The national business law firm is the legal sponsor at HRFest Canada, fielding a full team to answer employment law questions
Miller Thomson LLP has signed on as the legal sponsor of HRFest Canada 2026, with plans to send a team of 12 labour and employment lawyers to the two-day Toronto event as the national business law firm looks to deepen its ties with Canada’s HR community beyond the formal constraints of the client–counsel relationship, according to Claudia Desjardins Bélisle, Managing Partner of Miller Thomson’s Montreal office and former national Labour and Employment Practice Group Leader for the firm.
HRFest Canada 2026 runs Nov. 10 and 11 at Rebel in Toronto, drawing more than 750 HR professionals and executives and upwards of 120 speakers. Among this year’s most distinctive features is The Vault – a stage dedicated to employment law and compliance conversations, including live legal question-and-answer sessions and open-mic formats that few traditional conferences attempt.
Desjardins Bélisle says the decision to be part of the event as legal sponsor came down to the value of real-time dialogue. “Understanding what’s keeping [HR professionals] up at night and the questions that they really have on a day-to-day basis is key to our success,” she says. “It was important for us to be present at HRFest, meet with these executives, with these HR leaders, and be able to answer questions right on the spot and give them practical advice on a different scale than we would normally do during a traditional conference.”
Tom Duke, who assumed the national Labour and Employment Practice Group Leader role from Desjardins Bélisle on Sept. 1, 2026, and is based in Miller Thomson’s Edmonton office, shares the same view. “HR leaders today have to make a lot of difficult decisions that have big legal consequences,” says Duke. “We sort of like to see ourselves as the trusted advisors for a lot of these HR professionals and executives, and so it’s just a good opportunity for us to connect with those folks face-to-face.”
Putting practical advice on the stage
Desjardins Bélisle and colleague David Tsai will take the HR Leaders stage to address termination risks, while fellow Miller Thomson lawyer Lisa Goodfellow will moderate The Vault’s Legal Hot Seat – a session built around real-time employment law questions from the floor.
For Desjardins Bélisle, what distinguishes these conversations from a standard keynote is the grounding in real cases. “Being able to take the time to have those practical and strategic conversations with them based on real advice, and real-life advice, really bridges that gap,” she says.
A shifting regulatory environment HR teams can’t ignore
Canadian employers are navigating a rapidly evolving legal landscape. At the federal level, Bill C-31 – introduced May 6, 2026 – proposes sweeping restrictions on non-compete clauses for federally regulated employees under the Canada Labour Code. Ontario has introduced AI disclosure requirements in recruitment, and disability management has emerged as a consistent pressure point for HR teams coast to coast – issues that HRFest Canada 2026 speakers see as the pressing HR questions facing Canadian leaders in 2026.
For Duke, one issue stands above the rest. “One of the questions we’re constantly dealing with, I feel like on a daily basis, is disability management, and we’ve got employees who are far more assertive about their right and the duty to accommodation,” he says, adding that the firm’s national reach – with lawyers attending HRFest from Vancouver to Halifax – allows Miller Thomson to track how legal shifts in one jurisdiction can foreshadow changes elsewhere.
An unfiltered setting for forward-looking questions
What sets an event like HRFest Canada apart from the standard client–counsel dynamic, Desjardins Bélisle argues, is the absence of the professional filter that typically shapes those exchanges. “I think one of the main differences with this type of event is that everyone goes in knowing what they’re looking for and knowing that they’re going to be coming out of this experience with added value,” she says. “HR leaders are not shying away from asking the difficult questions.”
Duke points to the tone of the event as an enabler of forward-looking conversations. “It’s going to be a bit more relaxed atmosphere, people will feel free to ask questions that maybe aren’t impacting them right now today, but they think are going to be an issue in the coming weeks and months,” he says. HR leaders finalizing their schedules can find guidance in HRD Canada’s breakdown of how to navigate HRFest Canada 2026’s five stages and a speaker-by-speaker tour of HRFest Canada 2026.
“What we want to do is be able to arm [attendees] with as much information, strategy, and resources as we can, because they do have to navigate a very difficult environment that’s constantly been changing,” Duke says.
Desjardins Bélisle connects the firm’s HR community engagement to a broader trend – the growing strategic weight of people leadership as AI reshapes business operations. “With the increased use of AI, for example, that human touch and being able to deal with human beings will become a quality and a specificity that business owners and business managers will be looking for,” she says.
What Miller Thomson wants HR leaders to walk away with
Her message for HR leaders attending HRFest Canada 2026 reflects the same priority. “Being a trusted advisor is really what I want the attendees of HRFest to leave with in terms of their impression of Miller Thomson and our legal team that will be present,” says Desjardins Bélisle. “We hope to be able to showcase the bench strength of our group on a national basis.”
For Duke, the event is a unique opportunity for informal conversations with HR people that normally would be difficult to arrange. “These are people who make those decisions [with potential legal consequences], so for us it's a great opportunity for us to have a forum for our profession and where our labour and employment lawyers can make a contribution to that conversation,” he says.
HRFest Canada 2026 runs Nov. 10 and 11, 2026, at Rebel in Toronto. Registration is still open leading up to the event.
