Year in Review: JFCY and the PLE Team!

Both JFCY and the PLE Team had a great year in 2012.

JFCY's work in 2012

JFCY lawyers assisted hundreds of young people this year with various legal issues, ranging from defending youth on charges under the Youth Criminal Justice Act, representing youth in family court in making claims for financial support, advocacy around entitlement to social benefits like Ontario Works, negotiations and defending youth facing school expulsions, representing youth victims of crime in applications to the Criminal Injuries Compensation Board, and many other types of cases.

In addition to direct representation at court and tribunals in the Toronto-area, JFCY lawyers also provided legal advice and brief services to young people across the province.

JFCY intervened in two important cases at the Supreme Court of Canada, including one about children's rights to appropriate special education supports.  To read more, check out our related blog post here.

JFCY lawyers also conducted legal education workshops and seminars for other lawyers, social workers, teachers, guidance counselors, front-line support workers, social service professionals and, of course, youth themselves.  These sessions focused on a variety of issues, from youth criminal justice to school education law and were conducted across the province, including as far away as Thunder Bay.

JFCY did all of this despite a small staff of only six people!  A special thanks to our dedicated crew: Mary (Acting Executive Director), Samira (intake lawyer), Andrea (litigation lawyer), Johanna (street youth legal services lawyer), Karien (office manager) and Marie (admin).

Finally, a VERY big thanks to JFCY's many volunteers, from our Board of Directors to our law student interns to our committees, including the PLE Team, featured below.  The work of our volunteers is crucial in allowing us to be able to fulfill our mandate, while keeping connected to the communities that we serve.

The Public Legal Education Team ("PLE Team")- 2012 Year in Review

Launched in the summer of 2010, the PLE Team has grown and improved in the past two years.  Led by our litigation lawyer, Andrea, and supported each academic year by a law student volunteer from U of T's PBSC program, the PLE Team is responsible for this blog, as well as JFCY's Facebook, YouTube and Twitter presence.  Additionally, the PLE Team regularly publishes print and online newsletters, zines and other special projects. To read the Bullying 'Zine that we published in 2012, click here.

2012 saw JFCY's blog stats increase significantly, thanks in large part to the consistent and high-level effort of the PLE Team volunteers, who include high school students, post-secondary students, law students, lawyers and others. To read our most popular blog post written in 2012, click here.

The YouTube subcommittee of the PLE Team produced and uploaded four videos in 2012, including topics such as Leaving Home and Fake ID.

Thanks to the 20+ active volunteer members of the PLE Team, including 8 high school students, our PBSC law student voluntreers Leora Jackson (2011/12) and Lauren Grossman (2012/13), our YouTube coordinators Arif Hussain and Bianca Thomas and our video editor Terence Chen (a grade 12 student who was recognized as JFCY's Volunteer of the Year at our 2012 AGM.)

  


The PLE Team in 2013?

Around the corner in 2013, stay tuned for a new YouTube video on school expulsions.  We are also in the process of creating an interactive game that will be used at JFCY workhsops.  The Youth Action Committee members of the PLE Team have several plans up their sleeve, including some awareness raising initiatives and events to help encourage young people from diverse backgrounds to consider future careers in law. We are looking forward to another fun and successful year of PLE in 2013.

The ABCs of Dropping Out of School

Image from:  http://www.chilliwack.com/main/page.cfm?id=2110

Scenario

As this summer reaches a close and the last baseball bats are swung, the final soccer tournaments are played, and homework-free weekends come to an end, we can almost hear the morning bell calling us in for another year of school. I’m sure we’ve all experienced that familiar dread of pop quizzes, boring classes, and endless homework. But even as the back-to-school signs and chillier weather tell us to start sharpening our pencils, maybe not all of us are anticipating a return to the classroom.

Perhaps, instead, you’re thinking about joining the workforce or taking some time off. However, while the stresses of school can definitely be overwhelming, it is important to consider the potential consequences of dropping out before you decide to leave school for good, including how it will impact your chances of getting a job in the future.

