Blogosaurus Lex

Working for a living is not always easy:  bosses, co-workers, clients, customers, uniforms, messy tasks…they can all take their toll.  Some days, you just want to quit. Heaven knows, Mr. Slater did. But, although the way he went about it may have been entertaining and the stuff of legends, it really was not very prudent:  he has no work, he has a mountain of legal issues, and he may have difficulty ever finding another job in the field again.

Or not. With the publicity, he may luck out and get a really lucrative book deal. That, however, would not be the case for most of us. If you are unhappy at work, do yourself a favour, find out what both your and your employer’s rights and responsibilities are before you make a knee-jerk decision.

So what do you need to know about quitting?

1. First of all, there are laws about that: you probably won’t be able to just walk out unscathed. There are things to think about. In Alberta, the law that governs employment in a non-unionized setting is the Employments Standards Code (ESC):  know what it says.  For those of you not in Alberta, there will be an equivalent provincial/territorial law). For unionized settings, there is the Labour Relations Code (LRC). That said, you must also look into the terms of your collective agreement.

2. Hopefully, after that whole G20 thing, we don’t need to remind you about to also check if there is anything in any regulations:  ESC,  LRC. (For those of you not in Alberta, the same applies).

3. You don’t think laws are fun to read? Really? There is good “plain language” information out there, too.  They’ll tell you really important things, like how much notice you have to give, how to give it, and what can happen if you don’t.

a. If you are in Alberta check out our Frequently Asked Questions about employment.
b. The Alberta Government also has a very informative site about non-unionized employment issues.  Similar informational sites exist in almost every province/territory.

4. If your behaviour while quitting physically hurts someone, puts the lives of others in danger, or causes a disturbance, you could face criminal charges.

5. If you work in a specialized field, like … say …  airlines, there be even more restrictions and consequences.

As always… know the law first! And, while you are contemplating your departure, keep yourself happy and entertained by thinking and singing about Mr. Slater, without emulating him.

The Women’s Court of Canada is a group of lawyers, academics and activists who have rewritten Supreme Court of Canada decisions in the spirit of substantive equality.

The WCC has launched a new website featuring their judgements, providing resources, and highlighting feminist organizations.

The site also features a blog where members comment on current cases and legislation.

I blogged about the WCC last summer when I interviewed WCC member Jennifer Koshan for CJSR’s Adamant Eve. You can listen to us speak about the WCC and about Newfoundland vs. NAPE here (to download audio, right click arrow icon and select “Save link as”).

The Women’s Law Forum of the University of Alberta hosted the  WCC last year. You can listen to the panel presentation, which featured Gwen Brodsky, Sharon McIvor and Melina Buckley, as well as Koshan, here.

Congratulations on the new site, WCC!

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It seems the producers at CBC’s The Current may be reading Blogosaurus Lex! They covered two topics yesterday that correspond with our recent posts.

The first segment of the show examines a poll suggesting that two thirds of Canadians feel the force and tactics – including those violating civil rights -  used by the police during the G20 were justified. The Current asks whether Canadians are too quick to give up their civil rights in the name of order.

The LRC works to inform people about their rights and responsibilities under the law, and finding this balance while exercising civil liberties has been a repeat topic on Blogosaurus Lex. Marilyn has written about whether the police have the right to stop and question people. Carole wrote on the balance of rights and responsibilities of police and protesters earlier this year during the lead up to the Olympics and again before and after the violence in Toronto.

For more information about civil liberties, check out the Alberta Civil Liberties Research Centre.

In the second half of The Current, the topic is elder abuse, specifically financial abuse. The segment opens with the story of Francine Grimaldi, a well-known actress and cultural columnist in Quebec, who lost her retirement savings when she was scammed by a close family friend. The show then moves on to a panel discussion of the financial abuse inflicted on Canadian seniors.

This is especially timely for us at the LRC, as our new website for the Older Adult Knowledge Network www.OakNet.ca has just been launched. OakNet features information on abuse of older adults, including financial abuse.

