Queen’s Centre for Law in the Contemporary Workplace (CLCW) hosted a symposium in 2015 to mark the 20th anniversary of Weber v Ontario Hydro, a landmark Supreme Court labour law ruling. The event also commemorated the late Professor Bernie Adell, Queen’s renowned labour and employment scholar. Now, Irwin Law has published the conference papers in a collection entitled One Law for All? Weber v Ontario Hydro and Canadian Labour Law. 

“The symposium brought together a remarkable mix of scholars (both Canadian and American) with an interesting range of perspectives on the Weber decision itself and on broader questions about labour and employment rights”, says Elizabeth Shilton, co-editor of the book (with Karen Schucher) and senior fellow at the CLCW. 

“Professor Bernie Adell was involved in the early planning of the symposium,” she continues. “After his unexpected death in 2014 we felt that publishing the essays in book form was an important memorial to his work.”

Describing the essays as “a significant contribution to Canadian labour law scholarship,” Shilton says that they provide helpful insights into the practical problems posed by Weber. Included are chapters about the case’s impact on access to justice, common law, statutory rights claims, industrial self-government and the timeliness of arbitration. “Because they also probe deeply into the theoretical foundations of Canadian labour law,” Shilton adds, “they reflect Bernie’s lifelong interest in the intersection of practical and theoretical labour law”.

The book is aimed at practitioners, academics and people who take a policy interest in labour and employment law issues, who will all find useful and thought-provoking essays contained within.

Read more about One Law for All? at Irwin Law’s website. 

By Anthony Pugh