Deciding to leave school is definitely a complex decision that may be influenced by variety of factors. Before you decide to the leave the classroom for good, make sure to consider the potential legal consequences of your decision.

The Law: When can you drop out of school?

The Education Act is the Ontario law that covers education issues, including attendance.  It requires everyone over the age of six to attend school until they graduate or reach age 18.  This doesn’t just mean registering in school – it means actually going, every single day that school is in session!

What if you are sick? Or you have a religious holiday? Or your parents have decided to home school you?  Are you breaking the law?  The answer is no.  You can be excused from attendance at school for any of those reasons, and you are also excused from attendance at school if you are suspended or expelled.

Every school has a school attendance counsellor who is responsible for following up when students miss school.  The counsellor will contact the parent or guardian of a student who is not in school.

If you are under age 16, you can actually be charged with an offence under the Provincial Offences Act and made to attend court for skipping or "being habitually absent" from school! 

Your parents can be charged too.  The Education Act makes it a parent or guardian’s responsibility to make sure that students go to school if the law requires it.  If a parent neglects or refuses to fulfill this responsibility, they can be fined up to $200.

These laws have actually been changed to make the magic age 18, however, they have not yet been "proclaimed" by the government and thus the old rule of age 16 still stands. (In other words, the new law has been written but the government has not yet made the changes valid.)

So, the bottom line: If you are under age 16 and you “drop out”, both you and your parent(s) can be charged.  If you are 16 or 17 and drop out, then you are technically breaking the law but at this point nether you nor your parents will be charged with an offence.

To learn more about mandatory school attendance, see sections 25, 26, 30, and 31 of the Education Act.

This scenario was written by PLE Team volunteer Rachel Kattapuram.  Legal info by Leora Jackson and JFCY.

Teenage drinking and driving

Jessica  is 17 years old. She doesn't own a car, but she's been saving up money from her part time job to eventually purchase her own car in the near future. In the meantime, Jessica drives around her mother's car whenever she needs to.  Jessica is the only one among her friends who has a driver's licence, so her friends often depend on her to give them a ride.

One night there was a dance taking place at her school, and all the students were planning to attend.   Jessica was very excited for this dance because her exams were finally all over.  She was looking forward to partying and celebrating with her classmates. Many of Jessica’s friends were planning on getting wasted at the dance and she ensured them that she'd remain a designated driver for them. Although Jessica and her friends were below Ontario’s legal drinking age, they still planned to drink.

Jessica ended up drinking along with her friends during the party. She knew how dangerous it is to drink irresponsibly, but she continued to drink through the party along with her friends, even though she knew that she was supposed to drive everyone home safely.

Although Jessica didn't drink as much as her friends she still had a high amount of alcohol in her system , enough to possibly impair her driving ability.  Jessica has heard of the effects of drinking and driving countless times and she knows that drinking and driving can lead to accidents that claim lives.  She knows that driving home would put many innocent lives, including those of her friends, at risk.

Why does drinking and driving lead to accidents?

When a person drinks alcohol, it affects their ability to see and think about things the way that they normally do.  Ability to judge distances, to respond quickly to changes on the road, and to see clearly can all be affected.  All this means that accidents are more likely to happen when someone drinks and drives.

The amount of alcohol in a person’s body is measured by how much alcohol is in their blood.  This is called blood alcohol concentration, or BAC.  Your BAC is affected by factors like how much you drink, how fast you drink, your gender, your body weight, and how much food is in your stomach.  Because these factors change based on the individual person, it is very hard to know how much drinking will lead to impairment of your driving abilities.  It’s also very hard to assess your own BAC or impairment.  Overall, a higher BAC means that the alcohol you’ve drunk will have a greater impact on your driving performance.

What are the consequences of drinking and driving?

Drinking and driving leads to accidents, including death and injury.  It accounts for almost 25% of car accident deaths in Ontario.  However, it can also lead to charges being laid against the driver, fines and licence suspensions, and the impoundment of a vehicle.

