Law & legal issues

Getting it Wrong For Seniors in British Columbia

Sep 27, 2012
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Seniors and their families need and should have access to useful information when they are making critical decisions about residential care and throughout the period of residence in facilities. — BC Ombudsperson, The Best of Care: Getting It Right for Seniors in British Columbia (Part 1) Mass replacement of staff can occur when facility operators switch… View Article

Christy Clark, George Abbott – meet Jeffrey Moore

Mar 14, 2012
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There’s a freight train heading for BC’s education system — and it’s not being driven by government or teachers. This train hit the tracks long before the current collective bargaining dispute. Its operator is an eight-year-old boy from North Vancouver, named Jeffrey Moore. With the support of his family, Jeffrey is driving a human rights… View Article

Rights-based legal aid: a proposal for BC

Nov 9, 2010
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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…. View Article

Premier picks “can do” guy to sell HST in Cabinet shuffle

Oct 27, 2010
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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… View Article

Perverse outcomes of the Basi-Virk case

Oct 21, 2010
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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… View Article

Sshh. It’s an election.

Oct 7, 2010
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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… View Article

Privacy, Facebook and a New Information and Privacy Commissioner

May 24, 2010
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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… View Article

BC opens door to private jails

May 2, 2010
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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… View Article

Loukidelis did good work for government accountability. Now it’s a legislative committee’s turn.

Jan 24, 2010
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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… View Article