Google Canada claims pregnancy is not a protected ground under Ontario's human rights code in defence of lawsuit
Article content
Sarah Lilleyman filed a statement of claim in Toronto's Superior Court of Justice last year claiming wrongful dismissal and a breach of the Ontario Human Rights Code because of 'pregnancy discrimination,' as previously reported by National Post.
Article content
Article content
Google Canada, headquartered in Toronto, filed a statement of defence in court as part of the legal process for adjudicating the claim. In it, Google, a leading provider of online search services and internet-related products, denies discrimination and wrongful dismissal.
Article content
Article content
Google says Lilleyman worked for the company from October 2021 'until her employment was terminated on March 22, 2024, as part of a workforce reduction.' She worked as an editor, responsible for user growth through writing, editing, and publishing content.
Article content
'In January 2024, due to changing business needs, Google Canada was forced to implement significant workforce reductions across various locations and divisions. Lilleyman's role was among those impacted by this workforce reduction in Canada.' She was given two months' notice.
Article content
'Google Canada denies it discriminated against Lilleyman in her employment or on termination on the basis of sex, gender, or any other protected ground under the Ontario Human Rights Code,' Google says in its statement of defence.
Article content
Article content
Lilleyman's job, 'along with many other positions,' was eliminated in a company-wide reduction and her pregnancy or leave were not factors.
Article content
Article content
The Google statement then continues: 'Moreover, Google Canada states that Lilleyman's allegations, even if true (which are expressly denied), do not amount to a violation of the Code…
Article content
'First, 'pregnancy' is not a protected ground under the Code.'
Article content
'The Code protects a woman because she is or was pregnant, may become pregnant, has just had a baby or other pregnancy-related situations. Pregnancy includes the process of having a baby from conception up to the period following childbirth. It also includes the post-delivery period and breastfeeding,' the tribunal says in an information package on the human rights code's application.
Article content
'It is contrary to the Code to fire you, demote you or lay you off (even with notice) because you are or may become pregnant. If you are or may become pregnant, you have the right to keep your job and not to be passed over for benefits and opportunities.'
Article content
Veronica Spada, a spokeswoman with the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal, a body that adjudicates discrimination complaints about the code, said she cannot comment on specific complaints but confirmed the province's human rights code prohibits discrimination and harassment on several grounds, among them sex, 'including sexual harassment and pregnancy.'
Article content
Google officials declined to discuss specifics of the case.
Article content
'We cannot comment on active litigation; our position is outlined in the documents filed with the court,' a spokesperson said.
Article content
Lilleyman's lawyer, Kathryn Marshall, said Google made the statement in their public court filing and have not recanted or amended it since.
Article content
'This is their legal position and they are standing behind it despite the fact that it is contrary to the human rights code,' Marshall said.
Article content
'I believe that Google is trying to import American law into Canada and is willfully ignoring Canadian human rights law that protects women from pregnancy discrimination.'
Article content
Daniel Del Gobbo, an assistant law professor and chair of the Law, Gender, and Sexual Justice program at the University of Windsor, said Google is wrong in its interpretation of the Ontario Human Rights Code.
Article content
'Pregnancy in the workplace is a fundamental issue of gender equality in Canada. Individuals should not suffer negative consequences because they were, are, or may become pregnant. And individuals should not suffer negative consequences because they plan to take or have taken maternity or parental leave. Human rights law is clear on these points,' Del Gobbo told National Post.
Article content
'An employer cannot consider the factor that the employee is pregnant and/or planning a maternity or parental leave when deciding whether to terminate the person's employment,' he said.
Article content
Lilleyman, of Trent Hills, between Kingston and Oshawa, moved to Google from a job at Shopify after a career in news media, including at the Winnipeg Free Press and as an editor at Toronto's Globe and Mail.
Article content
In her lawsuit, she asks for damages for lost compensation and benefits, as well as $250,000 in punitive damages and $150,000 for alleged breaches of the Ontario Human Rights Code. Google said she earned an annual base salary of $181,980 plus a discretionary 20-per-cent bonus, a benefits package, and Google stock eligibility.
Article content
'The Plaintiff was terminated by Google shortly after she disclosed her pregnancy and her intention to take an 18-month maternity leave and her need for medical accommodations. At the time that the Plaintiff was terminated, she was in the second trimester of her pregnancy,' her claim says.