OakNet presents information in a variety of ways.  Eileen’s Story is a fictional depiction of how someone might experience financial abuse and provides information both for the individual and for those supporting them. Just the Facts describes types of abuse and has information on what the law says about abuse.

The recent expansion of the website means OakNet now provides older adults with information on many topics. In addition to information about abuse of older adults, there is information on planning for the future, personal and family relationships and much more.

Now at this point we’re not sure if someone at The Current is a Blogosaurus Lex fan, or if the timing of these topics was coincidence. But if they start talking about charities and accountability and Salman Rushdie, I think we’ll have a little more evidence for our case.

OakNet.ca, the Older Adult Knowledge Network, has been expanded and updated!

Now, in addition to information about Abuse of Older Adults, www.oaknet.ca has information on topics such as Planning for the Future, Personal and Family Relationships and more!

There is also information about the new Adult Guardianship and Trustee Act.

• Guardianship
• Trusteeship
• AGTA and Personal Directives
• What the new AGTA means for orders made under the Dependent Adults Act (DAA)

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You can help us make the site even better by taking this short survey.

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This update was made possible with the support of Justice Canada.

April 17th is Law Day in Alberta! The theme this year is Access to Justice – something we at the LRC are rather passionate about.

Organized by the Canadian Bar Association, Law Day is a chance for people around the province to come to court houses and learn about the law and the legal system in a fun way.

Activities on Law Day include everything from seeing fairy tale characters on trial to learning how to investigate a crime scene to search and rescue dog demonstrations. You can also check out exhibitors’ booths and take a tour of the court house.

This year if you’re in Lethbridge, Calgary or Edmonton on April 17, you can head on down to your local law courts building to check out the festivities! If you’re in Medicine Hat, your Law Day is on April 24.

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The Legal Resource Centre will have a table at Law Day in Edmonton. You can come by and say hello to Kirsten and me, check out the latest LawNow or even get one of our coveted “The Law Rules!” rulers.

See you on Saturday!

Accepting the award from Service Alberta Minister Heather Kimchuk are Angela Kublik, (library director from Fort Saskatchewan), Diane Rhyason (LRC executive director), Kirsten Wurmann (LRC librarian) and Heide Blackmore (Adult Services Librarian from Strathcona County)

The Legal Resource Centre (LRC) was a recipient of Service Alberta’s Consumer Champion Award of Merit at a ceremony at Government House on March 8, 2010. Along with our partners from the Strathcona County and Fort Saskatchewan public libraries, the LRC received the award for the Law for Seniors in Alberta: Library Training Project – a project designed to increase the legal knowledge of seniors, their families, and those who work with them

The project included a series of 8-10 training sessions that focused on how public libraries can meet the legal information needs of seniors in Alberta, as well as public information sessions conducted at libraries and seniors centres. These sessions were supplemented by the creation of legal information booklets and checklists targeting seniors and older adults, their families, and service providers who work closely with them. The plain language booklets on wills, powers of attorney, personal directives, consumer protection, and grandparents’ rights are also available online. Interest in, and requests for the booklets, has continued long beyond the end of the project.

A project advisory group, consisting of public librarians, two seniors, and representatives from local seniors’ organizations provided advice and assistance about legal topics to be covered, the format of resources, and general feedback on the project. The library partners conducted surveys with their publics on what legal topics should be covered by the project. The advisory group and library partners also participated in the final evaluation of activities.

The resulting information tools and booklets from this project have broad implications as they are available to all public libraries in Alberta on the web and in printable formats. A list of suggested acquisitions [.xls document] has been generated for public libraries to use as a guide for building their print collection of legal information materials for seniors in Alberta.

Funding for this one-year project was provided through the Public Library Development Initiative (PLDI) of Alberta Municipal Affairs, with additional support coming from the City of Edmonton.

