Iler Campbell LLP

Paula Boutis joins Centennial College Faculty

January 30th, 2013 by Iler Campbell LLP

Iler Campbell is pleased to announce that Paula Boutis has joined the part‑time Faculty at Centennial College, in the School of Engineering Technology and Applied Sciences. She is teaching Environmental Legislation and Regulation to students enrolled in the Environmental Technology or Environmental Technician programs. Congratulations, Professor Boutis!

A small victory: decision grants broad rights to participate in environmental reviews, but changes to scope of EAs and cuts will hamper access, result in less thorough reviews

January 17th, 2013 by Paula Boutis and Jessica Weizenbluth

Last November Laura Bowman wrote a blog post about Alberta case law which might shed some light on how “interested party” status under the new federal Canadian Environmental Assessment Act, 2012 (CEAA 2012) might be interpreted, particularly as it relates to who is deemed to be “directly affected”. To have a right to participate in hearings under CEAA, parties must establish they are an “interested party”, and to be an interested party, the party must either be “directly affected by the carrying out of the designated project” or have “relevant information or expertise”.

Subsequent to Laura’s post, we learned of a decision of a Federal Review Panel (the Panel) constituted under CEAA which explored this question.

Continue reading “A small victory: decision grants broad rights to participate in environmental reviews, but changes to scope of EAs and cuts will hamper access, result in less thorough reviews”

2012 a big year for Competing Human Rights.

December 20th, 2012 by Celia Chandler

2012 has been a big year for the concept of competing human rights.

In May, the Ontario Human Rights Commission published a long-awaited Policy on Competing Human Rights. Earlier this fall, the media reported widely the case of the woman who was denied a haircut by a barber because his religion does not allow him to touch a woman. And today the Supreme Court of Canada ruled on the complex N.S. case: a case that pitted the right of the key witness in a sexual assault trial – the victim – to wear her religious face covering, against the rights of two accused men – her uncle and cousin – to have fair trials.

Continue reading “2012 a big year for Competing Human Rights.”

How conflict of interest rules affect the public interest

December 20th, 2012 by Laura Bowman

Since the Redford, Katz, Ford and other scandals of late, there has been much discussion about conflict of interest rules, what is and isn’t a conflict of interest, and whether there can be degrees of conflicts of interest. What should the legislative penalties be where a conflict is found?

Conflict of interest can be a difficult subject. Various provincial and federal statutes govern conflicts of interest. Roughly speaking, a conflict of interest for a public office holder is usually defined as the exercise of an official power, duty or function that provides an opportunity to further private interests.