Do flip-flops, exercise shorts, or spaghetti strap tank tops belong in the workplace? An article (in French) in Le Devoir, “Relâchement vestimentaire – Pour en finir avec la «gougoune» au travail”, attempts to answer exactly that. According to the article, Revenu Québec and The Ordre des infirmières et infirmiers du Québec (OIIQ) have insisted that their employees dress appropriately for the workplace, where exercise shorts, tank tops, flip-flops and other overly casual items do not belong. In fact, Revenu Québec sent out a memo to all its employees on the subject of office dress codes as recently . . . [more]

Corruption is likely very much near the front of your mind these days as the Murdoch/Tory/Scotland Yard revelations continue in Britain.

At the same time, the US GAO has revealed an astounding 16Trillion dollars in bailout funds (not 800 Billion, as previously reported), delivered in many cases to companies with strong, current ties to the granting agencies.

Meanwhile, Canada has decided to send Lai Changxing back to China for trial. His extensive (alleged) smuggling operation flourished under the aegis of Jia Qinglin,

…now the Communist Party’s fourth most senior leader, [he] was the province’s party chief. It was one

. . . [more]

I was a big fan of Star Trek: The Next Generation. But a couple of things irritated me about it. One was William Riker. The other was their insistence on having Captain Picard badger the replicator for Earl Grey tea.

I don’t hate Earl Grey, but I don’t like it either — who would want good tea adulterated with bergamot, apart from JLP, I mean? It’s… medicinal. Nevertheless, there seems to be the notion floating around this side of the Atlantic that Earl Grey is the best, the fanciest, or the finest tea, which, I guess, is why they programmed . . . [more]

The .XXX top level domain application period is underway. This has been a very controversial topic. The XXX domain is available for users in the “sponsored community”, being the “adult entertainment industry”.

One of the criticisms of this TLD is the fear that people will try to register domains using names or trade-marks of those outside of the sponsored community. disney.XXX, or apple.XXX for example.

So a procedure is in place called “Sunrise B” where for a short period of time (September 7 to October 28), trade-mark owners can apply to have their marks blocked from registration. The . . . [more]

The province of Ontario will now require divorcing couples to attend an information session on mediation, which will be necessary before their proceedings can go forward. This information session is meant to provide alternatives to the court system in the hopes that it will alleviate the heavy caseloads many courthouses are facing.

As reported by Ms. Kathryn Blaze Carlson in the National Post:

By mandating the information session, and by subsidizing mediation for couples who choose to forgo litigation, Ontario has joined an international push toward mediation and away from costly, time-consuming and oftentimes nasty litigation. Britain and New

. . . [more]

Lawyers and law firms have a complex relationship with journalism and public relations, I’d say: control, reputation, social positioning — power, if you will — all these can intersect in interesting ways for this trio of influence- and word-mongers. The recent brouhaha in Britain over the News of the World and Murdoch’s News Corp. phone hacking mess illustrates some of the less happy aspects of this interaction. Normally, we here at Slaw would be more focused on the legalities; but I think it’s enlightening, for a change, to look at this scandal from the public relations point of view, and . . . [more]

In a bit of tragic irony last week, I finished my post on some of Canada’s constitutional documents and hit the publish button and left Slaw to discover that Dalhousie, and indeed, Canada had suffered a terrible loss with the passing of Professor Peter Aucoin. I’m sure that many Slaw readers are familiar with the name as he was one of, if not the, preeminent scholar on Canadian government and public service; he was a key figure in many Royal Commissions and published books and journal articles of high quality, too numerous to mention here. His scholarship and contributions . . . [more]

Every so often I’m struck by how impressive the crow is. This strutting, raucous, scavenger — a “murder” en masse — exhibits the sort of behaviour that should give us pause whenever we’re feeling smug about our perch atop the smartness pole. Not that this corvid, cousin to jays and magpies, is about to solve Fermat’s theorem, perfect the hydrogen bomb, or do anything so humanly intelligent. But the bird can solve problems, recognize faces, teach others (or learn from others), and outsmart human beings from time to time.

For example, a few years back Chatham, Ontario, was beleaguered by . . . [more]

New tool allowing you to find out if your email address was stolen in a hacker breach. The online tool is called HackNotifier.

Tories kill access to information database

Tories to create government-run media centre: report

What’s the adage about being careful what one wishes for lest one get it? . . . [more]

 Last week I mentioned a survey about the proposed UK 3 strikes law that concluded that it would not significantly deter filesharing behaviour. And added my views on why such laws are not a good idea.

Here’s a Reuters article that starts off by saying:

U.S. Internet service providers, including Verizon Communications Inc, Comcast Corp, Time Warner Cable Inc, Cablevision Systems Corp and AT&T Inc agreed to alert customers, up to six times, when it appears their account is used for illegal downloading. Warnings will come as e-mails or pop-up messages.

If suspected illegal activity persists, the provider might temporarily

. . . [more]

Recently, the Quebec government released a report entitled “La présence syndicale au Québec en 2010“. It revealed that the unionization rate of Quebec’s total labour force is of 39.6%. This is the highest rate in North America (by a decent margin). More than 1.3 million workers in Quebec are governed by a collective agreement. The report also mentioned that in the last decade, there has been a decreasing trend of union across North America. Even Quebec’s rate decreased from 40.9% to 39.6%.

How is unionization trending in your area? . . . [more]