Ottawa, December 11, 2019 – The Federal Court of Appeal announced today that the hearing in files A-324-19, A-325-19, A-326-19 and A-327-19 will be webcast:
IN THE MATTER OF COLDWATER INDIAN BAND ET AL. v. ATTORNEY GENERAL OF CANADA ET AL.
Summary: On June 18, 2019, for the second time, the Governor in Council (often described as the federal Cabinet), approved the Trans Mountain Pipeline expansion project. On September 4, 2019, the Federal Court of Appeal granted permission to challenge the approval of the project on the narrow issue of the adequacy of the Government of Canada’s further consultation with Indigenous peoples and First Nations between August 30, 2018 (the date of the Court’s earlier decision in Tsleil-Waututh Nation v. Canada (Attorney General), 2018 FCA 153) and June 18, 2019 (the Governor in Council’s approval), and related issues.
Webcasts – Restrictions: All rights in the broadcast of Federal Court of Appeal proceedings, including copyright, remain with the Court. The webcast may not be downloaded, saved, screen-captured, edited, broadcast or distributed in any way, except with the written authorization of the Court. Written requests for permission to use such material may be made to the Court’s Media Contact pursuant to the Court’s Guidelines on public and media access.
[Reposted with permission from The CanLII Blog, by Xavier Beauchamp-Tremblay]
2018 was a tough act to follow, but 2019 was, once again, a great year for CanLII, to say the least. More than ever, our successes are due to the relationships we have developed with organizations across the country that have embraced our vision for the future of free access to law. We are grateful they have agreed to share their content with us and hope to celebrate these relationships with this post, among other things.
Commentary
As regular readers of this blog will have appreciated by now, we’ve been multiplying announcements over the course of the year about new content added to the CanLII commentary collection. Here’s a list of what was added over the course of the year. Take some time to browse, we’ll see you on the other side:
And then, in a more or less chronological order of their announcements on the CanLII Blog, we have also partnered with the following journals, law firms, law centres and other organizations:
As the pace at which we make these announcements increases, it may be easy to become insensitive to them, but let me remind you that barely two years ago, only one of these announcements would have been individually hailed as a considerable achievement for free access to law. It speaks to how far and how fast we have moved that we can now happily interrupt the flow of this post with such a long list.
If you know people who work at the different institutions listed above, feel free to contact them to thank them for their contribution to our site or to learn how you can support them. Make sure to check their open call for papers to see if there’s anything you can contribute to in your area of expertise. They may also be on the lookout for volunteer editors or editorial board members, so there are many ways you can help.
Thanks to the contributors above, we’re now at more than 9,000 pieces of high quality content in the commentary collection. This is more than double what we had this time last year.
Of course, when we say we now have 9,000 pieces of commentary, this is setting aside for a minute an entire category of quality content. We’re talking about the 55,000 pieces from CanLII Connects that have become more findable than ever.
This means that when you go in CanLII.org, you are now searching into a total of roughly 65,000 pieces of commentary about the law, many of which are only found on CanLII. It’s almost impossible that there isn’t a piece of commentary on CanLII that is related to your field of practice, study, or activity. Perhaps we can allow ourselves a notice to law students: if this collection is not mentioned as part of your introduction to legal research class, we suggest you nudge your teacher to update the syllabus.
Another project that is evolving is the CanLII Authors Program. The program was built as an opportunity for authors of published or ready-to-be published texts to add their content to CanLII. After all, who doesn’t want to be findable on the most used legal search engine in Canada? Thing is, as a completely new concept (in Canada at least), we didn’t know if this would work. It’s gratifying to see that there are about 35 pieces that are published as part of the program, and the program’s page was an entry point for other pieces of content that ended up on CanLII over the year. If you have written content (whether or not it has been published elsewhere – assuming you haven’t given exclusive rights), we see only good reasons for authors to republish on CanLII as part of this program. Make sure to consult the (freshly redesigned and simplified) Authors Program page.
This year, we were grateful to have received a grant from the Law Foundation of British Columbia to create a publicly accessible litigation manual for British Columbians. Early September, we launched a call for writers and editors to contribute to the project. We were very pleased with the amount of interest and now have a motivated team of over 20 writers working together to make this resource a reality.
