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Unpaid internships are illegal in Canada, by the way, so you'd have to be hiring/getting help from someone out of the country.

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Do you have any references to back this up? I would be interested in seeing them. Our lawyer (a well known technology partner at a large Vancouver firm: http://www.cwilson.com/people/10-profiles/69-brock-smith/pro...) had no qualms with this type of offer. Bit of an aside: in my experience unpaid internships can work out quite well for everyone involved, provided everyone is very unfront and transparent about expectations/abilities/mentoring to be provided.

edit: added link to Brock. He is awesome BTW, highly recommended.

I seem to be mistaken. Unpaid internships are illegal in most provinces in Candada, I suppose not BC though.

http://blogs.hrhero.com/northernexposure/2009/06/15/beware-t...

http://www.yorku.ca/ddoorey/lawblog/?p=2169

I don't think even in other provinces, the first one warns you about the difference between an employee and an intern and the second one says about the same thing an even mentions he did no legal research on this.

You have to just be careful while your doing it same as when you hire someone as a contracter making sure you don't treat them like an employee.

Unpaid internships can work out quite well for everyone involved, but not everyone can afford to work for no pay.

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