Bio

Sharon Naipaul is the principle, owner, and conflict resolution specialist at Strategic Workplace Equity and Conflict Resolution Solutions. She is a lawyer by training, having been called to the Bar of Ontario in 2011, after receiving her J.D. from Western Law in 2010. She is a member in good standing with the Law Society of Ontario and is a member of both the Alternative Dispute Resolution Institute of Ontario and the Alternative Dispute Resolution Institute of Canada. Sharon also holds the Executive Certificate in Conflict Resolution from Windsor Law/Stittfeld Handy, Transformative Mediation Certification through Community Justice Initiatives, and is a Certified Workplace Fairness Analyst through Workplace Fairness International.

Background

Sharon has an extensive background in workplace law as well as diversity and inclusion. While at Western Law, Sharon was the Labour Law Society President, as well as the President of the Diversity Committee for two years running. As President of the Diversity Committee, Sharon made significant contributions to creating greater diversity at Western Law. Sharon also worked as an intern at the International Labour Organization in Geneva, Switzerland, which gave her a broad knowledge of, and perspective on, workplace norms.

Following law school Sharon joined Cavalluzzos, a prominent union-side Labour and Employment law firm and spent years litigating labour, employment, human rights, health and safety, and professional regulation issues.

Sharon became an expert on legislation pertaining to these areas of the law, but more importantly, became an expert on their practical application in the workplace. Sharon also spent some time working in-house at a union which added to her breadth of knowledge and expertise of workplace law, both employment and labour.

Mediation

After spending a number of years in litigation, Sharon found herself drawn to the alternative dispute resolution side of the law. Sharon left private practice and became a Senior Mediator for the Ontario Labour Relations Board, mediating close to 1000 workplace conflicts, with an almost perfect record of resolution. She is someone who takes her role as a mediator very seriously and applies a mixture of evaluative, facilitative, and transformative mediation as the specific case may require.

After years as a Senior Mediator at the Ontario Labour Relations Board, Sharon decided to return to private practice to add another skill set to her repertoire, and became a workplace investigator at one of the country’s most prominent workplace investigation firms, Rubin Thomlinson. While there, in addition to workplace investigations, Sharon also conducted mediations, workplace assessments, and workplace restorations.

Armed with this wealth of knowledge and experience, Sharon made the decision to focus on the parts of her work she was most passionate about, specifically, conflict prevention and equity in the form of workplace training, and conflict resolution including mediation, workplace assessments and workplace transformations (restorations). As a result, Sharon created Strategic Workplace Equity and Conflict Resolution Solutions to practice conflict resolution and promoting equity in all its forms.

Expertise

Sharon is an expert by training and experience to conduct mediations, workplace transformations (restorations) and workplace assessments that meet the individual needs of her clients. She is comfortable with hard conversations, is very familiar with all the types and forms of conflicts that can arise in a workplace, but more importantly, knows how to get to the root and foundation of issues in the workplace, in order to resolve them.

Sharon is also an expert in the critical topics for training in the workplaces of today including: anti-harassment training, anti-racism training, anti-discrimination training, training on disabilities and neurodivergence, trauma-informed care, and applying an anti-oppression lens to the workplace.

Sharon takes the role of trainer very seriously, understanding that her role is not merely to impart information, but to train/teach in a way that accommodates different learning styles, and to help trainees reflect, integrate and apply their learning, making her a particularly effective trainer.

Perspective and Values

In addition to her education, training and extensive experience, Sharon brings a unique lens to all of her work as someone with lived-experience of multiple intersections. Because of this lived-experience, Sharon brings a much-needed sensitivity and particularly distinctive approach to her work. In all cases, she takes a trauma-informed approach to all of her services.

Sharon believes strongly that everyone must be treated with dignity and respect, and in keeping with an anti-oppressive, anti-hierarchical, and anti-racist approach, that all people are equal and that we all have inherent value. These principles are foundational to her work.

She also incorporates the principle of “ahimsa” or non-harming into her approach. She does a careful evaluation of every case to ensure that any potential intervention is appropriate and will not worsen a situation or cause harm to anyone involved. Ahimsa also means “non-violence” – Sharon is very careful to analyze power dynamics in any situation to ensure power is not used as a form of violence in her conflict resolution processes.

Ultimately, Sharon approaches her work with sensitivity, skill, and mastery.

Personal

Sharon is a great lover of animals and supports of a number of animal-welfare causes, and with middle-age, has recently become obsessed with bird calls and songs. She loves spending time with family and friends and is an avid football (soccer) fan. Sharon also spends a lot of her limited spare time practicing and teaching yoga, strength training, boxing, or more likely than not, has her nose buried in a book while snuggling with her cat Tsuki-chan. Sharon’s greatest goal in life is that she leaves this world even the tiniest bit better than it was when she got here : )

LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to acknowledge that the majority of my work takes place on the traditional territories of the Haudenosaunee, Anishinanaabe, Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation, Mississauga and the Huron-Wendat, subject to Treaty 13 and 1805, with the languages of Mississauga/Eastern Anishinaabe (Ojibwa) and Anishinaabe traditionally spoken on these lands. I would also like to recognize that a land acknowledgement is only a first step in the process of reconciliation, not an end point. I encourage all settlers to take the free Indigenous History course offered through the University of Alberta as a next step.

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