In Ontario, if you are 21 and under, there is a zero blood alcohol concentration (BAC) rule while driving.  This means that regardless of which kind of licence you have (G, G1, G2), if you are caught with any alcohol in your blood, you will receive an immediate 24-hour roadside driver licence suspension.  You will likely then be charged with impaired driving.  If you are convicted of the charge, you can be fined between $60 and $500, and your licence can be suspended for 30 days.  If you are a young driver with a G1 or G2 licence, you can face even stricter consequences, including being returned to the start of the Graduated Licencing System.  For example, this means that if Jessica has her G2 and is caught drinking, she may lose her G2 licence (which allows her to drive her friends unaccompanied by an adult) and be returned to the start of the licensing process.

Higher BACs (between 0.05-0.08, and above 0.08) lead to even more severe consequences.

What are Jessica’s other options?

Jessica chose to drink even though she had agreed to be the designated driver.  Now  she has another decision to make: drive home or find alternative options.  If Jessica chooses to drive home, she risks the safety of herself, her friends, and others on the road.  She also risks being caught driving while impaired, either because of an accident or because she is stopped by a police officer, which could have a serious impact on her ability to drive.  If she drives home drunk, she will also have to consider what will happen if her mother finds out about what she has done.

Instead of driving home, Jessica can find out whether one of her friends has a parent or sober friend who would be willing to pick them up.  Jessica can pick up the car from school in the morning.  If one of her friends lives nearby, everyone might be able to stay there for the night.  Or, Jessica and her friends can share a cab – 1-888-TAXIGUY is a toll-free number which is available in 250 towns and cities across Ontario.  It connects callers directly to a partner taxicab in their city.  All of these are good options for Jessica and her friends.

JFCY has posted about drinking and driving in the past - check out these past posts for more information: July 2012 ; September 2011

The scenario for this post was written by Deqa Abdi, a volunteer member of the JFCY PLE Team. The legal info was written by JFCY volunteer Leora Jackson, a UofT law student.  Reviewed by JFCY. 

Can young people get married?

Scenario:

Mark is a seventeen-year old high school student who has just finished grade 11.  He loves soccer, playing the guitar and going to parties with his friends. He is the vice-president on his school’s student council and is a member of the swim team.  He has been dating his boyfriend, Nathan, since the end of 10^th grade and they are both thinking of getting married. They have a great relationship and Mark cannot see himself being with anyone else but Nathan.

Mark’s home life has been difficult lately, as his father left the family several years ago and has not been in contact with them since he has left.  His mother has legal custody.  His mother has had to work two jobs and spends most of her free time with her boyfriend, John. Mark’s sister Kelly is away at university in Vancouver and he rarely sees her. Mark feels as though Nathan is the only constant, loving person in his life and thinks that marriage would solidify the loving relationship he has with his boyfriend.

Can Mark get married to his boyfriend Nathan? If he is able to marry Nathan, what would their rights be as a same-sex marriage couple in Canada?

Marriage and Age

Regardless of how old you are, marriage is a big commitment and whether to get married is an important decision.

In Ontario, the Marriage Act is the law that contains rules about who and how people can get married.  It says that any person who is “of the age of majority” can get married – in Ontario, that means being 18 or older.  People who are 16 or 17 can still get married, but they must have written permission from both of their parents.  If a young person’s parents live apart, or there is only one living parent, then only the parent who has legal custody needs to give written permission.  Having legal custody of a child means having the right to make important decisions for the child, about things like education and health care.

If Mark and Nathan decided they wanted to get married, Mark would have to get written permission from his mom.  He would not need to ask his dad for permission, because Mark’s mom has custody.  If Mark’s mom did not give her permission, Mark could apply to the court to see if a Judge will make an court order allowing him to get married even without his mom's permission.

