Equity Watch
“It’s the culmination of a long tradition of trying to attract investment through the weakening of labour. High wages and worker protections are viewed as a hindrance. We have among the lowest average wages in the country. It’s the low-road strategy. “
Dr. Larry Haiven, from “A look at the state of labour in the Atlantic provinces” from The Maple
Quick Links:
About Us:
Equity Watch is a non-profit that promotes workplaces that are free of bullying, harassment, and discrimination . We hold free webinars with guests who are experts on labour law, women in the workplace, fighting at the human rights commission, disability rights, and more. We also published a critique on the Nova Scotia Human Rights Regime, while we continue to monitor them. We also research topics such as how unions can be better advocates for human rights, and the dangers of NDA’s.
Our fundraising campaign:
Over the past 3 years, we have helped you. Now we need your help.
In 2018, we started Equity Watch to fight against discrimination, bullying and harassment in the workplace. Retired Saint Mary’s University Professors Larry and Judy Haiven teamed up with Liane Tessier, who had won her almost decade-long fight for justice from the Halifax Fire Service and the Nova Scotia Human Rights Commission.
To donate: Make a cheque payable to Equity Watch at 5606 Morris Street, Halifax NS B3J 1C2. OR send an e-transfer to equitywatchns@gmail.com
We started by helping people with complaints to their employers and to the NS Human Rights Commission.
We organized monthly meetings at the new library hosting speakers on a variety of topics. It was a chance to meet others who had battles at their workplaces and to get peer-support.
During Covid, we went virtual. We have been hosting free monthly webinars with outstanding speakers and experts on a wide range of topics. We have also been posting recordings (and sometimes transcripts) for these important events. Watch the recordings HERE.
How your donation will help:
- Continue to employ Hannah (our research assistant)
- Keep up the technology we require to promote and present our work
- Pay the expenses around more webinars
- Assist people at human rights and other hearings
- Intercede with employers where possible
- Research and write more fact-based reports
In the near future we want to publish another ground-breaking report: this one on the dangers of Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs) as another step toward getting the kind of legislation just passed in PEI.
In the past we have reached many milestones due to the help of our donors including:
- In 2019 teaming up with the NDP opposition in Legislature to push for a new law to put psychological injury in the NS Occupational Health and Safety Act, which we continue to press for.
- When the pandemic started we continued with our education by making our workshops into virtual free webinars.
- We employed a law student Noah Thompson in 2019-2020 and journalism/law and justice student Hannah Bing in 2021-2022.
Webinar Highlights:
- The Kirk Johnson case – 17 years on: What, if anything, has changed? Which featured Kirk Johnson and El Jones
Crossing the Street while Black: How I argued my Human Rights Case and Won– with Gyasi Symonds, the Halifax man who launched a human rights complaint against 2 policemen who street checked him for crossing the street for a coffee - Gag Orders Kill Human Rights: How We Can Stop or Limit Non-Disclosure Agreements. This was a talk with Prof. Julie Macfarlane of the University of Windsor law school and Zelda Perkins, who after 20 years decided to break her silence about the NDA she was forced to sign with movie mogul and sex offender Harvey Weinstein. Macfarlane and Perkins have founded a new NGO called “Can’t Buy My Silence.”
- The Workplace War Against Women: Gender Discrimination and How to Fight it: Invited speaker was Globe and Mail journalist and best-selling author Robyn Doolittle
In - Inequity by Design: How designers, Architects and City Planners Exclude So Many of Us, our invited speaker was Mount Allison University professor Lesley Kern who published the recent book Feminist City: A Field Guide.
- Suzanne Rent talks about jobs and employers: the good and the bad, presented the Halifax Examiner columnist and her research on the workplace
- People with Disabilities fight segregation and demand inclusion featured two human rights lawyers, Vince Calderhead and Claire McNeil and also Vicky Levack, a disabled rights activist, about the housing case that went to human rights tribunal and the Court of Appeal
Critique of the NS Human Rights Regime:
Milestones:
In 2019, we teamed up with the NDP Opposition in the NS Legislature to push for a new law to put psychological injury in the NS Occupational Health and Safety Act. Nova Scotia is the only jurisdiction in Canada that neither has nor has announced legislation of this type. With the new government, we continue to press for this legislation.
We are lobbying to get the province of Nova Scotia to pass a law similar to the recent one in Prince Edward Island, that would limit non-disclosure agreements (NDAs).
In 2021, we published our first major report: Justice Impeded: A Critique of the Nova Scotia Human Rights Regime (or see the story about it in the Halifax Examiner.)
In 2019-20, with the help of federal and provincial student employment programs, we hired Dalhousie Law student Noah Thompson. In 2021, we hired Dalhousie Journalism/Law, Justice and Society student Hannah Bing,
In 2021, we grew our steering committee, and found more people committed to fighting for justice in the workplace.
We can do so much more.
So far we’ve been reaching into our own pockets for stationery, a Zoom subscription for our webinars, for electronics and for interpreters for the hearing-impaired.
But we need your financial help. If each one of you gives $100 (or what you can), we can keep up our work:
- Continue to employ Hannah (our research assistant)
- Keep up the technology we require to promote and present our work
- Pay the expenses around more webinars
- Assist people at human rights and other hearings
- Intercede with employers where possible
- Research and write more fact-based reports
In the near future we want to publish another ground-breaking report: this one on the dangers of Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs) as another step toward getting the kind of legislation just passed in PEI.
We also want to explore the phenomenon of many employers self-insuring rather than being covered by Workers Compensation.
Will you help us?
Yours sincerely,
Liane Tessier, Judy Haiven, Larry Haiven
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