Glossary

In Family Law, Tribunals and Courts

A settlement conference is a meeting between a judge, the parties, and their lawyers if they have any. The purposes of a settlement conference include:

• talking about ways to solve those issues without going to a trial
• if possible, obtaining the judge’s view of how the court might decide the case
• thinking about any matter that may help solve the case

In Employment and Work

Severance pay is not the same as termination pay or pay in lieu of notice. The Employment Standards Act gives some people the right to severance pay when they lose their jobs.

You get severance pay only if you’ve worked at least 5 years for your employer and:

• your employer pays wages of at least $2.5 million a year, or
• at least 50 people will be losing their jobs within a 6-month period because the business is being cut back.

The basic rule is that severance pay is one week’s pay for each year you’ve worked for your employer, up to 26 weeks.

In Migrant workers

If you’re a temporary foreign worker in Canada, sexual abuse means that your employer does things like:

• force you, with or without a weapon, into sexual acts that you do not want
• use physical force or threaten you so you’ll have sex with them
• force you to have sex with other people who you do not want to have sex with
• force you to have sex when you’re not able to give consent because of an illness or disability, or because you’re under the influence or alcohol or drugs

In Criminal Law

This is a criminal offence. A sexual assault is an assault of a sexual nature and includes all incidents of unwanted sexual activity, including touching, kissing, and sexual intercourse. The victim of a sexual assault can be male or female. The spouse of a victim can be charged with sexual assault. Factors considered in establishing a sexual assault are:

• the part of the body touched
• the nature of the contact
• the situation in which the contact occurred
• all the circumstances surrounding the act
• any threats or force used

In Family Law

Shared care, also called shared custody, is when children live at least 40% of the time with each parent. Shared custody may affect how much child support is paid.

In Income Assistance, Child tax benefits

Shared custody is when you and your former spouse or partner spend close to equal time with your child. The Canada Revenue Agency looks at whether parents share custody when deciding if Canada child benefit payments should be split between the two parents.

Shared custody is different than what’s called “joint custody” in family law.

In Family Law

Shared custody, also called shared care, is when children live at least 40% of the time with each parent. Shared custody may affect how much child support is paid.

In Family Law

Shared parenting time is when children live at least 40% of the time with each parent. It used to be called shared care or shared custody. Shared parenting time may affect how much child support is paid.

In Housing Law

The Sheriff is a government official who enforces or carries out certain kinds of orders made by courts and tribunals. After the Landlord and Tenant Board makes an order to evict a tenant, the Sheriff can make the tenant leave. The law does not let the landlord, private bailiffs, security guards, or police do this. But the Sheriff can ask the police for help if the Sheriff thinks there might be violence.

In Tribunals and Courts

A Sheriff’s Demand is when an enforcement officer requests money from the court clerk in order to give it to the creditor.