Marriage and Sex/Gender

If Mark and Nathan wait until they are both 18, they can get married without needing parental permission.  In Canada, both same-sex and opposite sex couples can marry each other.  While the legal rights that come with marriage are different depending on the province, all married couples in a province – regardless of sex/gender – receive the same rights.   Many of these rights are related to property.  They have to do with things like paying income tax, or splitting assets (property and money) if a married couple divorces.

History of Same-Sex Marriage in Canada

It hasn’t always been possible for two people who are the same sex/gender to get married in Canada.  In 1999, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that same-sex couples should have the same financial and legal benefits that married couples should have – but that didn’t mean that same-sex marriage itself was legal.  At that time, marriages were only performed between a man and a woman in Canada.

But Canada has a law called the Charter of Rights andFreedoms, which is part of the Canadian Constitution.  This means that the Charter takes priority over other laws that are not in the Constitution, including laws about marriage.  The Charter says that every person in Canada should receive equal benefit and protection under the law – regardless of certain personal characteristics (like sexual orientation).

In 2002, seven Ontario couples challenged the limits placed on marriage in Ontario based on the Charter, and the court ruled that limiting marriage to opposite-sex couples was a violation of the Charter.  In 2003, Ontario’s Court of Appeal confirmed that ruling.  From that point on, Ontario began allowing same-sex couples to marry.  (In 2004, the laws about divorce were also changed, so that same-sex married couples could get divorced.)  Within a couple of years, court challenges in most other provinces led to same-sex marriage in those provinces, too.  In 2005, the Canadian government passed the Civil Marriage Act, which defined marriage as a legal union between two people.

Newlyweds: these men got married during Toronto's 2012 Pride parade
Photo from  http://www.thestar.com/ajax/photoplayer/1220160--photos-pride-parade-in-toronto 

Scenario was written by PLE Team volunteer Inez Leutennger, who is a paralegal student.  Legal info was written by JFCY volunteer Leora Jackson, a law student at U of T.

Looking for rental housing - Human Rights and Residential Tenancies

Scenario:

When Lukie was 16, she moved out of her mother’s home, where she had been experiencing abuse.  While she spent a couple of months staying with her friend Brian’s family, she was soon ready to move out on her own, and she began looking for a place.  Lukie qualified to receive Ontario Works, which is social assistance that can be available to youth in special circumstances, and she has now begun to receive monthly cheques.  She is also looking for work. (Check out our earlier post about leaving home here.)

What important things should Lukie know when she looks for a place?  Can a landlord refuse to rent to Lukie because she is only 16, or because she is receiving money from Ontario Works?

Protection against discrimination in housing: Ontario’s Human Rights Code

Ontario’s Human Rights Code is a law that makes it illegal to discriminate against an individual based on certain grounds.  In plainer language, this means that in certain areas (like housing, or education), a person cannot be refused services or treated badly just because of certain characteristics relating to their identity.  These characteristics, or “grounds” include things like age, race, and disability.

http://www.8422southbroadway.com/wp-content/themes/realestate/categoryimages/ForRent.png

 

When Lukie is searching for a place to live, she is protected against discrimination by the Code.  Usually, the Code only applies to people who are 18 or older.  However, in the case of housing, it also extends to people who are 16 or older and who are not living with their parents.  This means that landlords can’t treat her application differently or refuse to rent to her because she’s too young, and they think she’ll be too noisy or not clean enough because of her age.  The Code also forbids landlords from treating tenants or potential tenants differently because they are on social assistance, like Ontario Works.

The landlord is allowed to ask Lukie some questions in order to decide if she will be a good tenant, like her rental history or credit references.  However, the fact that Lukie has no rental history shouldn’t count against her.  Rent-to-income ratios (how much the rent is compared to how much Lukie earns each month) cannot be used to decide whether Lukie will be accepted as a tenant.  The landlord can also ask for a guarantor on Lukie’s lease.  This is a person who promises to pay the rent if Lukie can’t afford it.  However, the landlord can only ask for a guarantor if they ask all of their tenants for one – they can’t single out Lukie because of her age or how much money she makes.

