by Karen Sawatzky | Jul 12, 2019 | Access to Justice, Criminal Law, Legal Research, Sentencing
Way back in May 2018, I wrote about a project out of Saskatchewan to create a database for researching Gladue principles. This resource was going to operate under a subscription model, but has just received funding to make it open access. Content is from Saskatchewan, however, researchers in other jurisdictions will likely find it a useful starting point. It would be even better if other jurisdictions found a way to add on to it.
For now, congratulations to the Law Society of Saskatchewan, Legal Aid Saskatchewan and the Ministry of Corrections and Policing for having the foresight to develop and fund this resource.
H/t to The Lawyers’ Daily: Creators of novel Gladue database hope it becomes widely used after free access
by Karen Sawatzky | Jun 14, 2019 | Access to Justice, Legal Research
Summer vacations cut into staff available to write original posts. Over the next few months we’ll be rerunning posts we think you should be reminded of. Enjoy!
The law librarian world is geeking out today over Charterpedia, the federal government’s compilation of analysis and caselaw on the Canadian Charter. It’s like a crowd-sourced annotated Charter, for free!
This Charterpedia provides legal information about the Charter and contains information about the purpose of each section of the Charter, the analysis or test developed through case law in respect of the section, and any particular considerations related to it. Each Charterpedia entry cites relevant case law, and citations to Supreme Court of Canada decisions are hyperlinked whenever possible.
If you don’t have access to a paid annotated Charter product (or even if you do), I’d highly recommend starting with this.
(Originally published Dec 15, 2017)
by Karen Sawatzky | Oct 3, 2018 | Access to Justice, Criminal Law, Sentencing
As I’ve mentioned before, I read “What’s hot on CanLII” every week to find out what decisions a significant number of viewers found interesting. Sometimes, I make surreptitious finds that I like to share with you.
This week, the number 2 case was R. v. Morris, 2018 ONSC 5186. What was so significant about this case? It was written reasons for sentencing, provided by Nakatsuru, J. The importance of the decision is the language and the writing. Justice Nakatsuru wrote as if he was speaking directly to the offender. He used short sentences, plain English, and he explained every detail of how he came up with his decision and why he chose to accept some evidence even though the Crown objected.
This is not the first time Justice Nakatsuru has written in this manner. In R. v. Armitage, 2015 ONCJ 64, a decision of the Gladue court in Toronto, he also wrote directly to the offender.
I find this approach incredibly heartening. To me, it shows that justice is listening to offenders and not only taking into account their background, but explaining it to them so they can understand. In a law library like we have, we’re surrounded by works that require significant literacy skills to understand. Thank you to J. Nakatsuru for considering his audience while writing his decision.
by Allyssa McFadyen | Sep 12, 2018 | Access to Justice, Business Law, Criminal Law, Wills and Estates
Law in the Library is a free program offered by the Winnipeg Public Library in conjunction with the Community Legal Education Association. This program offers free sessions on various areas of law, presented by professionals.
Registration through the Winnipeg Public Library is required.
The upcoming sessions are:
Thursday, September 13: 6:30- 8 pm. Register
Tuesday, October 2: 6:30-8 pm. Register
Monday, October 15: 6:30 – 8pm. Register
Tuesday, October 30: 12 – 1 pm. Register
Thursday, November 1: 6:30-8 pm. Register
Monday, November 5: 5:30-7:30 pm. Register
by Allyssa McFadyen | Jun 28, 2018 | Access to Justice, Immigration
This week in the library we’ve created a display around our most relevant immigration resources. Most of these are online resources that you can access in the library, or behind the Law Society Member’s Portal.
Books
Online Resources
DesLibris:
Quicklaw:
If you’re looking to take out any of these books (48 hour loan period), or need help accessing these materials online, contact staff and we will be happy to help.
by Karen Sawatzky | Jun 11, 2018 | Access to Justice, Family Law
The Manitoba government has just released a report titled Modernizing Our Family Law System, by Manitoba’s Family Law Reform Committee. The 10 page report, followed by 4 pages of appendices, is written in plain English, befitting the audience it is intended for. The Committee suggests a three year pilot project.
Our model would by legislation, require all matters proceeding
under the Family Maintenance Act to be commenced by
an application form which would be simple enough that an
individual could complete it with or without the assistance
of a lawyer.
...
While restricting this pilot project to Family Maintenance Act
matters will significantly limit the scope of this initiative, we
believe there will be a large volume of matters, sufficient to
test the effectiveness of this approach during the pilot phase.
The Committee was formed in the fall of 2017, and completed their report in record time, as mandated by Justice Minister Stefanson.
As many studies have noted, the adversarial court system does not work well for family law matters. Families must continue to work together after divorce and custody issues are taken care of. We will be watching for the government to introduce legislation to enable this project, and keep you informed when it has been released.
News Release: Family Law Modernization Report Recommends Innovative Pilot Project to Improve Outcomes for Children and Families
Both ‘opportunity’ and loss for lawyers in revamp of Manitoba family law
Great LEXpectations RSS Feed