Posts Tagged ‘Discrimination’

Non-profit boards: try not to ‘Zoom’ past equitable governance

August 31st, 2020 by Karly Wilson

This article was first published on rabble.ca.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had the unique ability to highlight social areas where inequality and inequity have been lurking for ages. Gender discrimination in the workplace is no exception.

There have been countless articles addressing the extra burden that the pandemic has placed on women, often centring the many complexities of domestic labour division and child care. Even without these larger issues, smaller forms of discrimination, or microaggressions, persist during the pandemic as well, even as our work lives have moved almost entirely online.

It has never been easier to work remotely, and professionals across the country have been lauding the advancements in technology that have made working possible during the pandemic. Zoom meetings, “fax by email,” Facetime calls, constant texting — they all allow employers to replicate the workplace experience for employees from the comfort of their home offices (or living room couches, or kitchens, or bedrooms). For many women, these technologies have not only replicated the issues they already experienced at work, but have exacerbated them.

Continue reading “Non-profit boards: try not to ‘Zoom’ past equitable governance”

Webinar recording and slides: Good practices for using the internet and social media to promote your organization

March 13th, 2019 by Iler Campbell

Does your organization have a Twitter, Facebook or Instagram account, or any other social media accounts? Does it have a website, or a blog? Does it have any sort of internal network linking members or stakeholders? These tools can be powerful ways to get out information; they can reach far more people than the old fashioned newsletter or bulletin board. However, there are risks to having tools to get information out to more people, more quickly – when the information is defamatory or discriminatory, or otherwise problematic, having it distributed on line can create serious problems.

Iler Campbell lawyer, Shelina Ali discussed these issues in a webinar last Friday. A recording of it is now online. Check it out below. You can download a copy of her slideshow here.

Free legal workshop: Good practices for using the internet and social media to promote your organization

February 22nd, 2019 by Iler Campbell

IC Education decorative banner

Get your message out without getting yourself in hot water.

Does your organization have a Twitter, Facebook or Instagram account, or any other social media accounts? Does it have a website, or a blog? Does it have any sort of internal network linking members or stakeholders? These tools can be powerful ways to get out information; they can reach far more people than the old fashioned newsletter or bulletin board. However, there are risks to having tools to get information out to more people, more quickly – when the information is defamatory or discriminatory, or otherwise problematic, having it distributed on line can create serious problems.

Join Iler Campbell lawyer, Michael Hackl, for an hour long session starting at noon on March 8th to discuss these sorts of problems, how significant they can be, and what your organization can do to protect itself from exposure to such issues.

 

How to attend

You can attend this workshop as an interactive webinar or in person at our office over lunch hour. We’re hosting in our boardroom so in-person spaces are very limited.

If you can’t make it but would like a recording of the webinar, click register and select ‘I can’t attend the webinar but please send me a recording.’

RSVP here.

 

Police technology vs. civil liberties — science fiction or current reality?

September 27th, 2018 by Michael Hackl

I enjoy reading science fiction, especially when it considers humanity’s struggle to deal with new technologies. Often these stories present a cautionary tale about how new technologies can be misused to oppress people. This idea of science fiction as cautionary tales was summed up by author Ray Bradbury, who wrote: “The function of science fiction is not only to predict the future, but to prevent it.”

One of my favourite science fiction writers is Philip K. Dick, who wrote a number of these cautionary tales. One of them, “The Minority Report” (which you may know instead as a Tom Cruise movie — the short story is better) presented a future where police did not investigate crimes that had occurred; instead, the “PreCrime” unit stops crimes before they occur, based on predictions from precognitive mutants.

Reality imitates fiction

So imagine my surprise when I came upon an article discussing police use of a computer program called PredPol (short for predictive policing) to identify areas that are more likely to experience crimes and to direct police resources to those areas. Continue reading “Police technology vs. civil liberties — science fiction or current reality?”

Free legal workshop: Good practices for using the internet and social media to promote your organization

November 14th, 2017 by Iler Campbell

IC Education decorative banner

Get your message out without getting yourself in hot water.

Does your organization have a Twitter, Facebook or Instagram account, or any other social media accounts? Does it have a website, or a blog? Does it have any sort of internal network linking members or stakeholders? These tools can be powerful ways to get out information; they can reach far more people than the old fashioned newsletter or bulletin board. However, there are risks to having tools to get information out to more people, more quickly – when the information is defamatory or discriminatory, or otherwise problematic, having it distributed on line can create serious problems.

Join Iler Campbell lawyer, Michael Hackl, for an hour long session starting at 9:30 am on November 28th to discuss these sorts of problems, how significant they can be, and what your organization can do to protect itself from exposure to such issues.

RSVP here.

 

Lessons for housing providers from the 2017 National Conference on LGBTTQIA2S Lives

October 3rd, 2017 by Elliot Fonarev

Montréal Pride (Fierté Montréal) hosted the 2017 National Conference on LGBTTQIA2S Lives in August. I had the privilege of attending as a student bursary recipient. The acronym, “LGBTTQIA2S” stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, transsexual, queer, intersex, asexual, and two-spirited – in this blog I also use the term “sexual and gender minorities” to refer to members of this community.

The conference brought together community and cultural partners, university researchers, and government representatives for a discussion of the important issues facing sexual and gender minorities across Canada today.  The workshops highlighted how different civil society groups, academics, businesses, and governments have approached civil and human rights, health and family rights, social and cultural issues, employment and workplace inclusion, migrant and refugee issues, and international issues and movements.  The topics focused on different realities and identities within the LGBTTQIA2S umbrella, raising a broad range of issues affecting different people in the community.  The overall theme that emerged from discussions was that although there have been many recent gains with respect to legal recognition and formal protections of sexual and gender minorities in Canada, many members of the LGBTTQIA2S communities continue to experience high levels of insecurity and marginalization and remain vulnerable in every sector of life.

One community in particular should be of interest to our clients who house and employ individuals from the LGBTTQIA2S communities: migrants and asylum seekers who are sexual and gender minorities.  One panel featured settlement workers who work exclusively with sexual and gender minorities in Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver, spoke of the difficulty that many of these individuals, particularly transgender migrants, experience in finding housing.  These individuals are at risk of encountering multiple kinds of discrimination due to the intersection of their status as migrants and sexual or gender minorities, and often race or ethnicity.  Many sexual and gender minorities who are not migrants and live in social housing communities also report feeling unwelcome and unsafe due to their sexual orientation or gender as well as other intersecting identities.

Continue reading “Lessons for housing providers from the 2017 National Conference on LGBTTQIA2S Lives”