Parmbir Gill is a determined, skillful advocate for people charged with criminal offences, unions facing mounting legal challenges, and individuals subject to workplace or regulatory injustice.
Parmbir’s practice encompasses criminal defence, labour law, employment law and professional discipline and regulation. To each of these sometimes-overlapping areas, he brings a proven ability to formulate and deliver strong, persuasive arguments in litigatory settings. He has excellent research and litigation skills, a strong understanding of policy and a passionate commitment to the labour movement and broader working-class struggle.
His track record includes defending individuals charged with criminal offences at both the trial and appellate levels. In his labour and employment law practice, he has appeared before the Superior Court of Justice, the Ontario Labour Relations Board, the Canada Industrial Relations Board and the Grievance Settlement Board. In each of these spheres he has achieved notable results, including establishing rights to appeal, obtaining rare publication bans, securing unpaid wages and wage increases, and creating a new legal test for determining the scope of a casual employee bargaining unit.
Prior to joining UPFH in 2019, Parmbir honed his skills during a year-long clerkship at the Ontario Court of Appeal, assisting judges on a range of complex civil and criminal matters. He had previously articled at the Ontario Ministry of Labour, where he gained trial experience prosecuting employers for offences under the Occupational Health and Safety Act and the Employment Standards Act, 2000.
Parmbir is a member of the Law Union of Ontario, the Criminal Lawyers’ Association and the Canadian Association of Labour Lawyers. He is serving his second term as Co-Chair of the Board of Directors of Parkdale Community Legal Services. He holds a JD from Osgoode Hall Law School, an MPhil in Economic and Social History from Oxford University and a BA in History from the University of Toronto.
Decisions of Interest
- An appeal before the Court of Appeal of a conviction for manslaughter and discharge of a firearm with intent to wound in which the defence’s arguments were accepted by a dissenting judge and thereby made possible a further appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada.
- A displacement application for certification on behalf of an applicant trade union that, while lost, nevertheless established a new test for “workplace attachment” in a bargaining unit of casual employees.
- A case in which charges of sexual assault and sexual exploitation involving separate complainants occurring 25 years apart were withdrawn after the defence successfully argued that separate trials be held for each complaint and that the Crown be barred from leading evidence from each complainant across the two trials.
- A successful application for a publication ban, rarely granted, on our client’s name in a professional discipline case before the Ontario College of Teachers.