For more information about the resources produced, visit the Older Adult Knowledge Network at www.oak-net.org or contact your local library or the Legal Resource Centre at info@legalresourcecentre.ca

The Legislating Sexualities in Alberta panel is today from 12-2pm in FAB 220 on the U of A Main Campus. I’m looking forward to going, but if you can’t be there, don’t worry. CJSR’s Gaywire is recording it and you’ll be able to download the audio.

In my last post on LSA, I mentioned my hope that there would be some discussion on the use of social media around Bill 44. Therefore, I was very excited to see that Edmonton blogger MasterMaq, with Edmonton Journal columnist Paul Simons (who won a Civil Liberties award from the Alberta Civil Liberties Research Centre for her coverage of the Bill),  complied some data on the Twitter stream around Bill 44 for May and June 2009. There isn’t much analysis yet, but there is a lot of raw data just waiting for it.

I started reading blogs because I love to learn and I’m happy to find that writing for blogs provides similar opportunities.

When I first read the description for the Legislating Sexualities panel, I assumed ‘declaration of pride in Edmonton’ was referring to the fact that Edmonton, while by no means free of discrimination, is a fairly open city. Former City Councilor Michael Phair was the first openly gay politician elected in Canada. The Institute for Sexual Minority Studies and Services grew out of one of the first university LGBT ally groups in Canada and provides U of A with “an interdisciplinary ‘hub’ for scholarly work in sexual-minority studies,” runs  CampfYrefly for sexual minority youth and has been running the InsideOut Speaker’s Series since 2003. The Exposure Festival had a successful third year and is now one of the city’s established summer events. And Gaywire brings Edmontonians an awesome hour of LGBT news and event every week. I look around me and think, “Well of course there’s pride in Edmonton.”

When I looked at the event description a little bit later and a little bit closer, however, I realized it referred to the mayoral declaration of pride in Edmonton. I had no idea what that meant. I did a little bit of research (ie: Googling) and discovered that Edmonton hasn’t always been so open.

Recently there has been a push to have cities officially recognize Pride events and that struggle continues.  There has been strong opposition from politicians and in some cases it has taken rulings by Human Rights Commissions to enforce recognition. In 2003, then-mayor Bill Smith said declaring Gay Pride Week in Edmonton would go against his religious beliefs. A complaint was filed with the Human Rights Commission arguing this decision was discriminatory and based on the mayor’s personal belief. Smith relented before a decision could be made on the case and Pride week was official declared by the city.

Canadians take pride in being one of the first nations in the world to legalize same-sex marriage, but often forget it was through the Supreme Court’s enforcement of the Charter, not because of political will. It’s only been 40 years since homosexuality was decriminalized, and 30 years since Operation Soap. Human Rights legislation exists to protect people from the tyranny of the majority and are a vital part of an open society. I’m glad Canada has such legislation and our courts and commissions are willing to enforce it. I look forward to a discussion of how such legislation has affected the lives of Canadians.

For more information about the history of homosexuality in Canada, check out the two part series Out in Canada on CBC Radio’s Rewind.

It was a Canadian decision, released by Privacy Commissioner Jennifer Stoddart in July 2009, that made Facebook change its privacy policy, but do Canadians know how – or even want – to keep their profiles private?

When Facebook’s privacy settings changed in December, users were given the option to keep their custom privacy settings or switch to the new defaults (check out Terms of Service Tracker for an excellent breakdown of the changes).  The new default settings, however, are not very secure. Users must customize various settings if they want their profiles to remain private. A recent article in the New York Times explains The 3 Facebook Settings Every User Should Check Now (h/t Slaw.ca).

That is, of course, only if you want to make your profile private. According to Mark Zuckerberg, one of the founders of Facebook, not everyone does. In an interview with TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington at the recent Crunchie Awards,  Zuckerberg claimed that social norms have changed and people are no longer as concerned with privacy as they once were.

