January

"The average time taken by recruitment agencies to conduct pre-employment screenings of freelance workers and contractors has recently trebled, according to the chief executive of the Association of Independent Professionals and the Self Employed (IPSE). Chris Bryce said his organisation was ""seeing an increasing trend"" for more complicated screening measures. Such screening ""used to take a week - now it takes three weeks"", Bryce said. Bryce said he did not believe that the increased complexity of the screenings was emerging from employers ' requests. Instead, he believes that recruitment agencies are putting forward offers of more intensive screening as part of competitive bids ""to get a client 's business""."

Quebec law prohibits the issuing of taxi permits to anyone who has been convicted of an indictable offence in the last five years, but the law is not being routinely enforced because of a dispute over who is responsible for background checks. The Quebec transportation ministry says enforcing criminal background checks for taxi drivers is at the top of its priority list, after several women told CBC News they've been sexually assaulted or harassed by taxi drivers. Benoit Jugand, the general director of the Montreal taxi bureau said they have been waiting on a solution for years.

"A privacy watchdog is calling on B.C.'s privacy commissioner to investigate whether police departments are being too intrusive in the questions posed to potential volunteers and employees. The B.C. Freedom of Information and Privacy Association said several police departments are collecting ""unnecessary, inappropriate and excessive personal information"" from people applying for paid and unpaid positions. The non-profit association was approached by someone applying for a volunteer position with the Delta Police Department's community police section. The Victoria Police Department has stopped doing criminal record checks until the province comes up with new legislation regarding what information should be released."