Some Updates Regarding Internships

Just a brief post on the topic of unpaid internships in Canada. A couple weeks back I spoke at the Will Work For Exposure conference at Ryerson University's Centre for Labour Management Relations. I was on a panel discussing unpaid internships and from all reports everyone enjoyed the discussion that occurred. Below I've posted a video of my portion of the talk, in the video I discuss the rising threat from unpaid internships to the stability of the labour market and what can be done to stem the rise of precarious work in Canada's labour markets.

There's been a fair amount of response in the blogosphere to the panel and I've culled some of the coverage. The Canadian Media Guild posted an article entitled "Unpaid Internships: a boon or a bane".  Belinda Alzner wrote an article that I really enjoyed due to the attention she pays to the personal impact from interning, see: "Internships and the intersection of class struggle and opportunity". Storyboard.ca published an article entitled "Experience or exploitation? Conference ramps up debate on unpaid internships". The Work Beat blog has an interesting post entitled "Will Sew for Reference". Here's my favourite post simply for the pure vitriol towards the concept of unpaid labour targeting youth, see: "The Myth of Unpaid Internships".

Finally, I'm happy to report that my research has been judicially referenced for the first time! Justice Pierre Archambault of the Tax Court of Canada referred to my work on unpaid internships in his decision in Chabaud v. La Reine. Needless to say I'm pretty thrilled and hope that other judges will soon be utilizing my research in their cases.

If anyone has any feedback then please leave a comment below or drop me an email. Here's the video of my talk at the conference, see: