CCPA-BC’s new study on legal aid in BC explores the impact of cuts to the system and proposes a new rights-based approach that would cut both economic and social costs. Listen to interviews with the authors on CBC’s Early Edition, Jim Harrison’s show on CHNL in Kamloops and Adam Stirling’s show on CFAX in Victoria. [...]
Entries Tagged as 'Law & legal issues'
Rights-based legal aid: a proposal for BC
November 9th, 2010 · Sarah Leavitt · Comments Off · Law & legal issues
Tags: human rights·legal aid·Women
Premier picks “can do” guy to sell HST in Cabinet shuffle
October 27th, 2010 · Keith Reynolds · Comments Off · Law & legal issues
MLA John Les returned from the political wilderness Monday when the Premier appointed him Parliamentary Secretary for HST Information in his Cabinet shuffle. In my mind it was one the most dubious choices in what was a controversial remixing at the top. Earlier, Les had served as Solicitor General until losing his post during an [...]
Perverse outcomes of the Basi-Virk case
October 21st, 2010 · Shannon Daub · 10 Comments · Law & legal issues, Poverty, inequality & welfare
I — along with a whole lot of other British Columbians — have been stewing away about the abrupt end to the BC Rail trial, and the decision to let David Basi and Bob Virk completely off the hook for $6 million in legal fees. Politics of the matter aside, what really gets me is [...]
Tags: basi·basi-virk-trial·bc-rail·bcpiac·virk·welfare-overpayments
Sshh. It’s an election.
October 7th, 2010 · Shannon Daub · Comments Off · BC Election 2009, Electoral reform, Law & legal issues
This piece, by myself and Heather Whiteside, also appeared in the Vancouver Sun today. It summarizes findings from Election Chill Effect: The Impacts of BC’s New Third Party Advertising Rules on Social Movement Groups, co-published yesterday by the CCPA, BC Civil Liberties Association, and BC’s Freedom of Information and Privacy Association. “For groups to be [...]
Tags: election advertising
12 year olds at work: cuts, strains, dislocations and fractures
August 4th, 2010 · Keith Reynolds · 1 Comment · Children & youth, Law & legal issues
Last month the Medical Officer of Health for the Sea to Sky Region published an article in a Squamish newspaper raising his concerns about child labour in British Columbia. In his column Dr. Paul Martiquet reports that in BC the minimum age for working a regular job is 12 – the lowest of any jurisdiction [...]
Privacy, Facebook and a New Information and Privacy Commissioner
May 24th, 2010 · Keith Reynolds · 2 Comments · Law & legal issues
Sometimes personal and policy issues collide or at least slide in side-by-side. That happened for me when the BC Legislature appointed Elizabeth Denham as the province’s new Information and Privacy Commissioner on May 6th. Denham’s biography shows she has a strong background in privacy issues. From 2003 to 2007 she worked on private sector privacy [...]
Tags: Elizabeth Denham·Facebook·Information and Privacy Commissioner·Privacy
BC opens door to private jails
May 2nd, 2010 · Keith Reynolds · 2 Comments · Human rights, Law & legal issues, Privatization, P3s & public services, Transparency & accountability
The BC government has taken the next step down the privatization road by opening the door to private prisons. On April 28th Partnerships BC posted a request for qualification on the BC Bid web site for a public private partnership (P3) for the Surrey Pretrial Centre. You need to register with Bid BC to see [...]
Loukidelis did good work for government accountability. Now it’s a legislative committee’s turn.
January 24th, 2010 · Keith Reynolds · 1 Comment · Law & legal issues, Transparency & accountability
David Loukidelis, British Columbia’s Freedom of Information Commissioner has accepted the new role as the province’s deputy attorney general. Vaughn Palmer did a good column on the switch in jobs but I thought Loukidelis deserved more credit for his ten years on the job. Personally, I think Loukidelis’s leadership was almost completely responsible for BC’s FOI legislation [...]
Tags: accountability·FOI·Loukidelis