Once Lukie has rented an apartment, she is also protected by the Code.  The landlord can’t refuse to do repairs and can’t treat her unfairly just because she is young.  The only exception to this is that the Code doesn’t apply to tenants who are sharing a kitchen or a bathroom with the landlord – Lukie should watch out for this when she is looking for a place.

To learn more about Human Rights and Rental Housing, check out the Ontario Human Rights Commission’s ELearning module.

Legal Protection of Tenants: the Residential Tenancies Act

In addition to human rights protection, when Lukie rents an apartment, she will become a tenant.  Tenants are protected by a law called the Residential Tenancies Act.  This Act contains rules about what rights and responsibilities both landlords and tenants have in relation to rental units (like apartments).  These rules can become very important to Lukie if, for example, she has a major repair problem in her apartment and the landlord refuses to fix it, or if the landlord is trying to raise the rent more than once a year.

Most rental units are covered by the Residential Tenancies Act.  However, some are not.  When Lukie is looking for a unit, she should think about whether her unit is covered by the Act.  Places that aren’t covered by the Act include co-op housing, units where the landlord and tenant share a bathroom or kitchen and temporary housing like motels or bed & breakfasts.  If Lukie sublets an apartment, which means that she rents it from another tenant, her relationship will be with the other tenant and not with the original landlord.  This could make her protection under the Act more complicated.  If Lukie moves into non-profit or public housing, or to a newer building (built after 1998, or not used for residential purposes before 1991), some of the rules in the Act about rent do not apply to her.

To learn more about the Residential Tenancies Act, check out this information from the Landlord and Tenant Board (LTB).  To learn more about the rights and responsibilities of landlords and tenants, read their Information for New Tenants.  You can also learn more about rental housing from this guide by CLEO.

This blog post was written by JFCY volunteer Leora Jackson.  Leora is a UofT law student who is currently working for the summer at Downtown Legal Services, where she represents clients in cases involving rental housing legal issues. 

JFCY celebrates National Volunteer Week!

Thank you to JFCY's many volunteers including committee members, board members, admin support and, of course, the PLE TEAM.

JFCY would especially like to thank U of T law student LEORA JACKSON, a volunteer through Pro Bono Students Canada (PBSC).  Leora worked very closely with the PLE Team from September 2011 until April 2012.  She organized meetings, managed our group of fabulous volunteers, wrote the legal content for our blog posts and edited the Bullying Zine.

Leora's PBSC placement is now over. She will be working at Downtown Legal Services for the summer and then starting her second year of law school in September.

JFCY thanks Leora for her amazing work and fabulous contributions during the past eight months!

BULLYING ZINE

Just in time for the Day of Pink, the JFCY PLE Team has released its Bullying Zine. Click here to read it!

This zine has articles and info on many topics relating to bullying, as well as comics and other graphics. It was directed and edited by Leora Jackson, a U of T law student who volunteered at JFCY this year as part of Pro Bono Students Canada.

The content in the zine was written by the following PLE Team volunteers: Terence Chen, Tracy Chen, Arif Hussain, Marsha Rampersaud, Cydney Kim, Deby Ko, and Inez Leutenegger. The legal info was reviewed by JFCY staff lawyers.

Members of the PLE Team will be handing out copies today at Dundas Square, as part of the Day of Pink, the International Day Against Bullying, Discrimination, Transphobia and Homophobia in schools and communities.

For your own copy, and to distribute to your class, community group or friends, click here.

Privacy and Social Networking

-By Leora Jackson, JFCY volunteer and PLE Team Lead

Janine Loves Facebook


Janine is fifteen and uses Facebook to keep in touch with all of her friends.  Since she has friends from school, camp, and after-school activities, Facebook is a great way to be in touch with people.  When she wants to tell something to one of her friends, she posts on that friend’s wall.  Everyone else can see the post, but Janine doesn’t mind.  Last weekend, Janine went to a party at a classmate’s house.  She posted a whole album of photos online from the party.  The next week, there is an article about teen parties in the local paper.  One of Janine’s photos is published in the paper, and Janine gets really upset.  Her parents didn’t know that she attended the party.