Is this true? And if he feels this way, why has Zuckerberg made his own profile so secure? After the changes were made on December 9, Zuckerberg’s profile was briefly open to everyone. Whether this was on purpose or a result of a lack of understanding of the new default settings remains unclear. On December 11, he wrote on his fan page:

For those wondering, I set most of my content on my personal Facebook page to be open so people could see it. I set some of my content to be more private, but I didn’t see a need to limit visibility of pics with my friends, family or my teddy bear :)

Despite the lack of  “need to limit visibilty of pics”, Zuckerberg quickly changed his settings and his profile remains secure, with only his Wall and Info visible.

So does online privacy matter? Or is it true that are people are becoming less and less concerned? Some bloggers have claimed Zuckerberg is “more right than wrong”, while others have disagreed and raised questions about the motives behind the statements.

Some Facebook users do still care about privacy and were not impressed with the new defaults. On January 27, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner (OPC) launched a new investigation in to Facebook in response to a complaint filed by an individual who claimed “the new default settings would have made his information more readily available than the settings he had previously put in place.”

Facebook had agreed to implement changes to address the concerns raised in the July 2009 report. According to the statement released by the OPC, however

Since then…changes to the site’s privacy information, settings and tools have sparked criticism from users who feel that personal information posted to the site is, in some instances, even more exposed now than before.

Perhaps social norms have not changed as much as Zuckerberg thinks.

What about you? Are you on Facebook? (The LRC is.) How secure are your privacy settings? Did you accept the new default settings? Is it important to keep this information private, or is it unreasonable to expect privacy online?

For more discussion on online privacy, including the implications of reduced privacy, check out this video (transcript) of Cory Doctrow, an author, journalist and technology activist, speaking at the American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom 2008 Conference.

Updated: Note the new location, FAB 220

The Political Science Graduate Association and the Faculty of Arts at the University of Alberta are presenting the panel Legislating Sexualities in Alberta.  It will be held from 12-2pm on Friday, February 5, 2010 in FAB 220, University of Alberta North Campus. More information can be found on the facebook page:

This panel will bring together a number of interested and informed actors to discuss the implications of the Alberta government’s actions and attitudes pertaining to sexual minorities. The motivations, repercussions and significance of the Adult Interdependent Relationships Act (AIRA), Bill 44, the de-listing of gender reassignment surgery, and the eventual declaration of pride in Edmonton will be considered.

Panelists:

Lucas Crawford (English & Film Studies)                          Dr. André P. Grace (Education)
Dr. Lois Harder (Political Science)                                     Dr. Cressida Heyes (Philosophy)
Rachel Notley (MLA for Edmonton-Strathcona)                 Michael Phair (Education)

Like it or not, the law has major consequences and affects on our identities and relationships. I’m looking forward to hearing this panel discuss what these consequences and affects are for sexual minorities in Alberta.

Bill 44 amended the Human Rights, Citizenship and Multiculturalism Act (HRCMA), in part by changing its name to the Alberta Human Rights Act (AHRA), and generated controversy because of its enshrinement of parental rights and its use of the Human Rights Commission to enforce them.  For a deeper understanding of the bill and its ramifications, read this post by Linda McKay Panos.

I hope there is some discussion of citizen engagement in response to the bill and how social media fueled and facilitated the debate. A letter writing campaign was launched and rallies were held in opposition, Facebook groups were started on both sides of the debate and there was much discussion on Twitter – to the point where the hashtag #bill44 trended (was one of the most mentioned terms or hashtags on the site) during the final debate of the bill.

What gained less attention was the reason the legislation was being reviewed. In the 1998 the ruling on the Vriend case, the Supreme Court of Canada read sexual orientation in to the AHRA (then the HRCMA). Due to the common law tradition, the law itself changed as soon as the ruling was handed down. Legislatures usually amend the written law to reflect such changes soon after such a ruling, but in this case, Alberta’s legislature took ten years to respond. I’m curious about the length of time governments have to change written legislation after an SCC decision.