At last, we started implementing a new strategy for the curation of content for the commentary database. We have observed from running analytics on usage statistics (just to reassure you: we use aggregate stats, not individualized ones) that have identified some topics that are frequently searched for and underserved by our current content. Using this, we worked on identifying authors to write a piece on bankruptcy and family law. The piece written by Michael H. Tweyman & Kenneth Hildebrand was published on CanLII in September.
In November, we announced a collaboration with the well-known Slaw.ca blog to develop a collection of ebooks on content specifically identified to answer frequently searched topics.They have now been added to CanLII as a collaborative ebook collection.
Primary Law
Improving our primary law coverage is always a key consideration and we continued to deliver on that front too.
Historical Projects
In May, we announced that we added over 8,000 cases from the Western Weekly Reports (WWR), a collection of significant cases from courts in the western provinces.
We will write more about what our historical scanning projects of the last few years (starting with the DLRs in 2016) mean for the scope of our collection today early in the year but don’t be blinded by the fact that there we less individual announcements than for the secondary materials: 17,500 new historical decisions on CanLII is a massive improvement and these collections in particular complement well what we did in previous years.
In November, we also announced that we had added the annual statutes for Alberta, from 1906 to present as part of a project funded by the Alberta Law Foundation.
The two projects funded by the Manitoba and Alberta law foundations are very impactful ones and we are grateful for their contribution to improving the availability of primary law from these provinces.
New databases
The following tribunals have been added to CanLII’s current coverage (in no specific order and with their respective neutral citation identifier in parentheses):
Edmonton Subdivision and Development Appeal Board (abesdab)
Corporation des maîtres électriciens du Québec (qccmeq)
Alberta Municipal Government Board (abmgb)
Alberta Edmonton Composite Assessment Review Board (abecarb)
Immigration Consultants of Canada Regulatory Council (iccrc)
Calgary Assessment Review Board (abcgyarb)
Office de la langue française (qcolf)
Bureau du Commissaire de la construction (qcbcc)
Alberta Edmonton Local Assessment Review Board (abelarb)
College of Registered Psychotherapists and Registered Mental Health Therapists of Ontario (oncrpo)
College of Dental Hygienists of Ontario (oncdho)
Ontario College of Social Workers and Social Service Workers (oncswssw)
Saskatchewan Municipal Board (sksmb)
Criminal Injuries Compensation Board (oncicb)
Features
As hinted above, the CanLII Connects content is still at the same home on canliiconnects.org, but is now findable through a search on canlii.org. This way you can see all of CanLII’s content at the same place. We are always happy to have new contributors on CanLII Connects (whether individuals or organizations) and make sure to contact us if you have an interest in helping us build the largest possible collection of summaries and commentaries about Canadian legal decisions.
In June, we have revamped the design of the CanLII.org website and we’re happy to have been able to modernize our looks without (as per the feedback we received at least) disrupting our users’ habits.
As you may have noticed, just before launching the redesigned website, we implemented a quick survey form (that we designed to be as non-obtrusive as possible) so we can collect more immediate feedback from our users and this is already bearing fruit in helping us assess new features or improvements.
In terms of features, there’s really fun stuff coming very early in the New Year which I’m personally giddy about. Stay tuned!
Policy
As part of our policy efforts (discussed in greater detail here) we have intervened jointly with the Federation of Law Societies of Canada before the Supreme Court in the Keatley v. Teranet matter. The hearing took place in March, and we were lucky to be represented on a pro bono basis by Rahool P. Agarwal and Khrystina McMillan of Lax O’Sullivan Lisus Gottlieb.
The Court’s decision was issued in September and we’re happy the potential consequences on access to law were clearly considered by the Court, who issued a prudent judgment where the majority explicitly invited Parliament to reconsider s. 12 of the Copyright Act. If you want to know more, our friend Kim Nayyer’s summary is no doubt the best place to begin.
There wasn’t a specific or formal alliance between CanLII and the Canadian Association of Law Libraries but I can say personally that it was tremendously useful for me to have the opportunity to engage with members of the CALL/ACBD copyright committee, in particular the aforementioned Kim Nayyer and and Ken Fox, as we figured out our organization’s respective involvement in the Crown copyright discussion. Hat tip to them and thank you for your friendship.
Last but not least, we announced that Christina Hendricks was appointed to the CanLII board and we’re happy to have Christina, an expert in open education resources (OER), among other things, to help us as we take inspiration from the OER community about the drafting of open resources.
