Wednesday, April 30, 2014

Montreal Gazette Interview With New Head of Library and Archives Canada Guy Berthiaume

This is a follow-up to the April 14, 2014 post entitled Guy Berthiaume Appointed New Librarian and Archivist of Canada.

Guy Berthiaume, the chairman and director of the Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec in Montreal, has been named as the new head of Library and Archives Canada for a term of five years, effective June 23, 2014.

Yesterday, the Montreal Gazette published a lengthy interview with him.

Labels: , ,

Bookmark and Share Subscribe
posted by Michel-Adrien at 8:19 pm 0 comments

Tuesday, April 29, 2014

Statistics Canada Article on Family Law Cases

The Statistics Canada publication Juristat has published an article on Family law cases in the civil courts, 2012/2013:
"Every year, families make use of the civil court system to resolve issues related to family breakdown, including, divorce, separation, child custody, access and support, and other family issues. Concerned with the burden and costs of family law court cases (on both families and courts), federal, provincial and territorial governments have put in place an increasing number of family justice services to help couples come to agreement without having to go to court, or if need be, to help them through the court process. These include parent information programs and centres, mediation and alternate dispute resolution. In addition, the federal government publishes Child Support tables based on federal and provincial guidelines to help families calculate standard child support amounts. In spite of the increased availability of these services, there is still concern that family law court cases are complex and lengthy and comprise a substantial amount of civil court activity."

"Using information from the Statistics Canada Civil Court Survey (CCS), this Juristat article looks in more detail at the activity of different types of family law cases within the civil court system.The first part of the report looks at the characteristics of family law cases active in 2012/2013. The second part of the report then examines the court activity (documents filed, hearings and judgments) of different types of family law cases over time, examining the activity of cases initiated in 2008/2009 (...)"

"Information on cases active in 2012/2013 is available for eight provinces and territories reporting to the Civil Court Survey: Nova Scotia, Ontario, Alberta, British Columbia, Yukon, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut as well as some courts in New Brunswick."

Labels: , ,

Bookmark and Share Subscribe
posted by Michel-Adrien at 7:53 pm 0 comments

Monday, April 28, 2014

Canadian Forum on Civil Justice April 2014 Access to Justice Newsletter

The non-profit Canadian Forum on Access to Justice (CFCJ) has been publishing a monthly newsletter about Access to Justice since early 2013.

This month's newsletter includes:
  • an article about three law offices that have recently been opened in Walmart stores in the Toronto Area
  • a profile of Kimberley Byers, a member of the CFCJ research team
  • and a number of "stories from the road" (participation of CFCJ members in events and activities in different parts of Canada)

Labels: ,

Bookmark and Share Subscribe
posted by Michel-Adrien at 1:52 pm 0 comments

Sunday, April 27, 2014

Joint Statement Regarding the Appointment of Guy Berthiaume as New Librarian and Archivist of Canada

This is a follow-up to the April 14, 2014 post entitled Guy Berthiaume Appointed New Librarian and Archivist of Canada

Last week, the Archives Association of Ontario, the Association of Parliamentary Libraries in Canada, the Canadian Association of Law Libraries, and the Canadian Library Association issued a joint statement welcoming the appointment of Dr. Berthiaume:
"After 11 months without confirmed leadership, Library and Archives Canada (LAC) is now able to chart a path forward with renewed guidance, vision and energy."

"We are encouraged by Dr. Berthiaume’s extensive experience in leadership roles pertinent to the mandate and operation of Library and Archives Canada and his strong commitment to the field. As President and Chief Executive Officer of the Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec since 2009 he has lead a renowned memory institution and has addressed many of the issues germane to Library and Archives Canada."