The de-listing of gender reassignment surgery (GRS, also known as Sexual Reassignment Surgery, SRS) for transgendered Albertans raises questions about who we deem worthy of medical treatment and how marginalized minority groups are treated in Alberta. It also raises questions about how people are defined under the law. Our society is heavily invested in the idea of a gender binary and our laws and bureaucratic processes reflect that. Transgendered people in Alberta, and in most places, must identify themselves as male or female on government documents (India legally recognizes the hijra as a third gender, but even this is problematic, in part because it groups all non-conforming gender expression in to an ‘other’ category). Not conforming with one’s legally designated gender can have many legal consequences (US websites) going beyond discrimination.

Ontario was forced to re-list GRS after the Ontario Human Rights Commission found gender identity disorder was a disability protected by human rights legislation. This raises questions of how we classify difference; it would be better to see trans people protected in terms of identity than in terms of disability. Complaints have been filed in Alberta claiming the de-listing of GRS is in violation of the AHRA.  I am hopeful the precedent set in Ontario will be followed, these challenges will be won and funding for GRS will be reinstated.

I’m also very interested in learning more about the Adult Interdependent Relationships Act. Though it can be argued this legislation was created to prevent same-sex couples from marrying, it is progressive in terms of its recognition of legal rights for people in alternative households. Although it does not provide all of the legal benefits of marriage, it is a law that acknowledges people have ways of supporting each other and living together outside of the nuclear family structure. The AIRA is a fairly new law and some of its language is ambiguous. I’d like to know what kind of cases, if any, have come before the courts to test this law.

Though it’s been over 40 years since Trudeau declared the state has no place in the bedrooms of the nation, the law continues to affect our relationships and our identities. I’m looking forward to learning more about how it does so and what the consequences – intended and not – are.

Legislating Sexualities in Alberta will be held from 12-2pm on Friday, February 5, 2010 at the University of Alberta in Dentistry/Pharmacy 2104, University of Alberta North Campus.

If you can’t wait to think about how the law effects and interacts with our identities, relationships and life chances, check out this lecture from Dean Spade entitled Trans Politics Beyond Law and Order. Spade recently spoke at UofA as part of iSMSS’s Inside/OUT Speakers Series and was recorded by CJSR’s GayWire.  Dean Spade is an Assistant Professor of Law at the University of Seattle Faculty of Law and founder of the Sylvia Rivera Law Project, which “works to guarantee that all people are free to self-determine gender identity and expression, regardless of income or race, and without facing harassment, discrimination or violence.”

Presumed Guilty, a story of a man caught in a justice system and fighting to regain his freedom, will be shown as a part of Edmonton’s DocSoup festival, presented by Global Visions Film Festival and Hot Docs.

Under Mexican law, one is guilty until proven innocent. José Antonio Zuñiga of Mexico City was convicted of murder and sentenced to 20 years based on the testimony of a single eye witness. The film follows Zuñiga and his two lawyers as they undertake the seemingly impossible task of having the case re-tried.  “Through one man’s extraordinary two-year struggle to regain his freedom, Presumed Guilty documents the contradictions of a judicial system that presumes guilt.”

Presumed Guilty shows how [Zuñiga]’s strength and creativity help him through nearly three years of wrongful imprisonment. Courtroom scenes chillingly call to mind Kafka’s The Trial, so absurd is the mindless bureaucracy in the judicial process. Toño is retried by the same judge who condemned him. The prosecutor is concerned only with the previous case file and has no interest in new information. The police officers refuse to co-operate, insisting they do not remember Toño’s arrest. It is revealed that the only witness to implicate Toño had himself originally been accused of the crime, then learned of Toño through the police. Hernández and Negrete uncover a frustrating, labyrinthine legal system defended by mediocre civil servants and corrupt police officers. (TIFF)

Presumed Guilty will be screened on Thursday, January 7, 2010 at 7:00 pm at Metro Cinema, Zeidler Hall in the Citadel Theatre, 9828 – 101A Avenue.

Tickets are $10 at the door.