The CPIO and Bernardi HR Law proudly present:
CPIO - Workplace Investigations – 2-Day Virtual Course
Course Overview
This intensive two-day virtual course equips participants with the skills and knowledge required to conduct fair, unbiased, and legally sound workplace investigations. Ideal for private investigators, and professionals seeking to expand their expertise in this field.
Foundational Concepts and the Context of Workplace Investigations
- Defining workplace harassment and violence within a legal and policy framework
- Recognizing and addressing both investigator and party bias
- Understanding racial and sexual harassment and overcoming misconceptions
- Contributors to harassment – bystanders, supervisory approaches, organizational culture
- Legal requirements for investigations
Procedural Fairness in Workplace Investigations
- The mindset shift from investigating a “subject of interest” to a multiparty dispute
- Key processes for investigating interpersonal conflict and how these differ from theft, fraud, misconduct, and other investigations
- Principles of procedural fairness and applying them in workplace investigations
- Trauma informed investigative processes
- Responding to process challenges including anonymous complaints, union involvement, reluctant participants
Evidence Analysis, Credibility, and Making Findings on Interview Evidence
- Key tools for weighing conflicting evidence and making factual findings from interview statements, without “hard proof”
- Applying the “balance of probabilities” standard
- Making credibility determinations – getting beyond “he said, she said”
- The next step: legal and policy analysis expected of workplace investigators
- Tips on investigation report writing
MEET YOUR INSTRUCTOR:
Suhaib Ibrahim
Call to the Bar: Ontario, 2011
Education
J.D., Osgoode Hall Law School, 2009
B.A. Humanities and Communication Studies, York University, 2006
• Mental Health First Aid Certificate
• Trauma Informed Interviewing
• Advanced Investigation Report Writing
Industries and Organizations Served
• Emergency services
• Municipalities and their councils
• Post Secondary and school boards
• Unionized and Nonunionized environment
• Private Sector and Services
• First nations
• Non -profit organization
Lawyer, Trainer, & Workplace Investigator
Professional Summary
Suhaib, an experienced lawyer and workplace investigator at our firm, believes that a work environment is most successful when there is a healthy culture where everyone feels respected and heard. He excels at listening to people and has a strong appreciation for different perspectives, backgrounds, and lived experiences. Suhaib takes a balanced approach to workplace challenges, addressing the core issues that drive conflict and lead to harassment.
Suhaib also:
· cochairs the Osgoode Advanced Investigations Program
· conducts the comprehensive three-day Workplace Investigations Training and Certificate Program for the Human Resources Professionals Association (HRPA).
· spoke at the OACP Equity, Diversity & Inclusion Symposium
· successfully represented clients before the Ontario Court of Appeal, the Superior Court of Justice, Small Claims Court, the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario, the Workplace Safety and Insurance Appeals Tribunal, the Financial Services Commission of Ontario, the License Appeal Tribunal, and labour arbitrators at grievances.
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Training and Transformation Services
Suhaib views training as a transformative experience and considers it the most rewarding aspect of his work. His professional contributions include:
• facilitating training on workplace investigations for both beginner and advanced-level investigators
• conducting workplace culture assessments
• delivering one-on-one sensitivity training focused on sexual and gender-based harassment
• providing respectful workplace training
• offering training on stress and time management
• leading sessions on discrimination, systemic racism, and unconscious bias
• delivering training on employment law
• providing educational sessions on Islamophobia and Antisemitism
Investigation Services
Suhaib has taken his strengths as a litigator and applied it to assisting workplaces with harassment and discrimination investigations.
Suhaib takes pride in his ability to make complex matters understandable to people of all backgrounds. He takes an approach to resolving workplace challenges in which all solutions are explored; keeping at heart an appreciation for different perspectives and lived experiences.
Suhaib has investigated allegations of various forms of discrimination and harassment which includes:
• racial discrimination and harassment
• religious discrimination and harassment
• sexual and gender-based harassment
• workplace harassment bullying
• workplace violence
• harassment based on sexual orientation
Thought Leadership
While studying law, Suhaib collaborated with community organizations and elementary schools, delivering crucial educational sessions to youth in the Jane and Finch community about their legal rights.
Interesting Facts
Suhaib loves to travel, whether he is backpacking through the Atlas Mountains in Africa or the Western Ghats in Asia. He is also fond of wildlife and has had interesting encounters with elephants, monkeys, and pythons during his travels.
