#Canada #ON – A former senior executive at TD Insurance sued The Toronto-Dominion Bank for more than $400,000 after the company fired her in January 2026 following a dispute over a Christian phrase and cross she added to her work email signature.
Sonja Denobrega, then 52, had joined the bank only months earlier, in July 2025, as associate vice president of underwriting operations with a base salary of $210,000 plus bonus and equity eligibility. In a statement of claim filed in Ontario Superior Court, she alleged wrongful dismissal and discrimination on the basis of creed and age. She sought approximately $446,600 in specified damages, including pay in lieu of notice, punitive and human-rights damages, plus benefits, interest and costs.
The dispute began in late October or early November 2025. According to court filings, human resources received a complaint about another employee, Michelle Tamlin, who had added “Pronouns: I am HIS 
” to her signature. The complainant said the wording could be perceived as a micro-aggression against LGBTQ employees. The bank told Tamlin the line violated email-signature standards. Denobrega later added “I am HIS ” — without the word “pronouns” — after learning Tamlin had been instructed to remove it. She said she acted in solidarity and in support of Christians facing persecution in Nigeria. She also argued the bank provided fewer resources for Christians than for sexual-minority employees and that its policy allowed gender identification while barring other expressions of identity.
Denobrega met repeatedly with her immediate supervisor and human-resources staff in December 2025. She asked the company to review all signatures for consistency or to permit other identity statements. The bank declined a company-wide audit of every signature but sent a reminder to roughly 10,000 insurance-division staff about existing standards. Managers instructed Denobrega to remove the line, including a 24-hour deadline from a senior vice president. After further meetings, the bank placed her on unpaid leave while continuing previously scheduled vacation pay. On January 7, 2026, officials concluded she would not comply. They terminated her the next day.
In its statement of defense, TD said the firing had nothing to do with Denobrega’s religion, age or any other protected characteristic. The bank described its email-signature rules as treating signatures like business cards: they prohibited quotes, taglines, icons, images, slogans and other personal statements while allowing limited optional identifiers such as personal pronouns, consistent with the code of conduct, respectful-workplace policy and human-rights obligations. Officials said Denobrega, as a senior leader, was expected to model compliance. They characterized her repeated refusal after warnings as willful insubordination that destroyed trust and gave the company just cause to dismiss her without notice. The bank also noted that its code of conduct warned employees that policy breaches could lead to termination.
Neither side’s allegations had been proven in court. An employment lawyer unconnected to the case observed that employers generally face a high bar to establish just-cause termination, while a plaintiff alleging discrimination must show a causal link between a protected characteristic and the dismissal. The lawsuit remained in its early stages as of late September 2026. TD said it could not comment further because the matter was before the courts; Denobrega did not respond to requests for comment in contemporaneous reporting.
Cover Image: Sonja Denobrega, 53.
