WHAT WE DO
We Practice to Empower
We are pragmatic advocates practicing in the areas of workplace law, human rights, and civil litigation. We help employees, contractors, professionals, unions, not-for-profits, and businesses of all sizes assert their rights, resolve disputes, and navigate challenging transitions - particularly those related to their workplaces or ability to work. We are passionate advocates who care deeply about our clients and about access to justice. We appreciate that every client and problem is unique. We start by taking the time to understand your goals and arm you with the tools and information necessary to make the right decisions. We approach every client issue with skills, smarts, compassion, and creativity.
Employment law
We assist both provincially and federally regulated employees and employers navigate the full scope of workplace issues including employment contracts, investigations, discipline, terminations, wrongful or constructive dismissals, severance packages, non-compete and non-solicitation agreements, various protected leaves of absence, and human rights issues including discrimination, harassment, and accommodation.
We also assist employers in developing appropriate and legally mandated workplace policies and procedures. We advise on changes to and compliance with relevant employment legislation, including but not limited to the: Employment Standards Act, 2000, Occupational Health and Safety Act, and Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, 2005.
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Professional Regulation and Licensing
We advise and represent clients during their applications for licensing as well as throughout regulatory investigations and disciplinary matters before professional regulators of all kinds, including the:
Law Society of Ontario
Ontario College of Pharmacists
Royal College of Dental Surgeons of Ontario
College of Midwives of Ontario
College of Chiropractors of Ontario
College of Nurses of Ontario
College of Dietitians of Ontario
Ontario College of Teachers
Ontario College of Trades
Financial Services Commission of Ontario
Financial Services Tribunal
Immigration Consultants of Canada Regulatory Council
Human Rights
We are passionate about human rights and have extensive experience dealing with issues of discrimination, disability and family status accommodation, sexual harassment, and reprisal within workplaces. We also have experience litigating matters pertaining to discrimination in services, including the use of service animals and discrimination in insurance policies. We advise clients of their rights and/or obligations under Ontario’s Human Rights Code as well as the Canadian Human Rights Act and represent clients before the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal as well as before the Canadian Human Rights Commission or Tribunal.
Disability Benefits
Disability insurance provides an income supplement to individuals who have become disabled or seriously ill and who cannot work. Employees often have access to short or long-term disability (LTD) benefits through their group health benefits provided by their employer and workers who become totally disabled may also have access to Canada Pension Plan Disability Benefits. We bring compassion and experience to our work assisting individuals or unions whose members need to make an application for disability benefits, who have been denied disability benefits, or who have had their disability benefits terminated. We also occasionally represent employers who have been named as defendants in long-term disability benefit litigation.
Workplace Investigations
We assist employers in conducting appropriate workplace investigations in compliance with their legal obligations. Both Morgan and Cenobar have investigative and neutral experience, bringing compassion, fairness, and our deep experience in the areas of harassment and human rights to every investigation completed.
We also represent complainants and respondents named in workplace investigations, assisting them in understanding their rights and obligations throughout the investigation process, effectively advocate for themselves or on their behalf, and deal with any reprisals or discipline arising from the investigation.
Civil Litigation
In addition, our experience includes representing parties in actions and applications related to:
Breach of contract
Negligence
Partnership and shareholder disputes
Injunctions and other urgent motions
Defamation
Education law
Commercial Arbitration
We understand the benefits of alternative dispute resolution and regularly advise clients on the appropriateness of private commercial arbitration and other alternative dispute resolution processes. In addition to representing clients through the arbitration process, Cenobar offers Tribunal Counsel services to both domestic and international Arbitrators.
WHO WE ARE
cenobar@parkersim.com |416-207-9345
Cenobar Parker
Cenobar is known for her empathetic, balanced, and practical approach to assisting clients navigate sensitive and complex legal issues. She has a broad range of experience that makes her particularly insightful to individual as well as business needs. Her practice includes civil litigation, commercial arbitration, and administrative law, with a focus on providing advice to and representing employees, executives, and employers on issues of contract interpretation, severance packages, workplace discipline, professional regulation and discipline, and complicated human rights issues including workplace sexual assault and harassment, and disability accommodation. Over her years of practice, Cenobar has developed a proficiency and a passion for serving clients who have experienced discrimination in the workplace.
Cenobar has represented clients before all levels of Ontario Courts, the Tax Court, the Federal Court, and Federal Court of Appeal, as well as before administrative tribunals and numerous professional regulatory bodies.
Prior to founding Parker Sim LLP, Cenobar practiced law for a decade, representing the CRA, as General Counsel for a premier legal services company, and as a senior lawyer at a leading litigation boutique firm. She can assist clients in both English and in French.
