The Public Has Rights in Culture Too
July 11, 2026
Creators have legitimate rights and interests, but the public, learners, builders, and the commons have rights in culture too.
Tag: #law and society
45 posts
As BC’s Housing Crisis Deepens, Safe Anchorages Are Disappearing
July 10, 2026
Across coastal British Columbia, safe anchorages are disappearing as governments restrict where people may anchor, moor, and live aboard vessels—deepening housing insecurity and displacing established marine communities.
Canada's Online Safety Test: Protect Children Without Surveillance
June 10, 2026
Canada is right to reject the fiction that online harms are just the price of participation in modern life. The test is protecting young people without surveillance or censorship.
Resolve DRIPA, Don't Repeal It
June 4, 2026
British Columbia needs clarity on title, property rights, consent, jurisdiction, land use, and the public interest. Repealing DRIPA would deepen the uncertainty we inherited.
Wes Steeting, don't lie to justify transphobic UK Labour Government policy
April 6, 2026
Wes Streeting your recent article pinkwashing the harm the UK government causes trans youth was an unseemly farce. Except that transphobic oppression on TERF Island is just is not funny.
CTA v. Neufeld (No. 10), 2026 BCHRT 49: Speech, Power, and the Boundaries of Public Debate
February 22, 2026
For five years, school trustee Barry Neufeld used social media and public meetings to hammer away at LGBTQ-inclusive education, calling it propaganda and equating gender identity with abuse. What he framed as policy debate became a campaign that the Tribunal found poisoned the workplace for LGBTQ teachers and crossed into unlawful discrimination.
Trans Inclusion in Canadian Gendered Spaces: Law, Evidence, and the Limits of Discomfort
January 12, 2026
The recurring trans washroom moral panic isn’t about safety. it’s about fear and politics.
CBSA, Should Canada Kick JK Rowling Out?
August 5, 2025
Should JK Rowling be admissible in Canada? I worry she's here to cause trouble.
Will Israel Invest in Dignity and Equality? I Hope So
June 17, 2025
Israel’s deepening control over Gaza risks trapping both peoples in permanent conflict unless dignity, equality, and humanity are visibly centered.
Canada Must Act on Stochastic Terrorism Before More Are Killed
May 22, 2025
The D.C. murder of two Israeli Embassy staff shows how stochastic terrorism leverages online hate to cause real-world violence. Canada must revive the Online Harms Act to address this growing threat.
Trump Wanting to Suspend Habeas Corpus Matters – A Lot
May 10, 2025
Since 1679 Habeas Corpus protects against unlawful detention. Suspending it risks authoritarian rule.
Clarifying UK Access To Single Sex Spaces After The April 2025 Supreme Court For Women Scotland Ruling
April 26, 2025
UK ruling narrows “sex” definition, risking trans rights. Yet human rights law demands inclusion, not exclusion. read how this matters…
Yom HaShoah, Anti-Zionism, and Canada’s Reckoning with Hate
April 24, 2025
As organizers and activists speaking out about injustice, we can not afford to forget what the seeds of genocide are. Because never again means never again for everyone.
The UK Supreme Court's Ruling on Biological Sex: A Step Backward
April 18, 2025
the April 2025 UK Supreme Court Decision Defining Women Exclusively Through Biology Is Refressive And Dangerous. Read why…
D+: GenAI Fact Check: Sean Thompson 2022 Think Scotland Article "Railroaded: Gender Recognition Reform and Policy Capture"
April 17, 2025
Dean M Thomson's 2022 article on Scorland's Gender Recognition Reform earns a D+ grade from AI fact checkers. Check the facts before you share disinformation
Risk of Arbitrary Detention: Should You Reconsider Travel to the US?
March 20, 2025
As law-abiding Canadian, UK, Indian, and German citizens are being arbitrarily detained and mistreated on Republican President Trump Executive Orders, is it dangerous to be a foreigner in the U.S. today?