What can Janine do to keep this from happening again?  
Was the newspaper allowed to use her picture?

Facebook is a private organization that collects personal information.  As a result, it must follow Canadian law about protecting privacy.  The Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) is a Canadian law that directs private organizations in how to protect the personal information of people who are involved with that organization.  PIPEDA applies in most Canadian provinces, including Ontario, and it limits the ways that an organization can use the personal information that you have provided it.

While people choose which information they post on Facebook, they can also choose who is able to see that information.  For example, Facebook has options that allow you to decide which other internet users can see your wall posts, your photos, your notes, and other information you have shared.  Facebook has even worked with Canada’s Information and Privacy Commissioner to improve its privacy controls in response to complaints.

To prevent this from happening again, Janine needs to update her Facebook privacy settings so that fewer people are able to see the information that she posts on Facebook.  She should also think before she posts, because once information is online, it is impossible to keep total control over it – even if it is later removed from the internet!  Facebook privacy settings are found here.

Since Janine took her pictures, she owns the copyright to them, which means that other people cannot reproduce them without asking her permission.  However, there is a “fair dealing” exception in the Copyright Act that allows news reporters to use copyrighted images as long as they cite the source of the image and, if it is available, the name of the image’s creator.  There are other exceptions as well in the Copyright Act. Janine would have to consult a lawyer to find out whether this use of her picture counted as fair dealing by the newspaper, or fits into another exception. 

However, when Janine posted her photo to Facebook, she granted Facebook a license to use the photo according to the Facebook Terms of Use, which means that Facebook can use Janine’s photo in many different ways without requesting her permission. So, for example, if Facebook used Janine’s photo in its newsletter, she would not be able to complain, since as a Facebook user, she has consented to Facebook’s Terms of Use.

Want to Learn More?

If you are interested in learning more about privacy, especially privacy online, check out the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada’s social networking pages, or their youth site.

If you want to read the laws that we discussed in this post, follow these links: PIPEDA and the Copyright Act.

 A Lesson in Privacy - from the Office of the Privacy Commissioner's
"My Privacy and Me" contest

Leora is in her first year of law school at the University of Toronto.  She is volunteering with JFCY through Pro Bono Students Canada (PBSC) and will be acting as the Public Legal Education Team Lead until March 2012. 

Meet your new Public Legal Education Team Lead!

Hello and welcome to the JFCY blog, if this is your first visit!  If not, welcome back.

My name is Leora Jackson and I am beginning a volunteer placement as the PLE Team Lead at JFCY through Pro Bono Students Canada (PBSC).  PBSC is a Canada-wide organization that encourages law students (like me) to get involved with their communities by donating time and skills. 

I’ll be at JFCY throughout this year, working with staff lawyer Andrea Luey to lead the PLE Team.  My role will involve helping to promote and update JFCY’s social media outlets – this blog, Facebook, and Twitter.  I’ll also be helping to coordinate meetings and other projects.

Outside of JFCY, I attend law school at the University of Toronto.  I recently moved to Toronto from outside the city, and before that, I spent five years living and going to school in Kingston, Ontario.  At law school, I’m also involved as a tutor with the LAWS program, where one JFCY's summer staff participated as a student!

I have some ideas about how we can improve our social networking presence and the online information that we provide about legal issues facing children and youth, but I would really appreciate hearing your ideas and suggestions about the blog, the topics we cover, and how we can communicate better.

If you’re interested in joining the PLE team, find out more here (scroll to the bottom to find out about volunteering).  The team is currently working on a number of different projects, including future YouTube videos and resources on cyber-bullying.

I am thrilled to be at JFCY and I am looking forward to learning more about the organization and sharing that with you.  Have a great weekend!
Leora