Article content
She claims a Google human resources representative told her she 'should conceal her pregnancy when seeking new jobs during the working notice period,' the claim alleges.
Article content
Google denies that any Google human resources representative made such a statement and challenged Lilleyman to prove it.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Winnipeg Free Press
20 minutes ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Vancouver home sales tick 2% lower in July with market ‘turning a corner': board
VANCOUVER – Vancouver-area home sales were down two per cent in July compared with last year, as the city's real estate board says it continues to believe the market is showing early signs of recovery. Greater Vancouver Realtors says residential sales in the region totalled 2,286 last month, down from the 2,333 sales recorded in July 2024 and 13.9 per cent below the 10-year seasonal average. The board's director of economics and data analytics Andrew Lis says the figures confirm that the market has turned a corner after months of slow activity spurred by the Canada-U.S. trade war. Year-over-year sales were down around 10 per cent in June, roughly half of the decline recorded in May. There were 5,642 newly listed properties on the market in July, a 0.8 per cent increase from last year, as total active listings rose 19.8 per cent year-over-year to 17,168. Monday Mornings The latest local business news and a lookahead to the coming week. The composite benchmark price in July was $1,165,300, down 2.7 per cent from a year earlier and 0.7 per cent lower than June. This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 5, 2025.
CTV News
20 minutes ago
- CTV News
Northern Ont. man denied Canadian residency because he worked for Ukrainian secret police
While denying him permanent residency, immigration officials said there 'is no evidence that Oleksandr Zahrebelnyi personally engaged in acts of subversion.' (File) A man who came from Ukraine to North Bay, Ont., in 2017 has been denied permanent residency in Canada because he was a former member of the Ukrainian Secret Service, known as the SBU. Oleksandr Zahrebelnyi was open about his role with the SBU when he applied for permanent residency, the Federal Court said in a decision dated July 29. Zahrebelnyi left the SBU and opened a meat processing plant in Ukraine in 2016. 'As conditions in Ukraine deteriorated, he opened a meat processing plant in North Bay … with two business partners and obtained a Canadian work permit in the entrepreneur/self-employed category,' said the court's decision. 'His spouse and three children eventually joined him in Canada.' 'The officer who refused his application acknowledged at several points in the decision that there is no evidence that (Zahrebelnyi) personally engaged in acts of subversion or had any knowledge of such acts perpetrated by the SBU.' — Federal Court decision The Federal Court ruling made it clear that Zahrebelnyi 'is not alleged to carry personal responsibility for committing acts of subversion or any other bases for inadmissibility to Canada.' 'His inadmissibility results from his admitted service and employment with the … SBU between 1998 and 2011,' the decision said. 'The officer who refused his application acknowledged at several points in the decision that there is no evidence that (Zahrebelnyi) personally engaged in acts of subversion or had any knowledge of such acts perpetrated by the SBU.' In a statement to CTV News, Zahrebelnyi said the decision to reject his application was 'unfair and unjustified.' 'It is very difficult to maintain and make any strategic decisions for the business, when the life of my family is in 'limbo,'' he said in an email. His business was thriving Zahrebelnyi employed 20 people at Canada Meat Group in North Bay, and had plans to hire as many as 150 people in an expanded operation, as reported by CTV News in 2022. But those plans were shelved in 2024. The decision to deny him permanent residency in Canada on humanitarian and compassionate grounds under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act was made on April 10, 2024. The immigration official denied his application on the basis that Zahrebelnyi had been a member of the SBU, which had been 'engaging in an act of subversion against a democratic government, institution or process as they are understood in Canada.' He appealed that decision and said that the denial had a major negative impact on his family and his business. The appeal said the official misinterpreted the meaning of 'subversion' and the more than four years it took to make a decision was an abuse of process. However, the immigration official handling the case ruled that membership in an organization 'that has engaged in subversion against a democratic government, institution or process' was sufficient grounds to deny the application. 'Subversive' actions 'After a detailed analysis, the officer concluded that the SBU was engaged in political repression, obstruction of the media, and election fraud throughout the period of (Zahrebelnyi's) involvement with the SBU,' the court decision said. A central issue of the appeal was the interpretation of the word 'subversive.' The immigration officer interpreted the word as including actions to maintain the status quo in Ukraine, as opposed to actions that accomplish change. The goal of the law is 'the protection of Canadian democracy through the denial of admission to those who have posed a threat anywhere to democratic governments, institutions or processes as they are understood in Canada,' the court said. 'This goal is served by including organizations which may not be internally democratic but are democratic in function, as understood in Canada.' Those organizations include the free media, the electoral process and opposition parties. The intent of the SBU was, in part, to actively repress these groups. The immigration officer provided internet links that showed the SBU 'illegally surveilled and interfered with Ukrainian parliamentarians in the early 2000s.' Other links showed that agents were hired to collect information on investigative journalists 'that threatened the interest of the political and economic elites.' The appeal also argued that the length it took to get a decision was unreasonable -- more than four years after Zahrebelnyi made the application in 2020 -- and amounted to an abuse of process. But the Federal Court ruled that there was 'insufficient evidence that it was characterized by the disruption to family life, loss of work, business opportunities or severe psychological harm that would amount to an abuse of process.' 'In the present case, while there is evidence of anxiety caused by the delay, the other consequences are the result of the unfavourable result of the investigation into the principal applicant's inadmissibility rather than the delay itself,' the decision said. Read the full decision here.