Upholding Professional Standards: The BCCNM Ruling on Amy Hamm and the Legacy of Oger v. Whatcott
March 14, 2025
The British Columbia College of Nurses and Midwives (BCCNM) Discipline Committee recently ruled that Amy Hamm engaged in unprofessional conduct by making discriminatory and derogatory statements about transgender individuals while identifying herself as a nurse. This decision is a critical affirmation that healthcare professionals must provide care without bias and uphold the ethical standards of […]
The Limits of Salt Spring Island’s Powers: Anchoring, Liveaboards, and Jurisdictional Boundaries
March 9, 2025
Salt Spring Island, part of the Islands Trust in British Columbia, has long sought to regulate activities in its waters, particularly concerning liveaboard vessels and long-term anchoring. So far, the proposed regulations have not been widely supported. Saltspring Island's regulatory powers are constrained by federal authority over navigation and shipping, and by the Provincial legislation […]
The Erosion of Civil Rights in the U.S.: Can States Legally Remove Protections for Trans People?
March 7, 2025
On February 28 2025, AP News reported that Iowa became the first U.S. state to remove gender identity protections from its civil rights code when Gov. Kim Reynolds signed into law a bill that opponents say will expose transgender people and other Iowans to discrimination in all aspects of daily life. When U.S. laws targeting people because […]
Defending Liveaboard Rights in British Columbia: Salt Spring Island
March 4, 2025
CASHI’s Push to Restrict Liveaboards The Clean and Safe Harbours Initiative (CASHI) is pressuring Salt Spring Island’s officials and the Islands Trust to impose restrictions on at-anchor liveaboard boaters in the waters surrounding the island. Armed with a slide deck rich with polling data responding to leading questions that imply some Salt Spring residents are […]
L'éducation à la sexualité à l'école : un droit pour les enfants, un devoir pour l'État
November 14, 2024
L'éducation à la sexualité, un droit fondamental pour les enfants et un devoir de l'État envers eux.
Failing at VORR: Why Vancouver Needs To Do Better in False Creek
April 10, 2024
Some boaters who anchor in False Creek have been complaining about unjustified actions by the City and excessively muscular enforcement that has put people at risk. I did a deep dive on the question and what I learned is that the City of Vancouver has not enacted the bylaw needed to enforce its preferences on […]
How Alberta's new approach to transgender equality compares to British Columbia's
February 1, 2024
Alberta Premier Marlaina “Danielle” Smith announced a series of proposed policy changes targeting the treatment and recognition of transgender individuals, particularly minors. How do these compare to policy in BC, and will they withstand scrutiny and the courts?
Self Defense in Canada
September 11, 2023
For LGBT and other marginalized groups, understanding the rules of self-defense in Canada can be vital. That's why I looked into it.
Getting to safety in Canada when LGBT+
August 5, 2022
There are many who face persecution or violence because of their gender identity or expression, or due to their sexual orientation. Here are four legal ways people can get to safety in Canada.
Trans Rights in BC: Some Interesting Case Law That Mattered
July 19, 2021
Here are historic cases that upheld Transgender rights in BC and Canada. These rights matter because they encompass the fundamental human right to live authentically and without discrimination.
Tolerating Police Brutality Against Defenseless People (for being who they are) Brings Predictable Consequences
May 31, 2020
The people governing the U.S. law-enforcement system allowed it to train and employ potentially lethal methods on defensess, handcuffed persons. The officers used these methods and killed George Floyd when they applied excessive and lethal force during his arrest, and there are strong indications his being a Black man was a factor in how he was treated.
Dear congregation, to hate is to sin…
February 4, 2020
The email below illustrates why we need to clamp down on groups accessing public funds through their charity status to incite discrimination and exclusion. Churches and groups named in this email are violating the terms of their charitable status. It was sent to people in Metro Vancouver inviting them to an event intended to help […]
Schools need to address supremacist hate-motivated acts.
December 17, 2019
"… I hate [racist slur]. I hope all [racist slur] die. … I just want to line them all up and just chuck an explosive in there and go ka-boom! " Vancouver, B.C. student rant in an online video targeting Black students Too many Canadians are touched by hatred, and it feels awful. Acts of […]
Is There A Place For Populist Far-right Parties in Canada?
