In June of 2018, Pablo Picante graduated, with honours, from the Diego de la Vega College of Haute Cuisine in Mexico City. Apart from his passion for fine food, Pablo is an avid follower of the Montreal Canadiens. Hence, his decision to seek his fortune in Montreal. On August 1, 2018, he accepted an offer of employment for an indeterminate term from Comida Caliente, a federally incorporated, Laval based company that specializes in the preparation and distribution of Mexican inspired sauces and condiments. With the exception of two small grocery stores in Chicago and a small restaurant in Baltimore, the company sells to customers in Quebec and Ontario.

As a pre-requisite to his employment, the company asked Pablo to sign the following document:

"I, the undersigned, do hereby agree that should I terminate my employment contract with Comida Caliente, I will refrain, for a period of six (6) months from the date of said termination, from working, in any capacity whatsoever, for any company on the North American continent that manufactures Mexican style foods for distribution to food wholesalers, grocers and restaurants."

Pablo signed the document on August 1, 2018 and was immediately assigned the task of preparing a recipe for an extra-spicy salsa that Comida Caliente planned to market under the brand name "La Bamba."

After many months of research and experimentation, Pablo presented his employer with a recipe for "La Bamba" on February 4, 2020. Don Alejandro, the CEO of Comida Caliente, expressed his appreciation by giving Pablo a bonus of $1,000 but denied his request for a one -week paid vacation to Cancun. Pablo did not take kindly to this refusal and considered it an insult.

On February 25, 2020, Pablo submitted his resignation to a surprised Don Alejandro. He then stormed out of the factory but not before he had downloaded, from the company's computer, the recipe and production plans for "La Bamba."

On March 20, 2020, Don Alejandro learned that Pablo had recently accepted a job offer from Gusto Garcia Inc., a competitor of Comida Caliente that has its factory in Shawinigan, Quebec.

A highly agitated Don Alejandro is now in your office. He strongly suspects that Pablo has shared the recipe for La Bamba with his new employer. He wants you to mobilize all of your skills in order to put a stop to Pablo's new employment and to ensure that neither Pablo nor Gusto Garcia benefits from the recipe.

What can you do on behalf of Comida Caliente? Don Alejandro is a sophisticated man and will appreciate your references to the pertinent statutory provisions and case law.