how the UK, New Zealand, and Canada’s unionized sector handle claim consolidation. Attendees leave understanding which conflicts spawn multiple claims, and how to anticipate and respond.
Speaker: Peter Vlaar
Nov. 3, 2026 | 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. ET | 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. PT
Workplace Accommodation: The Ultimate Test of Leadership
Everyone knows the duty to accommodate exists. So why does it remain so hard to get right? Peter Vlaar’s answer: it was never really a compliance checkbox — it’s a leadership test and a mirror of an organization’s health. This session examines the relationship between accommodation done well and the trust it builds, drawing on real-world examples and current case law. Attendees leave with the legal standard for good-faith accommodation, a practical framework for handling requests that arrive under suspicion, and a case for why treating accommodation as pure risk management tends to backfire.
Speaker: Matthew Badrov
Speaker: Isabelle Duclos
Speaker: Paul Pulver
Nov. 10, 2026 | 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. ET | 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. PT
Departures, Competition, and Confidential Information: Navigating Modern Employee Mobility
An employee’s departure doesn’t always end the relationship cleanly — sometimes it’s the start of a bigger problem, like a competitor hire or a new venture built on knowledge picked up on the job. Matthew Badrov looks at the toolkit available to employers when a departure turns competitive: restrictive covenants, confidentiality obligations, fiduciary duties, and urgent injunctive relief where needed. Drawing on recent case law, the session reviews how enforceable these clauses actually are in practice. Attendees leave with strategies for protecting customer relationships and confidential information, and for minimizing disruption when a high-risk departure hits.
Speaker: Ori Schibi
Nov. 17, 2026 | 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. ET | 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. PT
Who Decides When AI Is Involved?
AI initiatives rarely collapse because the technology fails — they stall because leadership doesn’t adapt fast enough as algorithms start influencing real decisions, and in that gap, authority blurs and trust erodes. Ori Schibi, drawing on 25 years of transformation and recovery work, examines the leadership and governance breakdowns behind stalled AI initiatives: why fear shows up before visible resistance, and why training alone rarely builds readiness. Participants leave with a practical lens for governing AI-enabled initiatives — defining decision rights, spotting early warning signs of eroding trust, and protecting judgment without slowing innovation.
Speaker: Sunira Chaudhri
Nov. 24, 2026 | 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. ET | 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. PT
Performance Management That Holds Up in Court
Most termination disputes are won or lost long before the termination meeting — in whether the performance management leading up to it can survive scrutiny. Courts want to see that expectations were communicated, concerns were documented as they happened, and employees got a genuine chance to improve. Sunira Chaudhri takes HR professionals through the full lifecycle of defensible performance management, from early warning signs to performance improvement plans to knowing when enough is enough. Attendees leave with concrete tools for building a record that holds up, and sharper instincts for the hard conversations along the way.
