Your search

Canada's federal State Immunity Act, 1985 grants to foreign states a pre- sumptive immunity from actions in the Canadian courts, subject to important exceptions. One such exception is set out in section 5 of that Act, which applies when the proceedings relate to "commercial activity." This paper argues that Canadian courts and tribunals in labour and employment cases have been incon- sistent in their interpretation of the scope of the exception for commercial activity, and thus in the extent to which they have been prepared to uphold foreign states' claims to immunity. Advocating for what is termed the "liberal" approach, as enunciated in the leading case of Re Canada Labour Code, the author discusses the case law to demonstrate the varying degrees to which this approach has been followed. His preference for the liberal approach, which focuses on the roles and responsibilities of the employee, is informed by a comparative analysis of American, European, and Australian legislation and jurisprudence. Ultimately, it is argued that state immunity in employment cases should generally be restricted to two situations: individual employee claims where the employee is a high-rank- ing diplomat, civil servant or military official with the foreign state; and col- lective employee claims brought against a foreign state employer in a highly sensitive location such as a military base, embassy or consulate.

Review of: Les collectivités locales au coeur de l’intégration des immigrants : questions identitaires et stratégies régionales edited by Michèle Vatz Laaroussi, Estelle Bernier and Lucille Guilbert.

This paper examines the relationship between precarious employment, legal status, and racialization. We conceptualize legal status to include the intersections of immigration and citizenship. Using the PEPSO survey data we operationalize three categories of legal status: Canadian born, foreign-born citizens, and foreign-born non-citizens. First we examine whether the character of precarious work varies depending on legal status, and find that it does: Citizenship by birth or naturalization reduces employment precarity across most dimensions and indicators. Next, we ask how legal status intersects with racialization to shape precarious employment. We find that employment precarity is disproportionately high for racialized non-citizens. Becoming a citizen mitigates employment precarity. Time in Canada also reduces precarity, but not for non-citizens. Foreign birth and citizenship acquisition intersect with racialization unevenly: Canadian born racialized groups exhibit higher employment precarity than racialized foreign-born citizens. Our analysis underscores the importance of including legal status in intersectional analyses of social inequality.

This paper examines how employees experience flexible workplace practices (FWPs), such as flex-time, in the context of small firms. Data are taken from a Canadian study on small information technology (IT) firms that employed between four and 21 individuals. A multiple case study of 17 firms is conducted using web-surveys, semi-structured interviews, case study reports, field notes, and HR policy documents. Results show variable experiences based on whether firms were flexible for employees and whether the workplace culture supported the use of FWPs. The findings suggest that similar and different processes occur in the small firms compared to the large companies often studied in the literature.

The article reviews the book, "Le Surprésentéisme. Travailler malgré la maladie," by Denis Monneuse.

The State of Working America, by Lawrence Mishel, Josh Bivens, Elise Gould and Heidi Shierholz, is reviewed.

Plutocrats: the Rise and Fall of the New Global Super-Rich and the Fall of Everyone Else, by Chrystia Freeland, is reviewed.

This article reviews the book, "Dominion of Capital: The Politics of Big Business and the Crisis of the Canadian Bourgeoisie, 1914-1947," by Don Nerbas.

I undertake a Rawlsian political economy exercise—namely, one in which economic institutions are judged by how well they match principles in theories of distributive justice. I contend that such an exercise is integrally related to empirical economics because most theories of justice emphasize respect, which, in turn, depends on how wages and employment are actually assigned in an economy. I explore these ideas in relation to the minimum wage. This leads to a different emphasis on what minimum wage–related outcomes need study, and to a claim that minimum wage setting is related to standards of fairness.

The article reviews the book, "Along a River. The First French-Canadian Women," by Jan Noel.

Linguistic Justice for Europe and for the World, by Philippe Van Parijs, is reviewed.

Editorial introduction to the articles in the issue. Includes bibliography.

Créer et partager la prospérité. Sortir l'eacute;conomie canadienne de l'impasse, by Diane Bellemare, is reviewed.

This article reviews the book, "From Sugar to Revolution: Women's Visions of Haiti, Cuba, and the Dominican Republic," by Myriam J.A. Chancy.

This article reviews the book, "Make it a Green Peace! The Rise of Countercultural Environmentalism," by Frank Zelko.

This article reviews the book, "Sunbelt Capitalism: Phoenix and the Transformation of American Politics," by Elizabeth Tandy Shermer.

Discusses Bettina Bradbury's later-career preoccupation with issues of gender, marriage, race, and property in the white-settler societies of the British empire during the 19th century. Also describes Bradbury's influence on the author, who was one of her Ph.D. students and collaborated with her on a publication.

The article reviews the book, "The Art of the Impossible: Dave Barrett and the NDP in Power, 1972-1975," by Geoff Meggs and Rod Mickleburgh.

Voice and Whistleblowing in Organizations: Overcoming Fear, Fostering Courage and Unleashing Candour, edited by Ronald J. Burke and Cary L. Cooper, is reviewed.

This paper considers what steps must be taken to effectively implement the recommendations of the Pinto Report on reform of Ontario's human rights sys- tem, in a way that will advance a culture of human rights. It does so through the prism of principles set out in the Law Commission of Ontario's frameworks for assessing law, policy and practice in relation to the rights of persons with dis- abilities and the rights of older persons. Applying those frameworks, the author identifies three requirements for measuring whether the human rights system is meeting its goal of achieving greater equality - undertaking research, engaging in consultations, and ensuring that input is fully considered and that outcomes are documented. The latter requirement focuses on several issues which the Pinto Report considered at length, namely, difficulties in accessing the system and the particular problems of access experienced by aboriginal persons, the high number of unrepresented applicants, and the need to facilitate complaints of systemic discrimination. In addition, the author underscores the importance of dealing systematically with discrimination on intersecting grounds. The paper concludes that meeting the needs of applicants and respondents in the human rights system will mean clearly articulating guiding principles, identifying gaps in long-term objectives, and ensuring that a carefully designed process is in place to direct further steps.