"The library and information community look forward to working closely with Dr. Berthiaume and the leadership team at LAC. The challenges for LAC are considerable. However, new beginnings are opportunities to take bold new steps and to reconnect LAC with Canadians from all walks of life."
Earlier Library Boy posts on Library and Archives Canada include:
  • Canadian Library Association Dismayed by Federal Budget Impact (May 2, 2012): "The Canadian Library Association (CLA) today released a statement criticizing the 2012 federal budget which it believes will hit federal libraries and Libraries and Archives Canada very hard."
  • September 2012 Campaign Update of Save Library and Archives Canada (September 27, 2012): "The Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT) launched a campaign this year called Save Library and Archives Canada (LAC) because of its fear that recent federal budget cuts would hamper the institution's many collections and activities. The campaign has just published a September 2012 Campaign Update (...)" 
  • Library and Archives Canada Terminates Inter-Library Loan Service (October 31, 2012): "The CLA Govt Library & Professionals Network, part of the Canadian Library Association, has published an announcement from Library and Archives Canada (LAC) that the institution is putting an end to its inter-library loan service in the next few weeks. The LAC's service has been an indispensable tool nationwide for researchers and libraries. "
  • CLA Member Advocacy Survey: The Impact of Federal Budget Cuts on Canada’s Libraries (December 15, 2012): "The Canadian Library Association (CLA) has released the results of its survey on the impact of federal budget cuts (...) More than 400 individuals provided detailed responses to the survey questions. They overwhelmingly agreed that the cuts will impact both local and national library services, with 98% of respondents indicating concern. Areas most likely to be affected were identified, and include: access to material/information, research, interlibrary loans, Community Access Program, preservation, staffing cuts, digital issues."
  • Canadian Association of Law Libraries Urges Reconsideration of LAC Code of Conduct (March 27, 2013): "Earlier this month, it was revealed that Library and Archives Canada (LAC) management was proposing a new code of conduct, a move that sparked a lot of controversy and some apprehension that information professionals were perhaps being muzzled at one of Canada's most important national cultural heritage institutions at a time when it is facing cutbacks and a change in its service mix. In particular, many objections were made to the description of traditional public engagements such as teaching and going to librarian and archivist conferences as potentially 'high risk activities' that may pose a problem under the code's provisions."
  • Law Library Association Endorses Joint Statement on Next Library and Archives Canada Head (June 4, 2013): "The Canadian Association of Law Libraries (CALL) has endorsed the joint statement of close to 20 provincial and national library and archival associations concerning the qualifications needed by the person who will be chosen as the next head of Library and Archives Canada. Daniel Caron resigned as head of the institution last May."
  • Canadian Library Associations on Upcoming Federal Budget (August 29, 2013): "The Canadian Library Association (CLA) and the Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL) have prepared submissions (...) One common element of both submissions is the call for more funding for digitization programs by Library and Archives Canada which has been hit by major cutbacks."
  • Library Association Responses to Royal Society of Canada Consultations on Future of Canada's Libraries and Archives (February 10, 2014): "The CAUT [Canadian Association of University Teachers] report in particular is scathing about recent changes and budget cutbacks at Library and Archives Canada and about the closing of federal government libraries."

Labels: , ,

Bookmark and Share Subscribe
posted by Michel-Adrien at 2:24 pm 0 comments

Thursday, April 24, 2014

CanLII Invites Members of Legal Community to Provide Case Commentaries

As many readers know, CanLII, the Canadian Legal Information Institute, recently launched a new platform called CanLII Connects that allows publishers, law firms and academics to share commentary on cases and legislation. CanLII Connects already contains 27,000 case summaries and commentaries.

Earlier this week, CanLII published an invitation to potential contributors to share their case summaries or commentaries:
"If you have previously written case summaries or commentaries for client bulletins or blog posts, give them new life by making them available to people reading the case!"

"We all have an interest in uncovering which of the tens of thousands of new and recent rulings added to CanLII each year add to our understanding the law."

"We created CanLII Connects to deliver big insights through organizing small contributions."
In one of here regular research tips on Slaw.ca, Shaunna Mireau explains how CanLII results now include links to commentary from CanLII Connects:
"This innovation with add more ‘social’ to legal commentary. The legal community speaking to each other through published case commentary has been wonderful. The legal community offering select commentary to our own clients and through our own websites has also been very useful. It will be interesting to see how socializing legal commentary with this offer of case comments easily available to all impacts the legal information space."

