What role can CCTV play in the prevention and investigation of workplace violence?
A:
On June 15, 2010, Bill 168, “An Act to amend the Occupational Health and Safety Act with respect to violence and harassment in the workplace and other matters” came into force in Ontario. It amends the Occupational Health and Safety Act (OHSA) to include definitions of workplace violence and workplace harassment.
Specifically, subsection 1(1) of OHSA is amended by adding the following definitions:
“Workplace harassment”
This means engaging in a course of vexatious comment or conduct against a worker in a workplace that is known or ought reasonably to be known to be unwelcome
“Workplace violence” means
(a) the exercise of physical force by a person against a worker, in a workplace, that causes or could cause physical injury to the worker,
(b) an attempt to exercise physical force against a worker, in a workplace, that could cause physical injury to a worker,
(c) a statement or behaviour that is reasonable for a worker to interpret as a threat to exercise physical force against the worker, in a workplace, that could cause physical injury to the worker.
The amendments to OHSA also impose new requirements for employers, as follows:
1. Employers will be required to develop written policies with respect to both workplace violence and workplace harassment which must be reviewed annually.
2. Employers must develop and maintain programs to implement the policies and to deal with incidents and complaints of workplace violence and harassment.
3. Employers must assess the risk of workplace violence that may arise from the nature of the workplace, the type of work or the conditions of work. The program developed to implement the workplace violence policy must include measures and procedures to control the risks identified in the assessment.
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PHOENIX (CN) – A federal judge has turned down the media’s request for cameras to be allowed at Thursday’s hearings on Arizona’s controversial immigration law, which the Department of Justice and civil rights groups seeks to block from going into effect on July 29.
U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton wrote that although the Ninth Circuit Judicial Council “has approved an experiment for the use of cameras in district courts, the District of Arizona has not yet taken any steps to participate in that experiment.”
Bolton said the council’s program “does not give this court authority to grant the First Amendment Coalition’s request.”
In its motion for camera access, the First Amendment Coalition of Arizona claimed that allowing “camera coverage and broadcast of the entire hearing will allow the public greater understanding of the issues raised by the legislation and will enhance public debate on those issues.”
The judge noted that the courtroom hearings are open to members of the media and the public, and that transcripts of the hearings will be available.
The state law allows officers to search vehicles without warrant if an officer has a “reasonable suspicion” that occupants do not have immigration papers.
The groups comprising the First Amendment Coalition of Arizona are the Arizona Newspapers Association, the Arizona Broadcasters Association, the Arizona-New Mexico Cable Communications Association, the Society of Professional Journalists and the Arizona Press Club.
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Blake Morrison looks at the history of voyeurism, from Actaeon to paparazzi hounding the Princess of Wales. A new exhibition shows how technology has given us fresh ways of satisfying our desire for a secret glimpse
As Actaeon was the first to discover, snooping is a serious offence. In Ovid’s version of the legend, Diana is bathing in a spring of clear water with her nymphs when Actaeon comes upon her at the end of a day’s hunting. He doesn’t intend to pry, but he can’t help staring, and she’s outraged by the intrusion on her privacy. As Ted Hughes retells it, Diana “Raged for a weapon – for her arrows / To drive through his body. / No weapon was to hand – only water. / So she scooped up a handful and dashed it / Into his astonished eyes, as she shouted: / ‘Now, if you can, tell how you saw me naked.’ / That was all she said, but as she said it / Out of his forehead burst a rack of antlers . . .” Transformed into a stag, Actaeon is hunted down and torn to pieces by his own hounds.
The man who spied on Lady Godiva, and who gave the term Peeping Tom to the language, was punished by being struck blind. As for the Elders who gawped at Susanna bathing, then tried to blackmail her, they were put to death. The paparazzi who spied on Diana’s namesake, the Princess of Wales, got off more lightly. But in the aftermath of her death they were accused of brutally hunting her down: insidious stalkers who’d destroyed their innocent prey. It was said in their defence that the princess, unlike her predecessor, hadn’t minded being looked at – that she enjoyed bathing in the limelight. But there was blood on their hands nonetheless.
All art involves looking. But some looks are more invasive than others. Where’s the line to be drawn? What’s allowable and what’s exploitative? Is it OK to portray people without them knowing? These questions come up in regard to life writing and documentary films. But it’s with photography that they’re most contentious, and a major new exhibition at the Tate, Exposed: Voyeurism, Surveillance and the Camera, raises them in relation to images of sex, war and celebrity from the past 150 years.
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Sony has at last made good on its promise of mirrorless, interchangeable-lens compact cameras. We saw some mock-ups of the slab-like cameras back in February, and now Sony’s answer to the Micro Four Thirds and Samsung’s NX1 is here.
First, the NEX-3 and NEX-5 are small. Sony says that these cameras are the “world’s smallest, lightest interchangeable-lens cameras,” and they might be right: Both measure about 4.5 x 2.5 x 1.5 inches and weigh about half a pound (sans lens), making them slightly more trim than the Panasonic GF1 (4.7 x 2.8 x 1.4 inches). Their diminutive sizes makes the bodies look rather comical when the larger lenses are affixed.
Sony is aiming at compact-camera owners who want to upgrade, and the pocket-sized design is ideal for this. The cameras contain Sony’s Exmor APS-C sized sensor, the same size that you find in most DSLRs.
The differences between the two models are small. The NEX-3 has 720p video and the NEX-5 1080i. The NEX-5 has a somewhat smaller, magnesium body, and an extra twist button on the top plate. Otherwise, the specs are the same.
Sony seems to have concentrated on making a solid, fairly gimmick-free offering. The 14.6-MP sensor is backlit (the image-sensing circuitry is on the front rather than the back of the chip) for good low-light performance (up to ISO 12,800). The LCD is a 3-inch 900,000-pixel monster, and the processor is Sony’s Bionz (Bionic Fonz) chip found in its DSLRs.
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