I"m working for telecom company in Vancouver,Canada and since I'm a regular 'hourly' employee anything I do outside of my work hours and/or using my own tools (computer/network/software) belongs to me and noone else.

Same was the case with my previous employer. I had worked as a contractor and in the contract (I read it carefully ;) that I had to sign prior to my employement there were no explicit claims to any out-of-work activity. The employer, basically, couldn't claim anything as belonging to his company unless I was using company resources at the time of doing my work. Company resources include both the salary dollars and any hardware/software piece. Therefore, at times when I did work from home my employer owned my code since I was payed by that employer.

"There is no system but GNU, and Linux is one of its kernels." -- Confession of Faith