October 18, 2019
Can emerging hard-right populist parties find a meaningful place in Canada’s political ecology without legislation to address discriminatory publications online?
Dear George, please check your sources.
August 19, 2019
Sometimes, you just have to answer a reader comment.
Is Canada Contributing To The UK Anti-Trans Violence?
June 27, 2019
Is Canada's unregulated online hate propaganda targeting transgender people contributing to the 81% rise in crimes targeting transgender people in the UK? Equal rights charity Stonewall estimated that two in five trans people had experienced a hate crime or incident in the past year.
There's always a second chance for reformed anti-trans activists
May 20, 2019
This is a message to the social conservative fringe of Canada. We all have the same rights, the same hopes, and the same fears. We are, in facts so much alike.
Oak Bay Anti-SOGI Event Illustrates Need For Booking-Policy Review
May 4, 2019
No matter who they are or what they believe, people who incite discrimination on prohibited grounds are inciting others to break the law. This be stopped from doing it in a rented space.
Municipal institutions need to add an anti-discrimination clause to facility rental policies
April 25, 2019
On April 24 2019, I asked VSB Trustees that the Vancouver Public Library Library follow the example of the Toronto Public Library and reserve the right to deny or cancel a booking as follows when it reasonably believes use by any individual or group will be for a purpose that is likely to promote, or would have the effect of promoting discrimination, contempt or hatred for any group or person on the basis of prohibited grounds.
Preying on children makes you a predator regardless of who you are
April 20, 2019
I have dreaded writing this article for the months I have considered it. My advisors recommend against it but I feel it is necessary. It is not with levity I use the word predator literally
Transgender rights repeatedly stand in Canadian decisions
April 2, 2019
Anti-transgender propaganda a modern version of a ‘whites only’ sign
The significance of the Oger v Whatcott ruling
March 29, 2019
I recorded a video expressing my thoughts about the groundbreaking BC Human Rights Tribunal ruling that finally sets clear limits to our charter rights when it comes to hate propaganda against transgender persons.
Creatures From The Extreme-Right Lagoon
February 21, 2019
New-christian-white-supremacist-entity-on-the-block Resurrection Europa has Very Deep Concerns Indeed about anyone who they do not recognize as cisgender, heterosexual, Caucasian, and Christian.
I was at a Meghan Murphy / Lee Lakeman event at my public library
January 12, 2019
I was there, and I hold the Vancouver Public Library and the City of Vancouver responsible for knowingly taking part in Feminist Current and Meghan Murphy publishing hatred to the internet from their facilities.
Dear Daphna,
December 4, 2018
All that TERF rhetoric makes you think about how almost all crimes are committed by cisgender people. [a mediocre parody of hatred]
BOF: Anti-SOGI and Anti-Choice coelacanths converge
September 29, 2018
Birds of a feather are meeting up in Victoria rallies this weekend to oppose women having a right to access abortion and to force LGBTQ2+ kids back into the closet. If it was another month, I would be in Victoria addressing this hot mess from the 1950s that has no place in our inclusive and […]
When Love Wins — Discover
September 7, 2018
Sahitya Poonacha reacts to the Supreme Court of India’s landmark decision to decriminalize gay sex: “Society still has a long way to go, but now with the court on love’s side, it gives the confidence to the people who are afraid.” via When Love Wins — Discover
Pluralitas non est ponenda sine neccesitate
August 28, 2018
Jordan Peterson and Jared Brown's alarmist assertions [1] someone could face jail for using the wrong pronouns for somebody has a far simpler answer thanks to Ockham's razor and our laws: Just let the employee go. William of Ockham was a 14th century philosopher whose central principle was simplicity. Now known as “Ockham’s Razor”, it urges us to […]
My question to the Chilliwack Board of Education
November 29, 2017
Tonight I was at the Chilliwack Board of Education's trustee meeting to ask a question seeking clarification about the individual personal commitment of each trustee to uphold the law of British Columbia. I came to Chilliwack and asked this question because in BC the curriculum is decided by the teachers and the Ministry of Education […]