The BC Recycling Regulation |
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Written by Chris Green
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Thursday, 18 April 2013 08:47 |
 I always find that the BC Regulations make good light reading between periods in the hockey game. One regulatory change which caught my eye is the amendments to BC Recycling Regulation, which imposes an "Extended Producer Responsibility" upon all businesses, to be responsible for the collection and recycling of the packaging and printed material that accompany the sale of their products or services.
The obvious targets of this regulation are the big box stores that wrap all of their electronic offerings in swaths of hard-to-recycle Styrofoam, but the regulation is actually much more wide ranging, since any brand owner, franchisor or the first importer of packaged goods or printed paper could be affected. So this can include retail businesses, restaurants, all forms of publishing, drug stores, and even banks and credit unions. If you are an affected business you need to prepare and submit a Stewardship Plan to Big Brother (er, the Provincial Government), and you are already late!
To be on the safe side if you are in business, any kind of business, take a few minutes to check out www.multimaterialbc.ca
Here at GreenWay/Merchant we figure we are pretty compliant with the Recyling Regulation since we always reuse any argument that wins a case for us, and we have been recycling the same stale jokes at networking meetings forever. With any luck I'll even be able to recycle this blog item in a few months’ time. |
Appointing a digital executor |
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Written by Chris Green
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Friday, 12 April 2013 12:16 |
 We have written before about the increasing need to consider what happens to your digital legacy after your death. Many of us have a considerable presence in the digital world in the form of multiple websites, blogs, social media accounts such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and the like.
As anyone who has had a Facebook birthday reminder about a long deceased friend can attest, your digital presence remains long after you have shuffled off your mortal coil.
As usual, Google has come to the rescue with the announcement of a new Google+ feature called the Inactive Account Manager. It allows you to elect to have your various accounts deactivated, after a specified period of inactivity, or to appoint a representative to manage your accounts for you – a digital executor, if you will.
This represents a good start to addressing a growing problem, but, for myself, I kinda like the idea of coming back to haunt my former Facebook buddies. |
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Hug your lawyer for free today |
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Written by Chris Green
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Saturday, 13 April 2013 09:27 |
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 Normally, getting free legal advice on a Saturday is as rare as a sighting of Ogopogo, but thanks the BC branch of the Canadian Bar Association, today is the exception. As part of their initiative to draw attention to their crisis in the funding of Legal Aid in the province (the cheap bastards in Victoria are trying to starve the legal aid system out of existence) today only you can get 15 minutes’ of free legal advice by phone, between the hours of 10 am and 2 pm. Just call 604-687-3221 or toll free 1-800-663-1919.
Have you hugged your lawyer yet today? |
Changing of the Guard |
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Written by Chris Green
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Friday, 08 March 2013 23:32 |
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This week draws to a pensive close.
First came the news of the passing of Stompin' Tom Connors. I remember vividly being dragged from the law library during my first semester of law school, for a beer-swilling foray into the gritty Horseshoe Tavern in Toronto, to hear him perform. The Horseshoe was a real blood-and-guts, sawdust-on-the-floor, blue-collar tavern, and Stompin' Tom was in his element, growling into the mic, and splintering plywood with his left foot, as drunk patrons rolled on the floor. Just one of those memories that stays with you. RIP Tom.
Hard on the heels of Stompin' Tom (sorry, couldn’t resist) came the announcement of the death of Judge “Alfie" Scow, the first aboriginal to graduate from Law School in BC, the first to be called to the bar in BC and the first to become a Provincial Court Judge, and also one of the first judges I tried cases before, as a young prosecutor on Vancouver Island.
Judge Scow was, above all, a man of common sense, (especially when he agreed with my arguments) and he dispensed justice in a straightforward and pragmatic way in the small towns and villages up and down the coast. Perhaps age distorts memory, but it seems that those were simpler times. The trials shorter, the crimes more straightforward, even the villains less villainous than they are today. With the news of the Judge's passing I felt a piece if my youth slipping away as well. RIP Alfie. |
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Overall I applaud the decision of the Attorney General to permit initiated Sihks to carry a Kirpan into court, subject to the overall supervision of the Sheriff's staff. The vast majority of observant Sikhs coming to court carry the religious symbol in a miniaturized version on their keychain or as a pocket-knife sized replica, and it's clear they are a symbol, not a weapon - and no more dangerous than the blunt sgian dubh I carry tucked into my knee socks when I'm wearing my kilt.
