Mediation
Employment, labour, and human rights mediation. Virtual across Canada, in focused half-day and full-day sessions.
For counsel building a shortlist
The essentials, up front: Ella Forbes-Chilibeck is a Qualified Mediator (Q.Med) with the ADR Institute of Canada, trained in intensive mediation at Harvard Law School, with 20 years of employment and labour practice acting for both employers and employees. A neutral who can give each room a credible, realistic assessment, because she has argued from both chairs.
Rates are published below, availability is live on MediatorDates, and booking is one email with a same-day response. Pre-mediation calls with each side, brief review, and a signed mediation agreement are standard. Facilitative by default; a candid evaluative perspective is available where both parties want it. Listed in the ADR Institute of Ontario directory.
Why this mediator
Two things shape how Ella runs a room. The first is 20 years on both sides of employment disputes, as lead counsel before the Ontario Superior Court, the Federal Court, the Canada Industrial Relations Board, the Ontario Labour Relations Board, and the Canadian, Ontario and Nunavut Human Rights Tribunals, so her read of how a claim is likely to fare carries weight in both caucus rooms. The second predates law entirely: more than a decade of front-line behavioural and counselling practice, in rooms where reading people accurately and keeping difficult conversations productive was the whole job. Mediation is where those two careers meet.
She also taught the craft: over a decade as lecturer in Alternative Dispute Resolution Processes at the University of Ottawa's Faculty of Law (2007–2019), and faculty at the Law Society of Ontario's Six-Minute Labour Lawyer.
What Ella mediates
Wrongful dismissal, severance, and termination disputes
Human rights complaints, discrimination, harassment, failure to accommodate
Disability, accommodation, and return-to-work disputes
Workplace conflict between colleagues, or between employees and management
Labour and union–management disputes, provincially and federally regulated
How a mediation runs
Half-day and full-day sessions; most employment matters can be fully mediated in a half-day, with full days reserved for complex or multi-party disputes. Delivery is virtual-first: secure video mediation anywhere in Canada means no travel or venue costs for the parties, faster scheduling, easier caucusing, and participants who can attend from wherever they are steadiest. In-person sessions are available where the parties prefer them. Either way, the approach is the same, move efficiently, test positions early, and find the sweet spot of settlement if one exists.
Rates and terms
Half-day: $2,000 + HST
Full-day: $3,500 + HST
Fees are flat and all-inclusive, preparation, pre-mediation calls, brief review, and are shared equally between the parties unless otherwise agreed. There are no administrative or booking fees; for in-person sessions, facility costs (where applicable) are billed at cost. Cancellation: no charge for cancellations more than 14 days before the session; 50% of the fee within 14 days; the full fee within 5 business days, waived entirely if the date re-books.
For parties new to mediation
If your lawyer has proposed mediation: it is a confidential, structured negotiation guided by a neutral, usually completed in a single session. It is faster and far less costly than litigation, nothing said in the room can be used in court later, and no outcome is imposed, any resolution is one both sides choose. Your counsel remains at your side throughout.