Client Profile: Hesperus Village

June 21st, 2013 by Iler Campbell

Hesperus Village

Hesperus Village in Vaughan, Ontario is a seniors’ affordable housing residence offering an independent lifestyle and a rich quality of life. Half of the apartments are rent-geared-to-income units. Located adjacent to the Toronto Waldorf School, Hesperus is surrounded by a protected green space on a wooded ravine along the East Don River.

Hesperus residents may choose to enjoy communal meals and many participate in a variety of social, cultural, spiritual, and gardening activities. Hesperus balances the strengths of a strong institutional organization with the nurturing aspects of a caring community. Residents experience the aging process with dignity and grace. Hesperus encourages interaction between the generations, people of diverse cultures, people on various spiritual paths, and those with a variety of interests, skills and talents. Hesperus residents enjoy the security of an on-site medical clinic with three physicians offering both conventional and holistic care. Trained personal support workers are also available as needed.

Hesperus founders were inspired by Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925) whose spiritual world view – called Anthroposophy – is reflected in the architecture of the residence building, biodynamic gardening, healthy foods, festival celebrations, and the value of communal life.

Iler Campbell LLP is pleased that Hesperus found our firm in 2012, bringing to us a range of questions and issues from how to operate a seniors’ facility in a manner that complies with human rights requirements to government relations questions and commercial real estate transactions. Our relationship, while relatively new, is strengthening as we develop our understanding of Hesperus’ work and the philosophy that underpins it.

Visit Hesperus’ website to learn more and see more photos of its facilities.

Priya Sarin included in rabble.ca’s best of 2013 collection

June 20th, 2013 by Iler Campbell

Last night marked the launch of rabble.ca’s latest publication, Red Squares, White Feathers: Best of rabble.ca 2013, and we’re very pleased to let you know that one of Priya’s articles is included in the book. In rabble’s words:

What a collection! Read Judy Rebick’s reflections on the 2012 political year, Maher Arar on Torture, Pam Palmater on Harper’s attack on Indigenous people, Karl Nerenberg on the racism facing the Roma, and Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois on capitalism, Quebec politics and the student movement. And that’s not all! Keep reading and you will find Murray Dobbin on the need to talk taxes, Priya Sarin on eroding labour rights, Nora Loreto on the responsibility to act for non-Indigenous people. Plus tons more!

You can read Priya’s article here, and buy the book here for the very reasonable cost of $10.00 + $2.95 shipping/handling.

Lake Simcoe five years later: Limitless growth causes limitless problems

June 17th, 2013 by Laura Bowman

This upcoming December will mark the fifth anniversary of the Lake Simcoe Protection Act (LSPA), the passage of which led to the implementation of the Lake Simcoe Protection Plan. This legislation was the result of a lot of hard grassroots work by many people in the community.

The Ontario Ministry of the Environment claims that actions under the LSPA and the Plan have resulted in decreasing levels of total phosphorous in the spring, more naturally reproduced sport fish and increasing deep water oxygen levels. These are important steps toward a healthy Lake Simcoe, but do these claims stand up to scrutiny? How much real progress has been made toward protecting Lake Simcoe, and is there room for improvement?

Continue reading “Lake Simcoe five years later: Limitless growth causes limitless problems”

Client Profile: Project Bookmark

June 12th, 2013 by Iler Campbell
Michael Ondaatje and Mayor David Miller at the unveiling of the first Bookmark in 2009.

Michael Ondaatje and Mayor David Miller at the unveiling of the first Bookmark in 2009.

Project Bookmark Canada marks the places where the real and imagined landscapes meet by placing text from imagined stories and poems in the exact, physical locations where literary scenes take place. The charity envisions a network of hundreds of Bookmarks around the country so that residents and visitors can read their way right across Canada.

Iler Campbell LLP has been with Project Bookmark Canada from the beginning. Its founder, author Miranda Hill, engaged us in 2006 to help incorporate the organization and achieve charitable status. And in 2009, we proudly attended the unveiling of the first Bookmark at the Bloor Street Viaduct: a passage from Michael Ondaatje’s In the Skin of a Lion.

We continue to provide Project Bookmark Canada with ongoing legal service primarily in the areas of corporate and contractual law. Recently, Project Bookmark Canada created installations in Vancouver, BC and Gros Morne National Park in NL and has just completed an extensive fundraising initiative spearheaded by literary luminaries like Margaret Atwood, Terry Fallis and Shelagh Rogers.

We encourage you to find out more about this dynamic organization at projectbookmarkcanada.ca.

 

Client Profile: Artscape

June 3rd, 2013 by Iler Campbell
The Regent Park Arts & Cultural Centre while under construction in 2011

The Regent Park Arts & Cultural Centre while under construction in 2011

Artscape is a not-for-profit urban development organization that connects the dynamism and power of creative people with other public, private, philanthropic, community and neighbourhood interests. Over the course of their 26-year history, they’ve become leaders in creative placemaking, and have generated many positive cultural, economic, social and environmental outcomes with their projects. Artscape projects are designed to build and leverage the local community’s cultural assets and creative resources while serving as catalysts for neighborhood growth and transformation. To date their projects have been catalysts for regeneration and have helped stimulate some of Toronto’s most vibrant and creative neighbourhoods including the award-winning Artscape Wychwood Barns and multi-tenant arts facilities in the Queen Street West, Distillery Historic District, Toronto Island and Liberty Village neighbourhoods. Artscape has earned a reputation as an international leader in the fields of culture-led regeneration and city-building through the arts.

Iler Campbell LLP has been a part of Artscape’s team for many years, playing an active role in making many of Artscape’s projects happen on the real estate side. In particular, Iler Campbell is proud to have worked with Artscape to create a model for ownership that allows artists to purchase affordable live-work spaces and to share with Artscape in the increase in the property value. The model also ensures that the spaces are available for resale to other artists on an ongoing affordable basis. So far this model has been used at the Artscape Triangle Lofts where artists have been owners since late 2010 and this will also be used at Artscape Youngplace, a non-residential artists project planned at the Shaw Street School site in Toronto’s west end. And there are more projects in the works.

If you’d like to read more about what Artscape is doing, please take a look their website at artscape.ca.

Understanding foreign worker issues: Intra-company transfers vs. temporary foreign worker programs

May 31st, 2013 by Laura Bowman

A large number of migrant worker issues have been discussed in the media lately.  However, there are different migrant worker programs in Canada, and these give rise to different legal and policy issues. Unfortunately, the press has referred to all programs as the “temporary foreign worker” program and has failed to explain the different categories and processes involved. Calling these programs a “temporary foreign worker program” is vague; it is like saying there is an “environmental program” rather than a collection of laws that govern the use and treatment of the natural environment in its various forms.

The entry of temporary foreign workers is guided by Immigration and Refugee Protection Act regulations and the general provisions of the Temporary Foreign Workers Guidelines, and is supplemented by provisions contained in international trade agreements for citizens of signatory countries.

Many of the recent controversial transfers rely on the “intra-company transfer” program. The intra‑company transfer program originated under NAFTA and it has become even more explicit recently. This program is very popular with employers who exist as a “multi‑national” corporate entity.

Read more on rabble.ca