The Mandatory Pre-Retirement Death Benefit in Pension Legislation: Time for Another Look
November 1, 2007 | Policy Essays
Registered private-sector pension plans in Ontario must, by law, include “pre-retirement death benefits.” This means that, if a pension plan member dies before retiring, the pension plan must pay a sum of money to a relative of the deceased member or to another person chosen by the member beforehand.
How did we end up with this law, and what are its costs and benefits?
In this submission to Ontario’s Expert Commission on Pensions, I offer my perspective on the mandatory pre-retirement death benefit in Ontario’s Pension Benefits Act.
Submission to the Expert Commission
CDO: Stop Assisting the NYC Migration
March 1, 2007 | Campus Press: Polemical Screeds, Other Publications
Ultra Vires (U. of Toronto Faculty of Law)
The Career Development Office (CDO) has to be one of the best-run bits of U of T. Efficient, compassionate, and knowledgeable — these people do a great job. I can only think of one thing that would make the CDO better: they should stop helping American firms hire our best graduates. The CDO shouldn’t advertise American jobs, host American OCIs, or do anything else to encourage our graduates to work outside the country.
The Charter at 25: Time for a Sequel
November 1, 2006 | Campus Press: Polemical Screeds
Ultra Vires (U. of Toronto Faculty of Law)
The 25th anniversary of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms will fall on April 17, 2007—right in the middle of exam season. We’ll all be too busy to think about it then, so now is as good a time as any to take stock. The Charter boldly declares a set of fundamental Canadian values, and having such a declaration is a wonderful thing. The problem is that the values enshrined are incomplete. After twenty-five years, what Canada desperately needs is a new Charter of Duties and Obligations, binding citizens, not the state.
A Cowardly Concession
October 26, 2006 | Campus Press: Polemical Screeds
The Varsity (Online Edition). October 26th, 2006
On Monday, Hart House hosted a debate between candidates for the November 13th election of Toronto’s mayor. Three candidates were invited – Stephen LeDrew, David Miller, and Jane Pitfield. Among the 38 registered candidates, these are the only three who have any chance of being elected Mayor of Toronto.
A large and excited audience filed into the Great Hall at 6:30 to see and hear them. As the spectators took their seats, they found that someone else was already making a speech. The speaker was one of the 35 candidates who were not invited. He carried a large, dirty broom which he waved in the air and banged on the floor. He ranted incoherently at the top of his lungs. He did so for a full hour, as the spectators’ mood shifted from amusement to embarrassment to anger.
“The Worst-Case Scenario, and How We Could Get There.”
December 1, 2005 | Other Publications, Policy Essays
The most serious source of conflict in Canada-U.S. relations in 2015 will be the Canadian response to American foreign policy. This essay will argue for the plausibility of the worst-case scenario, described in the fictional article below. Such a scenario would make Canada choose between economic devastation and participation in a highly unpopular war.
A Bus to Nowhere
August 17, 2004 | Campus Press: Polemical Screeds
_the newspaper_ (University of Toronto)
Tuesday, August 17, 2004.
As this issue of _the newspaper_ goes to press, most students are working summer jobs to save money for school. By contrast, amateur politicos at U of T’s Students’ Administrative Council (SAC) are busy holding meetings to find new ways to spend it. Naturally, the money SAC spends is the same money the rest of us save every summer- our mandatory undergraduate student fees fund the Council to the tune of about $850,000 per year.
Enough with the propaganda: The U of T Bulletin
April 8, 2004 | Campus Press: Polemical Screeds
_the newspaper_ (University of Toronto)
April 8, 2004
My name is Noel Semple, and I’m a campus pressaholic. I lurk beside news-stands in libraries; I memorize publication schedules. There are dozens of U of T student papers, none of them are too obscure or too typographically shoddy to be worth picking up. There’s only one paper that even I won’t read. You’ve probably seen it, towering in forlorn, untouched piles-the University of Toronto Bulletin.
Dispelling the myth of the WTO ‘evil empire’
April 23, 2002 | Campus Press: Polemical Screeds
The Varsity – Feature
April 23, 2002
The huge crowds of protesters outside World Trade Organization conferences are not difficult to explain. The WTO’s somewhat obscure mandate can make it seem slightly sinister, and the organization hasn’t done the best possible job of explaining itself to the world at large. All things considered, it’s not too surprising that some people have come to imagine the WTO as part of some evil globalization cabal, so dangerous that it’s worth travelling long distances to throw bricks at police officers over. Chapter 11 of NAFTA, under which the Ethyl Corporation recently successfully sued the Canadian government, is often perceived as belonging to the same international conspiracy.
A Balloon transcends language: in a village that sees in colour, look at what I’ve learned about race and racism.
October 20, 2000 | Globe and Mail: Facts and Arguments
Globe & Mail, Oct 20, 2000
When I signed up to spend three and a half months in the West African nation of Benin with Canada World Youth, it goes without saying that I was looking for something different. It was this sentiment, along with the desire to avoid university for a year, which united the nine young Canadians with whom I lived in the rural village of Sakete. And yet, as the plane lifted off from Montreal, I think we were all expecting to have enough in common with our new neighbours that the inevitable differences wouldn’t prevent us from integrating relatively quickly into the daily life of the village. After all, you can’t spend three and a half months with the mindset of a tourist. (Read more…)
Brave new world of teen autonomy: Teen-agers today are influenced by other teen-agers, television, celebrity endorsements, music, gang standards. Not by adults
July 18, 1998 | Globe and Mail: Facts and Arguments
Globe and Mail, July 13, 1998
It has been said that one can construct the history of a civilization merely by studying its garbage, but I prefer the rummage sale. The one at our local church always provides grist aplenty for the amateur social historian’s mill. Little bits and pieces of dated pop culture line the tables in a sometimes humorous, often instructive array. The Darth Vader shampoo dispensers, Elvis busts and Saturday Night Fever soundtracks seem to say more than even the most historically relevant coffee grounds and banana peels ever could. (Read more…)