It is a well-known fact that all private employers in the United States – whether they be small businesses or giant corporations – must make a decision about whether to offer their employees some sort of tax-deferred retirement scheme.
The most popular options are 401k plans, which let employees set aside up to 15% of each paycheck in a tax-sheltered savings pool, and the less flexible but more economical SIMPLE IRA alternative, which may be more attractive to smaller enterprises.
Giving your employees the option to participate in some kind of retirement or pension scheme is known to have a number of long-term benefits, ultimately contributing to the success of your business.
First of all, offering a retirement plan is likely to attract a better class of prospective employees, who have more experience, better skills, and are looking at your company as a long-term employer. This gives you better options when selecting new staff, whether they be managers, office workers, laborers, or anything in between.
Once you have selected a good host of high quality employees for your company, having a good retirement plan in place can also serve to motivate them to work hard and “climb the corporate ladder.” This is because many pension schemes are tied to salary, and in the case of 401k plans, incentives can be built in to reward good performance.
Last but not least, offering a retirement plan is sure to make your top employees think twice before leaving your company for another employer. Pension plans can usually be structured to reward longer-term employees who show loyalty to the firm. This discourages your workers from job-hunting elsewhere, and eliminates the constant hassle and expense of having to recruit new employees every month.
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.
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.”
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.