CBC
21 minutes ago
- CBC
Province cuts ties with embattled Nova Scotia Firefighters School
The province says it is ending its relationship with the embattled Nova Scotia Firefighters School following an audit that found serious safety and policy gaps. The provincial government's comprehensive value-for-money audit of the school was commissioned in June to help ensure the safety of students and staff and stemmed from the death of Skyler Blackie, who was killed during a training exercise in 2019. In a news release Tuesday, the province's Emergency Management Department said the review found a number of issues, including a breakdown in safety accountability, lack of stakeholder engagement, systemic and governance issues and inadequate governance and oversight of the executive director. The audit noted the public's trust in the facility has eroded and firefighters have lost confidence in it. As well, it revealed a failure to uphold a culture of safety. There were "serious, unaddressed safety-related deficiencies; a lack of strategic planning; and a decline in infrastructure," the release said. "The results are clear, and they are appalling. We are ending our relationship with the school and will set up an interim training plan for firefighters right away," Minister of Emergency Management Kim Masland said in the statement. "Our firefighters respond when other people's lives are on the line. They need and deserve, at minimum, a safe place to train. We're going to ensure they have one." The province had been providing funding to the school through an annual grant of $190,000, which was suspended in 2024, and through vehicle insurance levy funds totalling roughly $400,000 annually, according to Deputy Minister of Emergency Management Sandra McKenzie. The province issued a stop-work order last August, which was lifted the following month, but the school then shut down once again in June while the review was taking place. The release said a steering committee for firefighter training will be established in the coming weeks to oversee an interim training plan and to guide the work on a long-term, comprehensive training model for firefighters once the results of a broader fire services review are in. The goal is to have the interim training available by fall. The broader fire services governance review is a separate review being led by the Fire Service Association of Nova Scotia and focusing on governance, operations, communications, funding and more. More than 680 firefighters from across the province participated in the value-for-money audit — which was conducted by 21FSP Advisory Inc. for $300,000 — along with 52 fire service leaders and eight members of the board of directors of the Nova Scotia Firefighters School. The school did not immediately return a request for comment Tuesday. It has been under the microscope since Blackie, a full-time firefighter with the Truro Fire Service, died in March 2019 after the expired fire extinguisher he was using exploded during a certification exam. A court case resulted in the school admitting in 2022 that it failed to perform routine inspections and keep adequate records. The Blackie family learned last year that the training facility received 41 new safety recommendations as a result of a third-party review. Nova Scotia's Labour Department said 22 "high-risk activities" were noted by Occupation Health and Safety officers in July 2024. In the statement, the Blackies said the results of the audit were painful to read, "but they reflect what we have known all along: the Nova Scotia Firefighters School is not safe." "We are heartbroken that it took such a loss to bring this truth to light, but we are incredibly grateful to the Government of Nova Scotia for listening, for taking our concerns seriously, and for taking action," it reads. The school is a non-profit with executive director John Cunningham at the head. Cunningham sits on the board that runs the school, alongside the provincial fire marshal, Doug MacKenzie, and fire service members from across Nova Scotia. Cunningham has previously rejected calls for his resignation. The release said there has been no substantive change in the Nova Scotia Firefighters School board structure or governance in more than 20 years.
