Time for N.S. government to join Acadia, King's College in banning abuse of NDAs, Chender says
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“The PCs were very open to the idea and were in dialogue with the people behind the Can’t Buy My Silence campaign,” NDP Leader Claudia Chender said Friday of the Progressive Conservatives prior to their August 2021 majority election victory.
“When they were elected, they initially signalled that they were going to bring forward (non-disclosure agreement) legislation similar to the one in Prince Edward Island and similar to the one that we subsequently introduced, Bill 144 (on April 7, 2022). Then, they had an inexplicable about-face.”
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“For a long time when pressed about that, (Johns) gave no reason at all and at some point said something to the effect of some people believe we should still be able to have NDAs in these situations,” Chender said Friday.
“It’s worth noting and we have pointed this out numerous times to the minister that in our draft legislation and the P.E.I. legislation on which it’s based, parties are able to enter into a non-disclosure agreement if they both have sought and been able to receive fully independent legal advice.”
Chender said what the NDP bill does and what the pledge taken by Acadia and King’s does is “prohibit the misuse of NDAs.”
The NDP leader said non-disclosure agreements originated in situations where trade secrets had to be protected.
“That is the appropriate use of them but they have grown in subsequent decades to be a very powerful tool for covering up wrongdoing and our bill seeks to change that, the P.E.I. legislation changes that and we are now very proud that two Atlantic universities have agreed to take that step.”
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Chender said the Atlantic provinces have experienced high-profile examples of people using non-disclosure agreements to cover up wrongdoing.
“The P.E.I. legislation came out of the gross misconduct of the former president of UPEI (Alaa Abd-El-Aziz) who was protected for far too long by non-disclosure agreements of victims, many of whom have recently come forward subsequent to the passing of that bill,” Chender said.
Another example of NDA abuse is the Hockey Canada scandal at the 2003 world junior championship in Halifax.
“Where this legislation has gone forward, it has come forward on the heels of these types of scandals,” Chender said. “Across the United States, in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein revelations around his decades of serial misconduct, the U.S. decided to start getting serious about it and now I think 17 jurisdictions have passed laws outlawing the misuse of non-disclosure agreements.
“We have those examples of wrongdoing here and I believe it’s really time for us as a province to act."