Solidarity Includes Everyone (Transgender Rights level 1)

Scaleable – 2 hour minimum up to a full day

This is an awareness-raising workshop about the challenges facing transgender and gender non-conforming people. How can trade unions work to end discrimination and support our trans members? This introductory workshop includes an overview of appropriate language to use, existing legal protections, and what we as activists can do to make sure our workplaces and our unions are as inclusive as possible to two-spirit, transgender, non-binary folks.

The workshop covers:

  • Vocabulary- who are trans people, and how do we talk about them respectfully? What words to use, words not to use, and invasive questions;
  • Barriers trans people face in the workplace and in the world;
  • Existing legal protections for trans people;
  • The human rights obligations of employers and advocates
  • Equity vs equality
  • What activists can do to make our workplaces and our unions more inclusive.
  • Pronoun activity
  • Scenarios (longer sessions only)

To do list: http://ourtimes.ca/Newsletter/ourtimes-summer18_25-27.pdf

Transgender Rights level 2

Three hours

This course is designed for participants who are already oriented to the basics of transgender inclusion and want a deeper dive.

The workshop covers:

  • Basic legal protection;
  • Common errors to avoid;
  • Recent advances is the law and new cases;
  • Emerging issues;
  • Features of contemporary transphobia;
  • Electronic file management systems and privacy obligations;
  • Access to justice issues for two spirit, non binary and trans litigants;
  • Healthcare rights for trans youth.

This workshop can be extended to workshop a problem your group is facing or to develop a policy.

Workplace Law for Union Activists

Three hours

This introductory course give unions activists and staff and overview of how legislation is developed in British Columbia and in Parliament. We discuss the division of powers between the federal and provincial governments; guidance on choosing the appropriate regulatory regime for a problem; and then an overview of the major laws that govern employment, including: the Charter, The Criminal Code, Human Rights legislation, Health and Safety law, The Employment Standards Act, and the Labour Relations Code. The dispute resolution mechanism for each will be explained.

Labour Law for Organizers

Three hours

This workshop is a tour through the legal framework that supports (and sometimes hinders) our work as union activists. It includes information about:

  • Provincially and federally regulated enterprises; 
  • The Employment Standards Act
  • the Labour Relations Code;
  • Which human rights and labour legislation to use and why;
  • The Role of the Labour Relations Board, and; 
  • How our collective agreement, grievances, and arbitration work;
  • Recent changes to the Labour Code;
  • Guidance on card check organizing;
  • Constitutional protection for union organizing.

Basic Human Rights for Union Activists

Three hours

This workshop provides an overview of the legal protections workers enjoy under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, human rights legislation, collective agreements, and employer policies. Participants will learn about:

  • Differences between federal and provincial human rights protection;
  • Collective Agreement solutions to human rights problems;
  • Prohibited grounds;
  • Protected areas;
  • Gaps in existing legal protection;
  • Exceptions and special programs;
  • The different roles of the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal, the Canadian Human Rights Commission, the BC Human Rights Tribunal, the Office of the BC Human Rights Commissioner, the CLAS Human Rights Legal Clinic, and the Ombudsperson’s Office;
  • Anatomy of a human rights claim;
  • Available Remedies;
  • Practice writing and filing a claim.

Social Justice Intervention Training

two hours to full day

This workshop trains participants to do basic social justice interventions in the workplace to combat bullying and harassment, outside the grievance process.

It begins with an overview of social justice principles like diversity, inclusion, equity, and intersectionality; and works towards practical skills to combat oppression, by centring marginalized voices, and leveraging privilege for good. Participants will practice interrupting mico and macro aggressions. Direct collective action and individual works of Solidarity can resuscitate toxic workplace cultures and make the world safer for everyone. 

Introduction to Social Justice (Dismantling White Supremacy 101)

One to three hours

This is a basic introductory course that covers binary divisions, intersectionality, how to centre marginalized voices, how social justice works, and how to use privilege for good. We will discuss community-based, legislative, and legal ways to pursue social change. In the three hour version of this workshop, participants will prepare and present a campaign strategy for change.

Advanced reading https://adriennesmithlaw.com/how-social-justice-works/

Dismantling White Supremacy (includes Introduction to Social Justice)

A full day; or three, three hour sessions (DWS101, 102, and 103)

This full day participatory workshop is a crash course in intersectional anti-oppression work with a particular focus on race. It helps participants think about our role in dismantling the system of white supremacy, confronting racism, and building a more inclusive world.

The first part of the workshop invites us to ask questions: What is whiteness? What does white culture look like and why is it dominant in the academy and the workplace? What is racism? What is white supremacy? How are white people complicit in systems that oppress Black, Indigenous, mixed race and other people of colour? What can and should we do about it?

In the second part, we consider questions of how unconscious bias and institutional culture lead to outcomes that are unjust, and practice intervening in situations in which micro- and macro-aggressions occur against racialized people.

Optional topics include hate speech, freedom of expression, human rights protections in law, and positive action outside the justice system.

