Can You Get Extra Damages for How You Were Fired in Ontario?
Sometimes a dismissal is handled so badly that the employee is owed more than severance. Bad-faith conduct can add moral and punitive damages on top of your notice.
Key takeaways
- Beyond severance, you can sometimes recover moral (aggravated) damages for a bad-faith dismissal.
- Truly high-handed or malicious conduct can also draw punitive damages meant to punish the employer.
- These extras are on top of your common law notice, not part of it.
- Ontario awards have reached the hundreds of thousands of dollars in egregious cases.
- You generally need real evidence of harm and of how the employer behaved, so document everything.
In this article
Most dismissals are just about the money you are owed for lost notice. But some are handled so callously, dishonestly, or cruelly that the law provides something extra. If your employer piled on humiliation, lied about why you were let go, or tried to destroy your reputation, you may be entitled to damages well beyond ordinary severance.
✅Quick answer. Yes, in the right case. On top of your severance, you can recover moral (aggravated) damages where the employer was untruthful, misleading, or unduly insensitive in the manner of dismissal, and punitive damages where its conduct was truly reprehensible. These are separate from your notice, they require evidence of how you were treated and the harm it caused, and in serious Ontario cases they have run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Can you get more than severance?
Sometimes, yes. Ordinary severance compensates you for the notice you should have received. But two additional categories of damages exist for bad conduct. Moral damages (also called aggravated damages) compensate you for mental distress caused by the way you were dismissed. Punitive damages go further and are meant to punish and deter an employer whose behaviour was malicious or outrageous. Both sit on top of your common law notice, not inside it.
Moral damages: the Honda v. Keays rule
The governing case is Honda Canada Inc. v. Keays (2008 SCC 39). The Supreme Court confirmed that an employer owes a duty of good faith in the manner of dismissal, and if it breaches that duty in a way that causes you real mental distress, you can recover moral damages measured by your actual harm. The distress has to go beyond the ordinary hurt feelings of losing a job: think of being lied to about the reason, publicly humiliated, or strung along and misled. Medical or psychological evidence, or at least a documented impact, strengthens the claim.
What does bad-faith conduct look like?
- Lying about, or manufacturing, the reason for your dismissal.
- Publicly humiliating you or spreading damaging statements.
- Alleging just cause it knows it cannot prove, to pressure you.
- Stripping your duties and sidelining you to force you out.
- Withholding your final pay or record of employment to gain leverage.
A striking example is Galea v. Wal-Mart Canada Corp. (2017 ONSC 245). A senior executive was removed from her role, reassigned to made-up duties, strung along about her future, and then dismissed. The court found Wal-Mart had breached its duty of good faith and awarded 250,000 dollars in moral damages, plus 500,000 dollars in punitive damages, on top of 24 months of notice. It remains one of the clearest signals that stringing an employee along and misleading them carries a real price.
Punitive damages: punishing the employer
Punitive damages are rarer and reserved for conduct that is genuinely reprehensible. In Pate Estate v. Galway-Cavendish and Harvey (Township) (2013 ONCA 669), an employee was dismissed, told to resign or face the police, and then subjected to a criminal prosecution on charges he was ultimately acquitted of. The courts awarded 75,000 dollars in aggravated damages and 550,000 dollars in punitive damages for that malicious conduct. In Boucher v. Wal-Mart Canada Corp. (2014 ONCA 419), where a manager relentlessly belittled and demeaned an employee until she quit, the Court of Appeal upheld 100,000 dollars in punitive damages against the employer, along with significant damages against the manager personally. Punitive awards are about denouncing the employer's behaviour, not compensating your loss.
How big can these awards get?
Most cases do not reach the headline figures, but they show the ceiling. Moral damages commonly land in the tens of thousands, while punitive damages in the worst cases have reached several hundred thousand dollars, as Galea and Pate show. The size tracks how bad the conduct was and how much harm it caused. The practical point for you is that how you were treated on the way out is not just unfair, it can be legally compensable, and it is worth raising when your dismissal is assessed.
What should you do if you were treated badly?
- 1.Write down exactly what was said and done, with dates, names, and any witnesses.
- 2.Keep emails, letters, and messages that show the employer's conduct or dishonesty.
- 3.If the dismissal affected your health, see your doctor and keep the records.
- 4.Do not sign a release before your full claim, including any bad-faith damages, is assessed. A free review can tell you what you are owed.
Bad-faith damages usually ride on top of a wrongful dismissal claim, so the starting point is still your severance. If you were pushed out rather than fired outright, see constructive dismissal, which often goes hand in hand with this kind of conduct.
Frequently asked questions
Can I get extra damages for the way I was fired in Ontario?
Sometimes. On top of severance, you can recover moral (aggravated) damages where the employer acted in bad faith in the manner of dismissal, and punitive damages where its conduct was truly reprehensible. Both require evidence of the conduct and the harm.
What are moral or aggravated damages in a wrongful dismissal?
They compensate you for mental distress caused by how you were dismissed, such as being lied to, humiliated, or strung along. Under Honda v. Keays (2008 SCC 39), they are measured by your actual harm and are separate from your notice.
What are punitive damages, and how much can they be?
Punitive damages punish and deter an employer whose conduct was malicious or outrageous. They are rare, but in egregious Ontario cases like Pate Estate and Galea they have reached several hundred thousand dollars.
Do I need proof to claim bad-faith damages?
Generally yes. You need evidence of how the employer behaved and of the harm it caused, which is why documenting what was said and done, and any impact on your health, is so important.
Daniel Carter
Legal Writer, Mirza Law
Daniel Carter is a legal writer at Mirza Law in Toronto. He writes about layoffs, employment contracts, and the steps to take before you sign anything from your employer.
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