Law Times

Page 6 March 12, 2018 • Law TiMes www.lawtimesnews.com COMMENT u EDITORIAL OBITER By Gabrielle Giroday LTB issues P aralegal James Moak has brought a court application in the Ontario Superior Court to try to stop property managers who are not licensed to practise law from providing legal services at the Ontario Landlord and Tenant Board. Moak says he has seen many third-party managers draft documents and appear before the board, leading to problems. "Something has to happen here because non-licensed people are thumbing their nose at the rules about who may provide legal servi- ces, and it has to stop," he says. Moak has a point. The Law Society Act states that "only lawyers and paralegals li- censed by the Law Society can provide legal services directly to the public, or those who fall under exemptions set out in the bylaws." Meanwhile, according to the province's own guide to the Resi- dential Tenancies Act, "either a landlord or a tenant can apply to the LTB." Donna Mrvaljevic, a spokeswoman for the LTB, says the board asks representatives to include their law society number if they are filing an application at the LTB on behalf of someone but that the absence of that number does not necessarily mean they do not have standing before the board. The definition of a landlord can be broad, she says. At this point, she says, there is no tracking of those who do not provide a law society number when they file an application on behalf of someone else. Therefore, it's difficult to determine what the extent of the issue might be, but a lack of data col- lected certainly points to what could be am emer- ging issue. The real test of the depth of the problem would be litigation that arises from these matters, and Moak has raised a valid alarm about what could potentially transpire as a result. LT ©2018 Thomson Reuters Canada Ltd. All rights reserved. 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Karen Lorimer Managing Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jennifer Brown Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Gabrielle Giroday Staff Writer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Alex Robinson Copy Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Patricia Cancilla CaseLaw Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Leah Craven Art Director . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Phyllis Barone Production Co-ordinator . . . . . Jacqueline D'Souza Electronic Production Specialist . . . Derek Welford Campaigns in U.S. influence Canadian culture BY SUSAN DELACOURT T wo big waves of political ac- tivism are rolling through the United States right now and there's something a little bit dif- ferent about their approach to changing the world. Whether it's the quest for stricter gun control or the "#MeToo" movement against sexual harassment and abuse, the targets in both campaigns have shifted and widened — beyond the usual ones of politics and law and into the private, corporate corridors. The trend is probably on its way into Canadian political culture, too, if it isn't here already. In the U.S., for instance, you don't need to sit around waiting for better fire- arms legislation (which never seems to arrive) when you can stop the sales right away in the stores. Meanwhile, in the U.S. and Cana- da, accused sexual harassers are being ejected from their powerful positions in the private sector long before the allega- tions make their way through the courts — because the mere mention of #MeToo accusations can be bad for business. Gun-control and sexual-fairness ac- tivists have, in effect, found a fast lane on their road to what they want, and it's tak- ing them on a speedy detour around the usual legal or po- litical avenues for redress. "Corporate America is taking the lead on gun con- trol as Congress slides back into gridlock on the issue," according to a recent article in The Hill, a leading U.S. political website. Gun control has re- emerged as a top issue in the U.S. since the February school shooting in Parkdale, Fla., which left 17 students and teachers dead. As with the #MeToo movement, there's a sense that something is differ- ent about the public outcry around these issues — that a turning point has been reached. So, what's different this time? Is it the heightened activism on the corporate front? Companies such as L.L. Bean, Wal- Mart, Dick's Sporting Goods and Kroger, for instance, have been among the retailers announcing they would no longer sell guns to customers younger than 21 years old in the wake of the Flor- ida shooting. As well, Canada's own Mountain Equipment Co-op announced it would stop selling products from Vista Outdoor, a sporting goods company that is con- nected to the sale of guns and ammunition. None of these measures required legislation — just a boardroom decision. Consumer boycotts have always been part of the protesters' toolkit, but it's interesting to see how gun control and feminism are going the private route as a response to perceived ineffectiveness of politics and the law. It's matched, incidentally, by an emerging politicization in the private sector as well. Where once it was seen as risky to mix business and politics, in fact, the corporate sector seems more willing to jump into the fray. A fascinating article in the Financial Times, published just before the World Economic Forum in Davos in January, talked about the rise of political activism in corporate boardrooms. The trend is described as a result of debt-ridden gov- ernments unable to respond to crises or protest movements. "A new kind of CEO has emerged. Call him (or much less frequently, her) the 'activist chief executive,'" the Fi- nancial Times wrote. "Their millennial workforces, their increasingly 'woke' customers, the media and governments themselves are all putting more and more pressure on them to take a stand, particularly at a time when the private sector holds so much wealth and power relative to governments." Not everyone is going to be happy about the privatization of political activ- ism. While it's achieving faster results than lobbying politicians for change or getting new laws drafted, it's still a bit of an uncharted frontier with respect to fairness and due process. But if nothing else, it's drawing atten- tion to how the legal and political realms are not keeping up with demands for big societal change — right now, in 2018, the demand to make the world a safer place from gun violence and sexual abuse. LT uSusan Delacourt is an Ottawa-based political author and columnist who has been working on Parliament Hill for nearly 30 years. She is a frequent political panelist on national television and the au- thor of four books. She can be reached at sdelacourt@bell.net. The Hill Susan Delacourt Susan Delacourt

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