Labels: , ,

Bookmark and Share Subscribe
posted by Michel-Adrien at 5:22 pm 0 comments

Wednesday, April 23, 2014

Statistics Canada Article on Firearms and Violent Crime

The Statistics Canada publication Juristat has published a new article on Firearms and violent crime in Canada, 2012:
"There were approximately 5,600 victims of firearm-related violent crime in 2012, accounting for 2% of all victims of violent crime. The rate of firearm-related violent crime has decreased 27% since 2009, reaching 21 per 100,000 population in 2012. In 2012, most (57%) victims of firearm-related violent crime were involved in an incident that was handgun-related. "

"Rates of firearm-related violent crime differ across the provinces and territories, with Saskatchewan and Manitoba having the highest rates among the provinces, similar to violent crime in general. Rates of handgun violence are highest in CMAs [census metropolitan areas], while rates of rifle or shotgun violent crime are higher in non-CMA areas. "

"There were 172 victims of firearm-related homicide in 2012, 14 more than the previous year. When compared to non-firearm homicide, firearm-related homicide is more likely to be related to gang or organized crime activity and less likely to be cleared by police." [from the summary]

Labels: , ,

Bookmark and Share Subscribe
posted by Michel-Adrien at 1:55 pm 0 comments

Tuesday, April 22, 2014

Alberta Law Reform Institute Report on Beneficiary Designation by Substitute Decision Makers

The Alberta Law Reform Institute has released a report on Beneficiary Designation by Substitute Decision Makers that deals with the issue of who gets to designate beneficiaries of pension plans and insurance policies when the owner has lost legal capacity, especially due to age.

It is legally unclear if a substitute decision maker has the legal authority to make, change or revoke beneficiary designations on behalf of the represented adult.

The report proposes changes to a number of provincial Acts:
"This report recommends legislative changes to ensure that testamentary wishes are respected. The most common situation is when an attorney or trustee needs to transfer a plan or policy from one institution or company to another, or to convert an RSP to an RIF when the owner attains age 71. The first recommendation would clarify the law by expressly allowing an attorney or a trustee to make an administrative change on behalf of the donor or represented adult by designating any beneficiary named under a plan or policy when renewing, replacing or converting that plan or policy."

"Another situation where the inability to update beneficiary designations may produce unexpected and unfair results is the beneficiary designation in favour of a former spouse or adult interdependent partner. There is a common misconception that such a designation is revoked at the end of a marriage or an adult interdependent partnership. But this is not the case. While a gift in a will to a spouse or adult interdependent partner is revoked as though the former spouse or adult interdependent partner had predeceased the testator, a beneficiary designation remains in effect unless the plan or policy owner takes some positive action to change that designation. If the owner has lost the capacity to designate a new beneficiary – and the attorney or trustee does not have the authority to make, change or revoke the designation – the former spouse or adult interdependent partner will continue to benefit. The same will happen if the plan or policy owner forgets to revoke the unwanted beneficiary designation. The second aspect of our recommendations would clarify the law by making it consistent with the approach taken with respect to gifts in a will."

Labels: , , , ,

Bookmark and Share Subscribe
posted by Michel-Adrien at 7:52 pm 0 comments

New Zealand Law Commission Issues Paper on Legal Proceedings Against the Crown

The Law Commission of New Zealand released an Issues Paper last week entitled A New Crown Civil Procedure Act for New Zealand which proposes a new law governing the ability of citizens to bring civil legal proceedings against the Crown and its servant.

From the press release:
"The Crown Proceedings Act is the statute through which New Zealanders can sue the Crown. In the Commission’s view, and in the view of many who work with it, the current Act is convoluted and difficult to follow. The Act has not been updated since it was passed in 1950. It is in need of modernisation to reflect the realities of government in the twenty-first century."

"The proposed statute is not designed to increase the scope of Crown liability, but would better enable the Courts to focus on the allegations made against the Crown (...)"

"The President of the Commission, Sir Grant Hammond, describes the Crown Proceedings Act as 'a statute of considerable constitutional significance'."

" 'Although the Crown Proceedings Act sounds as if it is simply dry ‘lawyer’s law’, it has the important purpose of reflecting New Zealand’s commitment to ensuring that people are able to seek appropriate legal redress against their government. It forms an important pillar of the rule of law,' says Sir Grant."

"An important topic covered in the Issues Paper is the Crown’s ability to refuse to disclose certain information during litigation because of reasons of national security. The Commission is raising a number of options, including the possibility of court hearings in which material might be relied on by the Crown but not fully disclosed to the other side."

