Society Act Shenanigans

There is an attempt being made to make changes to the BC Society Act.  That is the governing legislation for many of the non-profit and community organizations that do so much to maintain civility and honesty and transparency to our lives.  It is likely your neighbourhood Residents’ Association is a Society, for example.

Under the proposed changes, corporations (developers, say, or pipelines or mining companies) would be given the right to sue such organizations in court, claiming they were not acting “in the public interest” (this latter term to be defined by the judge at trial).  The organizations, generally volunteers with little or no resources, would be forced to expend all their time and energies on legal defence against these SLAPP suits.

Luckily we have folks who know a lot more about this stuff than me; and several of them have written a letter of protest to the Province from the Coalition of Vancouver Neighbourhoods, many of whose members would be directly affected by this naked attempt to entrench the power of the corporations against the ordinary Jane and Joe.