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40 N O V E M B E R / D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 7 w w w . C A N A D I A N L a w y e r m a g . c o m change to the legislation. That's a differ- ent piece of Bill 132 that gets lost." Though it's a small piece of the bill, and not what would generally be con- sidered a workplace issue as it would be a civil action, French says it can't hurt for employers to be prepared. "You can have an employee who files a claim years later and if you haven't done a good, sustainable investiga- tion, the evidence might not be there to defend it down the road when your physical witnesses aren't available to you." Tracey Epp, partner at Pitblado LLP in Winnipeg, says Manitoba has had no change so far to its legislation with respect to the limitation period — the province is still at two years. Any change would require attention being brought to the issue, whether from media, pressure from activist groups or even from the bar asso- ciation or the law society. Bill 132 came about in the wake of the case of former CBC radio broadcaster Jian Ghomeshi and the firestorm of media attention that surrounded the allega- tions of workplace sexual harassment and assault against him and the consequently highly publicized trial. He was eventually acquitted of criminal charges in March 2016. "It was the post-Ghomeshi world . . . I think it was really political in terms of the Workplace Action Plan," says French, add- ing that the changes reflect what was hap- pening in the political sphere as opposed to what were blatant issues needing cor- rection in the workplace. "Putting sexual harassment under [the OHSA] umbrella certainly prioritizes it relative to the Ontario Human Rights Code," she notes. "Do I think it was nec- essary? No. But does it create enhanced protections, obligations and liability? Absolutely." Harassment is harassment, whether it's sexual or not, French says, adding that all Ontario did was change the definition of harassment to expressly call out sexual harassment — but it was already covered. As to the question of other provinces going as far as Ontario with amendments to their respective occupational health and safety legislation, French says, if you get the right political platform, "people can be told protections aren't there that are in fact already there and it can become an action item. It depends on how hot the topic gets again." Manitoba's Workplace Safety and Health Act has had a very broad defin- ition of harassment and violence and has required employers to have a policy and a procedure in place in order to deal with those situations for a number of years, says Epp. Prior to that, sexual harassment had fallen under the Manitoba Human Rights Code — similar to Ontario — but the code has a very narrow definition. "They wanted to broaden the protec- tions and the prohibitions in a much more efficient way of enforcing it," Epp says. "Under our workplace safety and health legislation, if a complaint is filed, it's a lot faster to send in a workplace safety and health officer . . . and they have very broad powers in terms of their ability to issue stop work orders or improvement orders." However, it doesn't have anything that goes as far as Bill 132's authority to appoint Expert Insight on Alberta Court Rules and Procedures Available risk-free for 30 days Order online: www.carswell.com Call Toll-Free: 1-800-387-5164 | In Toronto: 416-609-3800 Order # 987890BE-65203 $227 2 volume softcover + CD-ROM + ProView eBook approx. 2020 pages (Volume 1) approx. 540 pages (Volume 2) August 2017 L7798-7890BE 1 supplement per year $20-$25 per supplement Supplements invoiced separately Annual volumes supplied on standing order subscription Practice Advisor available upon request on standing order subscription Multiple copy discounts available eBook only A04194-18ON-65203 $189 Print only 987890-65203 $189 Shipping and handling are extra. Price(s) subject to change without notice and subject to applicable taxes. Now available as a Thomson Reuters ProView® eBook New in this edition • Alberta Rules of Court, A.R. 390/68 updated to A.R. 85/2016 • Addition of Court of Queen's Bench for Alberta Summary Conviction Appeal Rules, SI/2012-39 • New and updated Practice Notes, Notices to the Profession, Practice Directions, and Practice Directives • Updated commentary and case law including: – Starratt v. Mamdani – Gemba Fund One LLC v. Tolosa Development Corp. – Chisholm v. Lindsay – McDonald v. Brookfield Asset Management Inc. – Mikkelsen v. Truman Development Corp. – T. (R.) v. L. (T.) – Jordan v. De Wet – Tole v. Lucki (Guardian ad litem of) – Rensonnet v. Uttl – Hok v. Grand Prairie's Crown Prosecutors Office Access Alberta Rules of Court Annotated in the office, on the move, at meetings, or in court This publication is available as an eBook* on Thomson Reuters ProView®, which features the most distinguished and respected authors from across Canada. 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