Labels: , , ,

Bookmark and Share Subscribe
posted by Michel-Adrien at 7:37 pm 0 comments

Monday, April 21, 2014

Canadian Legal Publisher Price Trends 2014

Every year, the Vendor Liaison Committee of the Canadian Association of Law Librarians (CALL) compiles information about price trends for print and electronic Canadian law publications in the upcoming year.

This totally passed me by during the winter but the Committee has come out with findings for 2014.

The document covers Carswell, LexisNexis, CCH, Irwin Law, Emond Montgomery, SOQUIJ and Yvon Blais.

More information on library-vendor relations can be found on the Committee's section of the CALL website.

Labels: ,

Bookmark and Share Subscribe
posted by Michel-Adrien at 5:53 pm 0 comments

Thursday, April 17, 2014

Supreme Court of Canada: New Library Titles

The list of new library titles added to the Supreme Court of Canada collection for the period of April 1-15, 2014 is now available on the Court website.

The web page explains: "The Supreme Court of Canada Library lends materials from all but the most recent New Library Titles list in accordance with its Interlibrary Loan Policy."

It is possible to subscribe via e-mail to receive the list.

Labels: , ,

Bookmark and Share Subscribe
posted by Michel-Adrien at 1:07 pm 0 comments

Tuesday, April 15, 2014

Australian Study Highlights 5-to-1 ROI of Special Libraries

A number of Australian library associations including the Australian Law Library Association published a study earlier this month that highlights the big 5-to-1 bang for the buck of government, law firm and organizational libraries.

In fact, every one dollar investment in special libraries brings 5.43 dollars in return to their organization, according to the study commissioned by our library friends way down there in Oz.

From the press release:
"ALIA [Australian Library and Information Association] Executive Director Sue McKerracher said, ‘Working in the library and information sector, we all recognise the value of special libraries. What is exciting about this report is that an independent firm of economists has been able to put a figure on the value—and that figure is five times the original investment’. "
"The indicative finding of $5.43 for every $1 invested is likely to be even higher. SGS [the firm commissioned to write the study] assessed the benefits provided directly to special library users, including time saved and value of ‘out-of-pocket’ expenses such as journal subscriptions. However, the user focus of the study omitted the return on investment in terms of client outcomes, and SGS said ‘it is highly likely that the benefits of industry libraries outweigh their costs considerably’."
[Source: CLA Government Library and IM Professionals Network]

Labels:

Bookmark and Share Subscribe
posted by Michel-Adrien at 4:17 pm 0 comments

Monday, April 14, 2014

Guy Berthiaume Appointed New Librarian and Archivist of Canada

The Canadian government announced today that it has appointed Guy Berthiaume as Librarian and Archivist of Canada for a term of five years. He will take over at Library and Archives Canada effective June 23, 2014.

He had been President and Chief Executive Officer of the Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec since 2009.

The CLA Government Library and Information Professionals Network has posted a biography of Dr. Berthiaume.


Labels: , ,

Bookmark and Share Subscribe
posted by Michel-Adrien at 8:00 pm 0 comments

Sunday, April 13, 2014

Quebec Bar Association Public Legal Education TV Series Starts Its 4th Season

The fourth season of the television series "Le Droit de savoir" (The right to know) will begin tomorrow on the Canal savoir channel in Quebec. There will be 10 episodes.

This season, each show will explore one of the rights guaranteed by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the Quebec Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms.

The day after broadcast, episodes will be made available on the websites of Canal savoir and of the series.

The series is a co-production of the Quebec Bar Association and the province-owned public broadcaster Télé-Québec.


Labels: , ,

Bookmark and Share Subscribe
posted by Michel-Adrien at 5:26 pm 0 comments

Canadian Library Association 2014 Webinars in April and May

The Canadian Library Association (CLA) is hosting a series of professional development webinars in April and May 2014. Equipment requirements, registration costs as well as an online registration form are available on the CLA website.