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Cenobar brings a unique insight to resolving her clients’ legal problems, having worked extensively with neutrals and now developed her own neutral practice.
Cenobar has worked closely with judges from the outset of her career and continues to act as Tribunal Counsel for a number of significant domestic and international commercial arbitration proceedings. As Tribunal Counsel, Cenobar works closely with highly respected arbitrators, including top litigators and former justices of the Ontario Court of Appeal.
Cenobar also offers services as an arbitrator, mediator, and workplace investigator, and along with Morgan, is currently retained to act as Integrity Commissioner for the Peel District School Board and has previously acted as Safe Sport Officer for a national sports organization.
In her approach as a neutral, Cenobar applies her extensive professional experience, including her work with parties who have experienced a variety of traumas, to appropriately manage processes and carry-out her neutral work in a trauma informed, equity-based, and anti-oppressive manner.
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Cenobar is deeply committed to community service and mentorship within the legal community. Cenobar offers her time and support for colleagues at all stages of their career and routinely provides mentorship to junior lawyers and law students. She has volunteered with the Ontario Justice Education Network and has encouraged the whole firm to volunteer on a regular basis with Pro Bono Ontario’s Hotline, which provides Ontarians who cannot afford a lawyer with free legal advice.
For over seven years Cenobar has served as a Board Member with a community legal services clinic. Since April 2019 she is the Vice-Chair of the Board of Directors for the Don Valley Community Legal Services, a large community legal clinic, serving one of the most ethnically diverse and economically impoverished areas in Toronto.
Cenobar regularly presents at Continuing Professional Development events and is a member of the Association of Human Rights Lawyers as well as the Ontario Bar Association where she sits on the Executive of the Employment Law Section.
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Cenobar obtained her J.D. from Osgoode Hall at York University and has an LL.M. from New York University in International Law.
In 2019, she successfully completed the Toronto Commercial Arbitration Society, Gold Standard Course.
morgan@parkersim.com |416-962-1048
Morgan Sim
Morgan brings compassion and creative pragmatism to her work assisting clients with difficult and often sensitive legal issues. Her practice includes civil litigation and administrative law, with an emphasis on matters that arise in the workplace. She routinely provides advice and representation on matters involving employment contracts, severance packages, wrongful dismissals, professional licensing and discipline, disability benefits and accommodation, complex human rights issues, and workplace sexual harassment and assault. She has developed a particular expertise and interest in advising individuals who have experienced discrimination in their workplaces and workers who have had their long-term disability benefits claim denied or terminated. Elle est heureuse de conseiller ses clients en français ou en anglais.
Prior to founding Parker Sim LLP, Morgan worked at two of Toronto’s leading litigation boutique firms. Morgan has worked on cases before all levels of court in Ontario as well as numerous administrative tribunals and professional regulators. She has also had the privilege of assisting with landmark cases before the Supreme Court of Canada, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, and the High Court of Kenya.
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Morgan provides representation and advice to employees, executives, employers, trade unions, and their members, and has gained useful insights through her experience working on all sides of issues that arise in the workplace. She and Cenobar are also regularly retained as workplace investigators and, together, they act as the Integrity Commissioner for Peel District School Board and have previously acted as the Safe Sports Officer for a national sports organization.
Having worked extensively with complainants and survivors, Morgan understands the psychology of harassment and the impact of trauma. She brings these insights to her neutral and investigative work, where she works to adapt processes to the needs of all parties and is committed to carrying out the work through a trauma-informed and anti-oppressive lens.
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Morgan knows that advancing justice requires work outside the justice system and she is committed to community service. She is a member of the Board of Directors for The Equality Effect, a network of leading feminist advocates from Canada, Ghana, Malawi, and Kenya who develop creative legal solutions to address the inequality of women and girls. During her more than ten years working with The Equality Effect, Morgan helped to prepare the successful ‘160 Girls’ test-case litigation and has drafted public legal education campaigns on the criminalization of marital rape. She represented The Equality Effect at the World Justice Forum in the Hague when it received the 2019 World Justice Project Access to Justice Award. Morgan also volunteers her time with organizations promoting access to justice and services closer to home like Pro Bono Law Ontario and the East Scarborough Storefront.
Morgan loves staying actively involved in the legal community and she regularly provides mentorship to junior lawyers and law students. She is a frequent speaker or panelist at continuing education events and a member of the Faculty for the Osgoode Human Rights Theory & Practice Certificate Program. She is a member of the Association of Human Rights Lawyers, the Advocates’ Society, as well as the Ontario Bar Association, where she sits on the Executive of the Constitutional, Civil Liberties, and Human Rights Law section.
