Before you buy insurance for your business assets, it’s a good idea to make up a simple checklist of cost-cutting measures that are guaranteed to reduce your monthly premiums.
First of all, you should install a working set of smoke alarms, burglar alarms, and fire extinguishers throughout your premises, so as to make it more secure against fire and crime, two of the primary dangers to any property. Keeping duplicate copies of all important documents and records off-site is another simple step that’s sure to help cut costs.
To take this a step further, you could also invest in backup hard drives for your digital data, and even a storage locker to keep valuable equipment safe when it is not needed around the office. In conjunction, all of these things are sure to convince insurance providers that your business is serious about security.
If you have the budget to carry out more serious work on your office, retail space, or other premises, fire-proof doors, water-proof filing cabinets, and fully operational sprinkler systems could all be good investments in safety. Before carrying out any expensive work, however, you should first compare the costs with the benefits, and calculate exactly how much you stand to save on an insurance policy.
Civil Forfeiture and the Standard of Proof
Unlike criminal proceedings, where an accused person must be presumed innocent until proven guilty and only punished once their guilt has been proven beyond a reasonable doubt, civil forfeiture proceedings operate on the balance of probabilities, meaning that the state must merely demonstrate that an individual has probably done something illegal in order to obtain forfeiture of their property.
The Right to Counsel in Canada
Section 10(b) of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms preserves the right of a detained individual to contact counsel immediately upon arrest or detention, and simultaneously imposes a duty upon police to immediately inform individuals that they have this right.
Democratic Rights: A Broad Charter Guarantee
Democratic Rights, and specifically the right to vote in provincial and federal elections, enjoy broad constitutional protection in Canada, pursuant to Section 3 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. This section states that “Every citizen of Canada has the right to vote in an election of the members of the House of Commons or of a legislative assembly and to be qualified for membership therein.”
