Need Legal Advice Please...

[bcteagirl]

Went back to the gym yesterday... they have stopped bothering my entirely, so they must know they do not have a leg to stand on... my friend mixed up days and did not go with me yesterday, but is trying on her own today (Have not heard back yet). Take home exam this week, so won't be doing too much. In talking off the record to some lawyers (not involved in the case, just discussions) it appears that we do actually have a case, which is good to know. It was also suggested that we take our letter (once written) to different levels of the organization, rather than only dealing with the people at the gym (Eg. we will be sending a copy of the letter to the dean, etc).

[bcteagirl]

Had a meeting with the undergrad ombudsmen (sp?) today (There is no grad one), at first she didn't understand what the 'big deal' is but I think she understands now.. she is going to help us set up a meeting with the President of the university to present our concerns before starting a petition... starting to get nervous but glad things are moving ahead...

[remarker]

Nice to hear that you are continuing to stand up for something you believe in and that someone took the time to listen and hear what you actually were saying.

Keep up the great work

[harkatsmom]

You should be very proud of yourself for standing up for what you believe.
Glad to hear that you guys have a case, and people are taking you seriously.
They must have thought that you guys would just conform to the new system and that is that.
Good for you BCT
BTW
The nervousness is natural, but don't let it get the best of you Hun, you really are doing the right thing

[Olive]

i'm sorry i can't be much of a help but i'm sure that there is some sort of legal action that can be taken. good luck

[travelgeek]

That's great to hear BCT. I'm sure if you didn't bring this to their attention, they probably would have thought of other applications to apply this disgusting procedure to.... perhaps library checkout kiosks.

[bcteagirl]

Thanks guys.. They are putting them at all the doors to different areas of the gym as well (In place of actual monitoring by a person, so that we can have a less secure gym )...and it is starting not to work on people as their hands get dry in the winter... I see a problem coming! Eeerg!

[bcteagirl]

Just a quick update... we were elected an official action group which is great (Gets us funding, help with petitions etc).. the meeting has been pushed back till Wed at least, and everytime we correspond about setting up a meeting time more and more people at the university are cc'd to the email.. looks like at least 3 suits so far... sounds like things may not go easily...

[momg]

i'm glad to hear at least they are taking you seriously even if they feel it is no big deal

[jacqlemon]

In Ontario, use of your personal information is a very confidential thing. Our rights are governed under a few different Acts. The best thing to do is to contact the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario at www.ipc.on.ca. They govern any provincial government entity, which I assume your school would be under. You might also try Human Rights Ontario or Ombudsman Ontario and ask if this in an optional requirement for your gym membership. It certainly seems to me that given the fact that you do not have to be fingerprinted to attend the school and the gym is an extenstion of the school, it would be optional. I'd certainly like to know what you find out. Let me know.

Jacqui

[bcteagirl]

Thank you for the information! We are in BC, but if we don't get a satisfactory response from the meeting we will be contacting the privacy commissioner as well as starting a petition.

[bcteagirl]

After a battle of daily schedules we finally set a meeting date for today. Although the meeting was superficially civil I would not say that it went well... We were constantly interrupted (and then told to let them finish what they were saying ), Our concerns were minimized and it was suggested that we did not represent anyone but the two of us... While we were trying to present issues of privacy and consent they wanted to tell us how great and safe the computer system was (even if it is that addresses confidentiality of the data, not privacy and the coerced consent they are using at this point).

Our personal experiences and those of the people we talked to were devalued to ' Yes, it is to bad YOU personally had a bad experience, but we are dealing with the population, do you have any proof at all that anyone else cares? (ie. Once again they are presenting it as though we are the first people to have a problem). They suggested we meet with the graduate and undergraduate counsels and then set up another meeting so that they can hear from real people. We are in the process of doing that..

Needless to say after that 'interesting' meeting we had petitions printed within the hour (They have been printed for less than an hour and already have 12 just from people I ran into),. I expect to be posting an online petition as soon as it can be arranged and will really need as much support as you can muster through your networks.

[bcteagirl]

Does anyone know which of these sites is more accepted or would be better for an online petition? I guess I am lucky in that I have never felt the need to set one up until now:
www.canadaspace.com
www.gopetition.com
www.petitionspot.com
www.petitiononline.com