THE CANADIAN EMPLOYEE COMPETITION BLOG

Skycope Technologies Inc. v. Jia, 2023 BCSC 1288 The law provides for a broad range of remedies to address breach of confidence. In a recent decision where the plaintiff had not established any financial loss, the B.C. Supreme Court opted for disgorgement of a large sale by the defendants as…

Several recent decisions are of interest to those advising on, and litigating, employee competition cases. First, the Alberta privacy commissioner finds that employers, in some circumstances, may disclose their former employees’ restrictive covenants to third parties. Two Alberta Courts provide analysis on assessing damages in successful actions for unlawful competition.…

Capital Direct Lending Corp. v. Blanchette, 2019 BCSC 1068; Brian L. Leipert Financial Services Ltd. v. Reiter, 2019 SKQB 310 Courts in BC and Saskatchewan come to opposite conclusions on whether the strong prima facie case threshold is applicable to establishing breach of fiduciary duty in claims for injunctive relief to prevent solicitation…

Genesis Fertility Centre Inc. v. Yuzpe, 2019 BCSC 233 A decision of the British Columbia Supreme Court rejects a claim for disgorgement of profits, even though the Defendants committed breaches of fiduciary duty and confidence. The decision is a reminder that, in employee competition cases, the courts will be mindful…

Telus Communications Inc. v. Golberg, 2018 BCSC 1825 A battle between corporate titans Telus Communications and Rogers Media highlights the danger of “overzealous drafting” of restrictive covenants, which enabled a former Telus executive to compete against his former employer. At the same time, the Supreme Court of British Columbia rebukes…

Jetco Heavy Duty Lighting v. Fonteyne, 2018 ABQB 345 The Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench cautions against conflating a valuable employee with a fiduciary employee, given the onerous obligations placed on fiduciaries. The decision underscores the importance of securing a reasonable restrictive covenant if an employer wishes to protect its…