Download this lesson plan as a PDF worksheet. Getting Started To teachers This lesson involves student understanding of governance in non-profit organizations and involves students in adopting or creating a governance model for student unions. To students Do you ever wonder about the … [Read more...]
The Supreme Court of Canada Protects the LITTLE GUY
Do you have an insurance contract? Do you know and understand your rights and obligations under that contract? If you have a dispute with your insurance company, how can you be sure that a court will protect you, the “little guy”, in the face of the arguments put forward by a large, possibly … [Read more...]
Values, Ethics, and Civil Society
Often, people perceive ethics to be one of two things: an incomprehensible component of philosophy inherited from the Greeks of antiquity OR a strict set of rules set out by one profession or another. I suggest that ethics is part of the collective “we” at a much deeper and more profound … [Read more...]
Dollars for Damages
Even though it happened ten years ago, the American case of a $3 million damage award for a coffee burn is still discussed today. From a Canadian perspective, the size of the award in Liebeck v. McDonald’s Restaurants was particularly puzzling because multi-million dollar damage awards for personal … [Read more...]
A Lease is a Contract
Most of us do not think of ourselves as negotiators and deal-makers. The reality is that in our everyday lives we are negotiating and making agreements all the time without really thinking about it. Some of the agreements are purely personal matters without any legal implications. Other agreements … [Read more...]
The Essentials of an Employment Contract
Every employment relationship is governed by an employment contract. Many employees believe that because a written employment contract was never signed, no employment contract exists. On the contrary, employment contracts can take the form of a verbal understanding or a lengthy written document … [Read more...]
Signing Your Life Away… The impact of a waiver on your ability to sue
Whether at work or play, waivers have become an ordinary part of life. At the ski hill, the fair, or a hockey game, Canadians must sign waivers before participating in a wide variety of activities and events. We sign waivers everyday for ourselves and for our children. A waiver can significantly … [Read more...]
Today’s Trial: Only Two Friends Said No
“I wish to make some comments which do not form part of my Reasons for Judgment. I was dismayed, for many reasons, throughout this trial. I was dismayed by the rumours and innuendoes, and that so may people seem to have acted on them without even considering whether they were based on fact. I was … [Read more...]
School’s In: Changing Faces to Learn About Bullying
Bullying — and its variations teasing, ostracizing, intimidating, assaulting — is a problem that has come out of its closet and into the courtrooms in the late twentieth and early twenty-first century. But it isn’t new. Bullying is a time-honoured approach to life acted out everywhere from … [Read more...]
The Rule of Law: What is it? Why should we care?
The Rule of Law is a basic, essential, and fundamental concept that has been wrestled with by philosophers, individuals, and societies for centuries. Imagine ... Living in a society where one day, while you are safely and reasonably driving your new car down the street, you are pulled over and … [Read more...]
