“Species at Risk” Legislation In Ontario and Canada

November 8th, 2012 by Iler Campbell LLP

Paula Boutis and our articling student, Jessica Weizenbluth, recently authored a paper on species at risk legislation which Paula presented as part of the Law Society of Upper Canada’s Six Minute Environmental Lawyer 2012. The paper and presentation provide an overview of the laws on the books, how they have been applied, case law, and where the legislation is going from here. Download the paper and presentation here.

Anti-Spam Legislation and Non-profits and Charities – Are you ready?

November 5th, 2012 by Ted Hyland

Preparations continue to lay the groundwork for the coming into force of Canada’s anti‑spam law.1  On October 10, 2012, the CRTC published two information guidelines regarding the legislation: Guidelines on the interpretation of the Electronic Commerce Protection Regulations (CRTC) (CRTC Guideline 2012‑548) and Guidelines on the use of toggling as a means of obtaining express consent under Canada’s anti-spam legislation (CRTC Guideline 2012‑549).

The background to the CRTC Guidelines is that on December 15, 2010, Royal Assent was given to Canada’s anti‑spam law.  A date for the law’s coming into force will be set in the coming months, with the date now expected to be in mid‑2013.  The anti‑spam law will affect any individual, business and organization that:

  • Uses commercial electronic messages;
  • Is involved in the alteration of transmission data; and
  • Produces or installs computer programs.

If you are involved in the operation of a non‑profit or charity why should you care about the anti‑spam law? Increasingly, non‑profit organizations and charities are using electronic means of communicating with people, and the anti‑spam legislation will apply to many, if not all, of those electronic messages. How so?

Continue reading “Anti-Spam Legislation and Non-profits and Charities – Are you ready?”

  1. An Act to promote the efficiency and adaptability of the Canadian economy by regulating certain activities that discourage reliance on electronic means of carrying out commercial activities, and to amend the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission Act, the Competition Act, the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act and the Telecommunications Act, S.C. 2010, c. 23. ↩

OHRC Offers Free Training on the Policy on Competing Human Rights

October 26th, 2012 by Celia Chandler

In April, the Human Rights Commission released its Policy on Competing Human Rights.  This policy provides importance guidance on what to do when to accommodate the rights of one person leads to a possible breach of the rights of another.   This comes up sometimes for our clients and so we were excited to receive an invitation today to attend a free training session on how to use this policy.  We plan to be there and you may want to too!    

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Employees beware: The perils of posting on Facebook

October 25th, 2012 by Priya Sarin

The dramatic growth of social media use in Canada on such sites as Facebook has raised novel legal issues for employers and employees. One such issue is whether or not an employee’s off-duty conduct online (i.e. posting personal status updates, photos or comments on Facebook at home) can get that employee fired. In short, the answer is yes.

Many Canadians still erroneously believe that what they post on their personal Facebook page is private. They feel little hesitation in coming home after a difficult day at work and griping publicly about their company, boss, co‑workers or quality of work. While it is important to protect freedom of expression and healthy discourse on labour relations issues, posting this type of content online may have serious consequences.

Read more on rabble.ca

Reporting Deadline under the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act for Organizations with 20 or more Employees Nears

October 18th, 2012 by Shelina Ali

As of January 1, 2012 all organizations that provide goods and services to members of the public and that have at least one employee in Ontario are required to comply with the Accessibility Standard for Customer Service regulation (the Regulation) under the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act.  In addition, if your organization has 20 employees or more, it must file an online report with the Ministry of Community and Social Services regarding  its compliance with the Regulation by December 31, 2012. Please visit the Ministry of Community and Social Service website for more information about filing you Customer Service Accessibility Compliance Report.

For more information on the requirements of the legislation, see our previous post on the topic.

Ontario Court of Appeal confirms broad scope of environmental protection in the Ontario Environmental Protection Act but Supreme Court of Canada hearing pending.

October 18th, 2012 by Laura Bowman

The Supreme Court of Canada recently granted leave to hear an important Environmental Protection Act case.  In Ontario (Environment) v. Castonguay Blasting Ltd., 2012 ONCA 165 (CanLII) Castonguay, a construction subcontractor caused fly rock to be flung 90 metres into the air during highway construction near Marmora, Ontario in 2007.  The fly rock caused damage to a nearby home and vehicle.

A year later, Castonguay was charged with failure to report the discharge of a contaminant under s.15(1) of the Ontario Environmental Protection Act (EPA).  This provision requires reporting of discharges of contaminants likely to cause an adverse effect to the Ontario Ministry of the Environment, (MOE) so that it can be investigated and addressed accordingly.

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