Posts Tagged ‘rabble.ca’

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

The growth of community-owned green energy in Canada

September 27th, 2012 by Brian Iler

Community power was given a boost this summer with the release of the second round of Nova Scotia’s Community Feed-In Tariff (COMFIT) projects on July 9, 2012 and Ontario’s FIT 2.0 Program Rules on August 10, 2012.

Until now, ownership and participation in Canada’s growing green energy sector has been dominated by private sector interests. It looks like things may be starting to change.

Read more on rabble.ca

Hate speech and amendments to the Canadian Human Rights Act

July 27th, 2012 by Shelina Ali

The House of Commons recently passed a private member’s bill, Bill C‑304, to amend the Canadian Human Rights Act (CHRA), repealing Section 13, the “hate speech” clause, in its entirety. Bill C‑304, tabled by Brian Storseth, MP for Westlock‑St. Paul, has received very little attention even though its impact may be more extensive than many people realize.

Read more on rabble.ca

What powers do Canadian municipalities have to create environmental rights?

June 28th, 2012 by Paula Boutis and Laura Bowman

A reader asked us if Canadian municipalities can pass an environmental bill of rights, as some American jurisdictions have with the help of the Community Environmental Legal Defence Fund. The example provided by the reader prohibited the extraction of natural gas by means other than gas wells installed and operating at the time of the enactment of the ordinance.

In Canada, municipalities are created by provincial laws and their powers are limited both by those laws and by the limits on provincial jurisdiction.

Read more on rabble.ca

The costs of hiding environmental information

April 26th, 2012 by Iler Campbell LLP

Laura Bowman wrote our Pro Bono column on rabble.ca this month. In it, she discusses access to environmental information:

For citizens and NGOs who want to challenge environmental decisions, the biggest obstacle is usually obtaining information about the potential environmental effects of a decision or project.  In the 1990s, the Ontario government passed the Environmental Bill of Rights which was supposed to make access to environmental information easier.

Read the column here

Pro Bono – A new column on rabble.ca

March 30th, 2012 by Iler Campbell LLP

We’re pleased to announce that we’ve joined forces with rabble.ca to write a new monthly column called Pro Bono.

In our first entry, Paula Boutis writes about the March 8, 2012 NDP motion which expands the investigative powers of Elections Canada in response to the “robocall” scandal. The motion passed unanimously. Paula explains what this will mean.

Read it here