Ana Bailão, the embattled City of Toronto Councillor for Ward 18, has been advertising for a number of unpaid internship positions to assist her “core office functions and special projects” (the advertisement appears below). Councillor Bailão is following in the rich history of other Ontario politicians who have exploited young workers. Over the last three years I’ve documented various breaches of workplace law at different levels of government, see: Liberal MPP Laura Albanese, the former Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Labour illegally used interns; Sarah Thomson, the one time Mayoral candidate, exploits young journalists at the Women’s Post by illegally misclassifying as interns; and, Rob Ford, Mayor of Toronto, engaged in wage theft to squeeze unpaid overtime out of his political aides in the 2010 municipal election.
The positions that Councillor Bailão is advertising for simply are not legal. She wants persons that can make a minimum commitment of 8 to 16 hours a week. The duties of the positions are: socia media monitoring; drafting letters and other correspondence; data cataloguing; canvassing; event coordination; research on local and city-wide policy initiatives; translation; delivering event notices; community asset mapping; and, completing forms and graphic templates.
Living in Anglo-America 