by Karen Sawatzky | Jul 27, 2018 | Legal Research, Legislation
If you’ve ever tried to search Hansard, the federal government’s written record of every parliamentary debate, you know that even though it’s been digital for a long time, historical records were notoriously difficult to review. That’s because when Canadiana digitized it, it was as pictures and not text. A University of Toronto team of political scientists, computer scientists and historians decided to do something about it.
In 2013, [Christopher] Cochrane teamed up with two postdoctoral researchers, two PhD students and Graeme Hirst, professor of computer science at U of T Scarborough, to create LiPaD: The Linked Parliamentary Data Project.
LiPaD has digitized and made searchable Canada’s parliamentary debates dating back to 1901. It also created and designed a website to make the documents more accessible to the public, a project headed by PhD student Tanya Whyte.
A huge thank you and congratulations to this team for making this part of Canada’s legislative record available to everyone.
Full article available here.
h/t KnowItAALL, AALL’s daily newsletter
by Karen Sawatzky | Jul 13, 2018 | Caselaw, Instruction, Legal Research
As information professionals, we are specialists in finding answers. But we also love to share our methods with everyone. One way to do this is by creating guides and tutorials on how to do what to us, are simple tasks, but to others, may be a challenge. The first guide we’ve created is on how to know when there are new Manitoba decisions on CanLII.
Manitoba’s courts have been distributing their decisions for free on CanLII since the turn of the century. Currently, we distribute the decisions to the legal publishers the day we receive them. CanLII usually has them available online within 24 hours.
Our guide, created by Allyssa McFadyen, demonstrates how to set up an alert in your calendar program to remind you to check CanLII for new results, or how to set up an RSS feed to be notified when new content has been published. Once these systems are set up, it is a simple matter to stay on top of new caselaw.
We plan to publish additional guides in the future, on such topics as how to search Hansard (Manitoba edition), and how to use our catalogue. If you have suggestions for research methods you would like explained, please let us know. Check our page, Legal Ease, for new content. It happens to be RSS-ready.
by Karen Sawatzky | Jul 3, 2018 | Caselaw, Legal Research
Every Wednesday, CanLII publishes the top three English language decisions (and the top French language decision) based on viewing. Sometimes it’s the latest Supreme Court decision, other times it’s a decision reflecting a novel interpretation of the law. Or it could be what was on the curriculum at law school.
Whatever the reason, I make sure to check out the post on Slaw.ca . This is one method I use to stay abreast of new developments.
Last week’s number one decision was Mary Shuttleworth v. License Appeal Tribunal, 2018 ONSC 3790. This was an appeal of a decision denying the applicant benefits for catastrophic impairment after a motor vehicle accident.
And look – tomorrow’s Wednesday again…
by Karen Sawatzky | Jun 26, 2018 | Caselaw, Commentary, Current Awareness, Digests, Legal Research, Summary
In library jargon, current awareness is the process of keeping clients up to date on new issues in their area of interest. In the legal profession, that function is served by publishers of newsletters, bulletins, and newspapers.
Through our subscriptions, we can provide you with topical commentary in many areas of law. Rather than list them all, I’ll start off with a general one: LawSource Case Notes. This issue’s contents include digests on Civil Practice and Procedure, Construction Law, Contracts, Criminal Law, Evidence, Family Law, Immigration and Citizenship, Insurance, Pensions, Public Law, Real Property, Remedies, and Tax.
If you would like to receive LawSource Case Notes, please email us at library@lawsociety.mb.ca so we can set up a distribution list.
Here’s your first issue for review: LawSource Case Notes 2018-22
by Karen Sawatzky | Jun 13, 2018 | Legal Research, Supreme Court of Canada
This Friday, the Supreme Court of Canada will release its decision on Trinity Western University et al v. Law Society of Upper Canada and Law Society of British Columbia v. Trinity Western University et al. These appeals, heard at the same time, concern the denial of accreditation by the law societies of a proposed new law school at Trinity Western. At issue is a community covenant students would be required to sign, based on Evangelical Christian principles of Biblical teachings and morality.
Each appeal was allowed numerous interveners to join (TWU v. LSUC, LSBC v. TWU).
Much has been written about the arguments so far, and there will be more analysis to come. This post will be updated on Friday with a link to the decision.
CanLII Connects re TWU v. LSUC, LSBC v. TWU
theCourt.ca re TWU
Decisions:
Trinity Western University v. Law Society of Upper Canada, 2018 SCC 33
Law Society of British Columbia v. Trinity Western University, 2018 SCC 32
by Allyssa McFadyen | Jun 5, 2018 | Continuing Professional Development, Legal Research
On Wednesday, June 20th our trainer, Frank Merryweather from LexisNexis will be here offering sessions to show users how to navigate and search the new Lexis Advance Quicklaw platform.
The sessions offered will be 30 minutes long, and each session qualifies for 30 minutes of your CPD requirements.
The schedule is as follows:
9:00 – 9:30 Criminal Law
10:00 – 10:30 Corporate/Commercial Law
11:00 – 11:30 Personal Injury Law
1:00 – 1:30 Family Law
2:00 – 2:30 Labour and Employment Law
3:00 – 3:30 Criminal Law
CPD in the Library – Registration Form
If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact the library and we will be happy to help!
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