“We don’t owe you anything:” Women’s rights activist Julie Lalonde speaks up about her decade-long stalker

(Photo credit: http://indianexpress.com/article/cities/delhi/delhi-stalking-cases-police-women-saftey-online-stalking-3074436/)

Click here to download audio.

Stalking is a term that legally translates to criminal harassment in the Canadian Criminal Code. It is a term that has been romanticized in novels and romantic-comedy movies and normalized in everyday romantic interactions, predominantly between men and women.

In Canada, 76% of victims of stalking are women, and 58% of these women are stalked by former partners.

LegalEase’s Emma Noradounkian sat down with Julie Lalonde. Julie is a women’s rights activist, the manager of Draw the Line, a campaign that encourages bystanders to intervene in instances of sexual violence, and the founder of the Ottawa chapter of Hollaback!, a movement dedicated to ending street harassment. She is also a victim of stalking.

Julie shared her story with her decade-long stalker and she shed some light on the many barriers imposed by the Canadian criminal law on victims of stalking.  She also shared her thoughts on Canada’s new federal strategy that aims to reduce gender-based cyber-harassment. A consultation process for this strategy is expected by early 2017.

 

 

A Look at the First Ever Legal Aid Lawyers Union in Ontario

The Quebec State Lawyers have been on strike for approximately two weeks as of today, with an unlimited mandate, waiting for their collective agreement to be renewed. A recent TAT decision has deemed certain services “essential,” to which lawyers reacted by saying that they should benefit from special negotiation procedure in light of that new categorization. In this show, we explore a different but related issue of the unionization of Lawyers, in the context of Ontario Legal Aid.

LegalEase’s Alice Mirlesse spoke with Garrett, a criminal defence lawyer, who is currently organizing the first ever Legal Aid Lawyers union.

Episode November 2016–Sail on, Sail on

Welcome to LegalEase, a broadcast about law cast broadly. We are your hosts Alice Mirlesse, Zach Morgenstern, and Emma Noradounkian for this November edition of LegalEase.

Bienvenu(e)s à LegalEase, une émission consacrée au droit qui vise à en rendre le jargon plus accessible tout en évaluant de manière critique ses institutions.

First off, we are joined by a Divest McGill activist, who was arrested at Parliament Hill on October 24th. They were calling for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to halt the construction of the Kinder Morgan Pipeline.

Next, the Quebec State Lawyers have been on strike for approximately two weeks as of today, with an unlimited mandate, waiting for their collective agreement to be renewed. A recent TAT decision has deemed certain services “essential,” to which lawyers reacted by saying that they should benefit from special negotiation procedure in light of that new categorization. In this show, we explore a different but related issue of the unionization of Lawyers, in the context of Ontario Legal Aid. We will speak with Garrett, a criminal defence lawyer who is currently organizing the first ever Legal Aid Lawyers union.

Finally, still on the subject of strikes, fair wages and collective bargaining we interviewed two  representatives from AMUSE – the McGill temporary workers union– which has recently declared a five day strike and are bargaining, amongst other things, for a $15 minimum wage.