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Morgan is a graduate of the University of Toronto’s joint Juris Doctor and Masters in International Relations program. She also holds a B.A. (Hons.) summa cum laude in Political Science and Theatre Arts from the University of Arizona.
As a law student, Morgan was a leading member of the International Human Rights Program (IHRP) and she volunteered her time for many years organizing events and supporting student initiatives as co-chair of the IHRP Alumni Network’s Steering Committee.
Jonas Granofsky
Jonas is known for his dedicated and thoughtful approach to solving complex legal disputes. Jonas provides advice and representation on a wide range of subject matters, but routinely advises and represents clients on issues of employment contract interpretation, wrongful dismissal, human rights, breach of contract, professional regulation, partnership disputes, and insurance litigation. Jonas also maintains a busy practice in defamation law, assisting clients who have experienced defamation inside and outside of the workplace.
Jonas has appeared before the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, the Ontario Court of Appeal, and numerous administrative tribunals.
Prior to joining Parker Sim LLP, Jonas practiced for over five years as a lawyer at a leading litigation boutique firm.
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Jonas routinely provides mentorship to junior lawyers, and has been an active volunteer with Pro Bono Ontario. He regularly prepares resources for Continuing Professional Development events and has participated as a panelist at Osgoode Professional Development’s Next Step: Succeeding in Today’s Legal Market.
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Jonas obtained his J.D. from New York Law School, and has a Master’s degree, Arts from York University. He is a member of the Ontario Bar Association, the New York State Bar Association, and the Association of Human Rights Lawyers.
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Jonas has achieved great success for his clients, and some of his notable accomplishments include:
Andros v Colliers Macaulay Nicolls Inc, 2018 ONSC 1256 aff’d in part 2019 ONCA 679 - Co-counsel for the Plaintiff in a wrongful dismissal matter in which the Court of Appeal upheld the Ontario Superior Court’s decision that the employer’s termination clause was unenforceable, and that the employee was entitled to a more generous severance package and bonus. The Court of Appeal also granted a cross-appeal agreeing that the employee was entitled to compensation in lieu of benefits over the reasonable notice period.
Emeny v Tomaszewski, 2019 ONSC 3298 - Lead counsel for the Plaintiff in a defamation matter in which Justice Sossin awarded the Plaintiff $450,000 in total damages, a permanent injunction against the Defendant, and costs for the Plaintiff on a substantial indemnity basis.
Henry v Waterloo (Regional Municipality), 2019 HRTO 517 – Successfully argued against the Respondent’s motion for early dismissal of the Application.
Anaar Merali v Designs G7 Inc G7 Designs, 2018 CanLII 98985 (ON LRB) - Successfully represented the Respondent on an application for review before the Ontario Labour Relations Board.
Toronto Standard Condominium Corporation 1547 ats Latif (unpublished) - Successfully represented the Defendant condominium corporation as lead counsel in Small Claims Court.
Toni-Ann Francis
Toni-Ann is Parker Sim LLP’s Office Administrator and Legal Assistant. She is integral to the successful operation of the Firm and is a key contact for all of our clients. Toni-Ann is a licensed paralegal with the Law Society of Ontario and in addition to managing the day-to-day operations, she works closely with all of our lawyers to provide efficient and cost-effective legal services to our clients.
Prior to working with Parker Sim LLP, Toni-Ann worked at a criminal law firm.
Working with the disenfranchised stimulated Toni-Ann’s interest in promoting access to justice, and she has transferred this passion and commitment to Parker Sim LLP where she has become essential to providing creative and accessible solutions for all clients.
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Toni-Ann is an active member of The Law Office Management Association and The Black Legal Action Centre. She also volunteers with MLK Ski Weekend which is an Urban Professional ski event dedicated to the legacy of Civil Rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King.
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After completing her diploma in Paralegal Studies at Algonquin College, Toni-Ann most recently received her Honours Bachelor of Science in Criminology and Psychology from The University of Toronto.
CONTACT INFORMATION
25 Adelaide Street East, Suite 1040, Toronto, Ontario, M5C 3A1
General: 416-508-5614
Direct: cenobar@parkersim.com | 416-207-9345
Direct: morgan@parkersim.com | 416-962-1048
Note that contact through the website does not result in a lawyer-client relationship. You will not be considered a client of the firm until an agreement has been reached in writing, in accordance with our usual policies. Please do not provide confidential information or forward any documents to us. Contact through the website is for informational purposes only.