Danielle Bisnar

First Year of Call
Ontario Bar, 2011

Areas of Practice
Aboriginal Law, Administrative Law, Employment Law, Human Rights, Labour Law

Description
Danielle practices in the areas of labour, administrative, human rights, Aboriginal, professional regulation and pay equity law. She has particular expertise in the health care, policing and public sectors. She has appeared before all levels of Court in Ontario and federally, and regularly litigates before provincial tribunals, including the Human Rights Tribunal, professional regulatory bodies, and labour arbitrators.

Danielle serves unions and other institutional clients through strategic research and advice, negotiation, and oral and written advocacy in a wide range of litigation and other contexts, including judicial reviews and appeals. Her labour law practice focuses on workplace human rights, disability benefits and accommodation, occupational health and safety, and grievance arbitration. In the health care sector, Danielle advises unions and associations on law reform, government relations and the legal landscape pertaining to all aspects of health care policy, regulation and funding, and represents individuals in professional regulatory matters.

Danielle has significant experience in human rights litigation in a variety of forums. Before the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario, Danielle has represented clients in claims of systemic gender discrimination and sexual harassment. Danielle was co-counsel to LEAF before the Federal Court of Appeal in Canada v. Johnstone, a leading case on family status discrimination. She was also co-counsel in a legal challenge to the Regulated Health Professions Act which resulted in negotiation of systemic changes to the manner in which nurses with disabilities are treated by their regulator. As an articling student, she was highly involved in McKinnon v. Ontario, a leading case on race discrimination and systemic remedies.

Danielle is regularly invited to present to academic and professional audiences in the areas of labour, human rights and health law.

Danielle holds a JD from Osgoode Hall Law School, where she received several academic awards including the Hallett Entrance Scholarship, which she maintained throughout law school based on her strong academic record. Prior to law school, Danielle earned graduate degrees in Social and Political Thought and in English Literature. She also worked with Canadian midwifery regulators to establish a bridging program to facilitate entry of internationally educated midwives into the profession.

Danielle’s commitment to law as a tool for achieving justice at work and advancing the aims of social movements flows from her experiences as a union member and feminist community organizer with Filipino migrant workers and their families.