Imagine how puzzling it must be to be an employee of the city of Montreal: the city “has set up a whistleblower hotline to encourage you to expose wrongdoings by colleagues but has also created an explicit policy forbidding you to blow the whistle and is threatening severe penalties if you do.” [Montreal Gazette]
Posts Tagged ‘Canada’
Mark Steyn on Kinder Egg ban
We’ve previously discussed the FDA’s ban on importation of European “Kinder Surprise” kids’ treats (a toy wrapped in a chocolate egg) and last night conservative writer Mark Steyn ran into the law, as his kids saw two of the confections confiscated at the Canada-U.S. border. The Border Patrol agents would not allow the kids to separate the chocolate from the surprise, eat the chocolate on the spot, and then take home the toys. “The real choking hazard,” he observes, “is the vise-like grip of government.”
Plus: “Woman campaigns to legalize chocolate Kinder eggs” [Northwest Florida Daily News]
Court: Canadian charter mandates bargaining with teacher’s union over class size
Canadian courts in recent years have ruled that the nation’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms creates an enforceable right to collective bargaining, that is, compels employers to bargain with unions rather than with individual workers over terms of employment. Now the Supreme Court of British Columbia has ruled that the Charter prohibits the provincial government from reserving class size and teacher-student ratios, among other topics, as matters of government policy ruled out of bounds as subjects of bargaining with the teacher’s union. [British Columbia Teachers’ Federation v. British Columbia, 2011 BCSC 469 via Bales, Workplace Prof; related 2009 (Alberta court constitutionalizes mandatory dues checkoff)]
Not tonight, dear, I have a toothache
An Ontario no-sex-with-patients rule apparently bars dentists from fixing their own spouses’ teeth. [HealthZone.ca]
Canadian cultural protectionism
Canada’s TV establishment may call on Ottawa to prevent escape-via-Netflix [Michael Moynihan]
“Character” and law licenses
Ontario’s Law Society has rejected a would-be lawyer despite strong academic credentials because of concerns about his character, specifically episodes in which he harassed fellow apartment owners during a condo leadership fight and forged a letter supposedly from an owner. “Character” screening was once a common prerequisite for admission to the American bar, but fell largely into disuse following complaints that it could be subjective and applied unevenly. [Toronto Star]
“Feeds of disaster”
They’re a promotional wheeze Canadian lawyers would be better without, thinks B.C. injury attorney Erik Magraken. Related: Ron Miller (on lawyer “blogs” that do little more than recycle Baltimore Sun accident reports).
American exceptionalism in playground warnings?
Ira Stoll notices a curious cautionary sign at a Washington, D.C. playground: “Designed for Children Ages 2 to 5 Years (18 months – 5 years for Canada).”
“Cats are not a recognized form of pest control as far as we’re concerned”
But the case of a Calgary, Alberta tire store suggests that maybe they should be [CBC]
Prepaying for gas in B.C.
From commenter Bill Poser in the Starbucks tip jar thread:
Some years ago here in British Columbia a guy filled up his car and then drove off without paying. The attendant ran after him, grabbed the door handle, got his hand stuck, and was dragged to death. This led to a successful campaign to require prepayment at gas stations, which is very inconvenient if you aren’t able to use a credit card or debit card at the pump. “Gas and dash” incidents may have been frequent enough to justify this, but that wasn’t the argument. The argument was that this measure was necessary for the safety of the attendants. Of course, all that is really required for the safety of the attendants is for them not to go running after and grabbing onto fleeing vehicles. The attendant’s death was tragic, but it was a freak accident triggered by the attendant’s brave but foolish attempt to prevent the theft of a rather modest amount of money.
Canada.com has a further report on the “B.C. WorkSafe” regulation.