Lunch & Learn: Canadian Employment Law Fundamentals
Whether you are hiring your first employee or scaling up a growing team, understanding the fundamentals of Canadian employment law is essential to building your business on solid legal footing. Join lawyers Logan Aitken (Associate, Employment & Labour) and Martin Smith (Associate, Emerging & High Growth Companies) from Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP, and Izzie O'Hara, founder of BLANKSLATE Partners and Hannah HR Technologies, for an engaging lunch and learn session designed to give a practical overview of the key legal considerations that arise as your workforce expands. This session will equip you with the foundational knowledge you need to stay compliant and avoid costly missteps.
In this session, we’ll cover the building blocks every employer needs to know, including the distinction between employees and independent contractors, minimum employment standards across Canadian jurisdictions, and how to structure employment agreements that protect your business from the outset. We’ll also touch on the essentials of workplace policies, human rights obligations, and what “reasonable notice” really means when it's time to part ways with an employee.
Speakers:
Martin Smith is a senior associate in Osler’s leading Emerging and High Growth Companies practice group. He acts as a trusted legal and strategic advisor to founders and technology companies throughout their full lifecycle, guiding them through start-up formation, financing, commercial arrangements, corporate governance and M&A. Martin also acts for the venture capital, growth equity, private equity and strategic investors who fund and acquire technology companies.
Logan Aitken is an employment and labour lawyer who has assisted clients in all manner of issues before courts, tribunals, and arbitrators. His practice includes employment standards, human rights, and wrongful dismissal claims, as well as labour grievances and union disputes.
Izzie O'Hara is the Founder of BLANKSLATE Partners and Hannah HR Technologies. With over 2 decades in HR and recruitment, she leads a team that works alongside growing businesses to solve complex people challenges—from hiring and investigations to building the foundational HR structures that support scale. BLANKSLATE is known for its practical, hands-on approach and deep experience supporting underrepresented and operationally complex industries. In parallel, Isabella is building Hannah HR Technologies, an AI-driven platform focused on simplifying HR compliance and employee communication, bringing modern, scalable HR support to small and mid-sized organizations.