On that note, if you are in a law school and you think there could be some interest in working with us in developing content, please reach out. If you are a law student and you would like your law school to create open resources instead of having to buy costly books, we can help you build your case.
Phew! Might as well call that an annual report as opposed to a mere blog post. I hope you will agree that we had quite the year… again.
Before you all close your laptop for the Holidays, to:
Our users, to our stakeholders at the different law societies of Canada and at the Federation of law societies, to the staff and boards of the law foundations of Canada who have approved grants (for projects delivered this year or next), to our amazing volunteer board, to the amazing team at Lexum who makes it all happen, to our other amazing friends at Functional Labs, to our friends in law libraries, and to Miller Thomson who are helping us in different mandates of great importance: THANK YOU! We look forward to all of what we can accomplish together in the next… year decade!
Bill 18: The Summary Budgeting Act (Various Acts Amended and Public Sector Executive Compensation Act Enacted) – amendments to various acts to improve the development and implementation of the government’s summary budget.
Bill 20: The Drivers and Vehicles Amendment Act – allows the Registrar of Motor Vehicles to impose an administrative penalty on a driver training school or driving instructor.
Private Bills
Bill 204: The Public Schools Amendment Act (Teaching Experience of Principals) – adds requirement that a principal must have a minimum of two years of teaching experience, unless at a school with fewer than three teachers.
We get many requests for decisions on sentencing, particularly where parties are aware of a particular sentence, however, often the decision is not reported. Last month the Provincial Court of Manitoba published several sentencing decisions, some of which are highlighted here.
R. v. Alcantara, 2019 MBPC 67 challenged the constitutionality of the mandatory minimum sentence for the offence of luring.
[1] …. Counsel agree that the Court should first determine the fit and appropriate range of sentence, given this offender’s personal circumstances and need not examine the constitutional issue if the Court determines that the fit and appropriate sentence is within the range set out by the mandatory minimum. On the other hand, if the Court determines that a one year sentence is grossly disproportionate for Mr. Alcantara, the constitutionality of the sentencing provision is engaged, and the Court must determine if one year in jail amounts to cruel and unusual punishment for Mr. Alcantara.R. v. Alcantara (Rolston, P.J.)
R. v. Little, 2019 MPBC 60 concerns the appropriateness of a joint sentencing submission. Along with a pre-sentence report, the Court ordered a supplementary Gladue-style appendix for further consideration of the offender’s circumstances.
[45] … I am therefore, given his youth, his vulnerability and his Gladue and s. 718.2(e) factors (which apply to all offenders), of the view that the jointly proposed sentence should not be confirmed, that something less will be adequate and purposeful in the offender’s unique and most unfortunate circumstances. …R. v. Little (Corrin, P.J.)
R. v. Goodman, 2019 MBPC 77 describes the difficulty of arriving at an appropriate sentence when the offender, with a diagnosis of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder commits a serious offence.
[1] Sentencing is often described as more of an art than a science. This is because although the Criminal Codesets out sentencing principles, the Court must still balance them in light of the circumstances of the offence and the offender. R. v. Goodman (L.M. Martin, P.J.)
All of these decisions offer significant analysis in their reasons and guidance for future sentences. The library also has other resources available for finding sentencing decisions, in print and e-book format. Please don’t hesitate to contact us for help crafting your submissions on sentencing.
Starting this week, members who come to the Great Library are able to use WestlawNext Canada from any of the desktop computers. We have purchased a subscription to LawSource, CriminalSource, Estates and TrustsSource and FamilySource, as well as parts of Litigator.
If this is a new-to-you product, we are able to get you set up to take advantage of all the resources available in Westlaw. We will also bring in dedicated trainers from time to time for more intensive training.
By providing both on-site and off-site electronic resources, we can provide the most efficient and effective legal research opportunities for all members. Be sure to take advantage of them either through your own efforts, or by asking us for help.
The Manitoba Law Library would like to acknowledge with gratitude that we are situated on Treaty One Territory, the traditional lands of the Anishinaabe, Cree and Dakota peoples, and the homeland of the Métis Nation.
Printing and Photocopying
If you need to use the library’s printing and photocopying services you will need to create an account. See us at the front desk for assistance.
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