N.B., I am incandescently white. This is a starter course that lays a basic foundation for talking about race, designed to support white people in unpacking the problem of white privilege. While it is appropriate for mixed groups, you should really hire someone IBPOC to do more advanced work because they are experts in racism. I can recommend several folks. And if you are this expert, please be in touch so I can recommend you!

Introduction to Social Media for Beginners

1-3 hours

This non threatening workshop will orient participants to common social media platforms, support them to choose the ones that are best for their purposes, and coach them to start posting right away. We will discuss web and desktop interfaces, best practices for composing posts and using images, online security, judgment, and the risk of harassment.

Media training for Beginners

2 hours to a full day

Participants will learn how to

  • handle media requests;
  • craft a plain-language message;
  • deliver a statement to the press for print, radio and television.

Sessions conducted by zoom will cover staging spaces for zoom interviews, proper lighting, and sound.

Advocacy training for Beginners

2 hours to a full day

Participants will learn how to

  • identify important issues;
  • identify the organization or person responsible for the issue;
  • develop an ask;
  • craft effective messages to take to management or to elected officials;
  • deliver a lobbying presentation.
  • Longer sessions include information about the Lobbyist Registry.

Free Speech, Hate Speech, Academic Freedom and Human Rights: Transgender Discrimination case study

Much of the current debate on transgender rights posits freedom of expression in section 2(b) of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms as though it were an unlimited (or at least something close to the speech rights that exist in the United States), or limited only by criminal sanctions against extreme hateful comment. This approach ignores a number of factors, such as the human rights regime, civil liability, professional regulation. Participants will learn about key features of contemporary transphobia, when the Charter applies, and how to differentiate legitimate threats to free expression from bogus claims acting as a cover for hate or for the spread of disinformation.

Recent Advances in Transgender litigation

90 minutes to 3 hours

The academic presentation surveys recent case law involving transgender people in human rights, administrative law, and youth health care access cases to show how these cases often risk drawing decision-makers into a inappropriate debate about the legitimacy of transgender identities, rather than evaluating the legal issue before the court or tribunal.

Longer course address practical issue that arise doing advocacy for two spirit, trans, and non-binary justice system participants, and propose best practices for court advocacy, and additional tools to protect trans clients from harms inherent in the system, but also those external to the hearing.

This course is not restricted to lawyers and would be useful to union stewards, community advocates, trans people, families, and allies.

How and Why to Defund the Police

One hour

This presentation explores the historical roots of policing in the US and Canada, explores current policing practices and the limits of existing accountability measures, and makes a case for defunding the police.

Anti-Oppressive Meeting Procedure

Three hours to full day

This workshop gives participants the tools they need to run a formal union or business meeting using Roberts Rules of Order, Bourinot’s Rules, or your organization’s custom rules. It includes basics like moving, amending, and passing a motion, and also covers critical documents necessary to make the meeting lawful and orderly, including notice of the meeting and of motions, the agenda, reports and minutes. The workshop considers in person and zoom meetings. Participants will be learn to apply the rules in an anti-oppressive and accessible way that meets the social justice goals of your group.

Basic Training for Privacy Officers

Two hours to full day

This workshop explains the legal obligations of organizations when they collect, use, and disclose personal information. It provides a general overview of the privacy and access regimes in place in British Columbia and for federally regulated enterprises, in both the private and public sector, but focuses on the role of privacy officers in private sector organizations, and the obligations of organizations to secure personal information. The course is oriented towards social justice not-for profits, and includes special topics on enhanced privacy needs of survivors, 2SLGBT+ folks, and youth. Optional content on how to draft effective provincial Freedom of Information (FOI) requests, and federal Access to Information Act (ATIA) requests is available.

ID Clinic Bootcamp

one hour

This quick workshop trains advocates to help trans people, and people reclaiming indigenous names, with provincial and federal name and gender marker change applications, so our community can have ID that reflects who we are. This course includes forms, common issues, procedural barriers, and troubleshooting tactics. The course is oriented to lawyers, notaries, law students, and advocates; and includes information about becoming a Commissioner for Affidavits in British Columbia so your organization can complete the oath required for name changes. Participants will learn the process to assist clients born in British Columbia, those born in other Canadian provinces, and those board outside of Canada, and living in BC.

Individuals interested in navigating this process themselves can read my blog post here, and TransCareBC’s updating ID guide here. The trans legal clinic can help trans folks with forms and fees. Email lawyer@cwhwc.com for an appointment.

Custom course content can be created to meet the needs of your group. Policy & bylaw support is available. We would be delighted to act as the external chairperson, parliamentarian, or ombudsperson for your upcoming meeting.

Standard conditions:

  • Workshops are billed by the hour. Convention chairing, parliamentarian and ombudsperson services are billed by the day. Contact us for rates.
  • Workshops are delivered in person or by Zoom.
  • There is a 100% surcharge for video recording sessions for safety reasons. Limited-access recording for a few participants who cannot attend a workshop is negotiable provided copies are later destroyed.
  • There is a $100 surcharge per incident if people say intentionally transphobic things to me during a session.

Contact lawyer@adriennesmithlaw.com for more information.

Booking now for Spring and Summer 2024