The upcoming webinars include:
  • Digital Scholarship from the Bottom Up: The Library’s Role in Open Access Student Journals (April 16)
  • Transferable Competencies: Opportunities for LIS Graduates in Non-Librarian Positions (April 22)
  • Beyond Traditional Training: Delivering Dynamic Apps Sessions (April 29)
  • Becoming Indispensable: The Value Proposition (May 1)
  • Mother Said There’d Be Days Like These: Dealing Professionally & Elegantly With the Unforeseen at Work (May 8)

Labels: , , , ,

Bookmark and Share Subscribe
posted by Michel-Adrien at 5:11 pm 0 comments

Saturday, April 12, 2014

Roundup of SLA Twitter Chat on Proving the Value of Information Services

This is a follow-up to the March 30, 2014 Library Boy post entitled SLA April 3 Twitter Chat on Proving the Value of Information Service.

Last week, the international information professional organization SLA held a "Twitter Chat" with a focus on the following topics:
  • Communicating Your Value – how do you overcome the difficulty in demonstrating the value of your information services to the business? How do you constantly “get closer to the action”?
  • Understanding the Drivers – This can easily read “Understanding the strategy,” or “Understanding the preferences.” How do you gain an understanding of the overall strategy of your organization, and use that understanding to proactively contribute? How do you capture user preferences on an ongoing basis, and cater your services to those preferences? 
  • Managing the Process – How do you develop a project management approach to delivering your services and projects? How do you manage the complexity of data at your disposal, along with the internal and external resources? How do you encourage self-service and establish multiple access points to your services? 
  • Providing Decision-Ready Information – How do you ensure the utmost relevancy of your information? How do you not only provide the information needed, but seek opportunities to influence the decision yourself? What tools do you use to provide bite-size, easy-to-digest chunks and visuals? 
SLA has now published the content of that Twitter event.

Labels: ,

Bookmark and Share Subscribe
posted by Michel-Adrien at 5:41 pm 0 comments

Thursday, April 10, 2014

Law Library Benchmarks 2014

Primary Research Group has released Law Library Benchmarks 2014 Edition:
"The 155-page study gives extensive data and commentary on law library spending plans and management practices including current and future expected budgets, spending on salaries, and materials such as online databases, print reporters, online and print directories, books, e-books, journals and other information resources. The report also looks at use of particular types and brands of information resources, at cost recovery efforts and at law library effort to reduce costs and improve productivity through better negotiation and other tactics. The study also presents detailed data on library measures to enhance mobile device access and to use social media, blogs and other internet resources in the law library service effort."
"The report presents data from 60 law libraries from the United States and Canada including law firm libraries, university law libraries, courthouse libraries, private company libraries and others, with data presented separately for each library type."
Among some of the highlights:
  • For 37.5 percent of survey participants, the overall library budget decreased in 2013
  • The courthouse libraries in the sample had the largest budget decreases, a mean of 7.25 percent
  • Libraries in the sample spent a mean of $320,931 (US) on online databases in 2013; spending is expected to increase slightly in 2014 to $330,688 (US), or by about 3.3%
  • The materials/content budget is nearly evenly split between print resources and electronic resources; the former accounted for a mean of 50.52 percent of the budget; the latter, 49.48 percent
Print and PDF versions are available for $132.00. Site licenses are also available.

Labels: , , ,

Bookmark and Share Subscribe
posted by Michel-Adrien at 3:59 pm 0 comments

Wednesday, April 09, 2014

Canadian Association of Law Libraries Upcoming Competitive Intelligence Webinar

The Canadian Association of Law Libraries is hosting a webinar on May 1, 2014 on Competitive Intelligence: How Intelligence Accelerates New Client Acquisitions for Law Firms:
"For several years now, there has been talk in the legal marketing industry about competitive, business and market intelligence, what it is, how it works and why firms need it. This session is going to focus on how Law Librarians can use CI tools and techniques to aid in sourcing new clients or new work from existing clients. Specifically, the session will look at examples of:
  • How to make the most of current awareness and alerting systems with new client acquisition in mind
  • Using competitor client lists to track market opportunities and conflicts
  • How to research and help win RFPs
  • Why collaboration between departments is crucial for winning new business and how law librarians can lead the charge"
The speaker is Zena Applebaum, Manager of Intelligence and Intranet at Bennett Jones LLP.

The event is at 1:00 p.m. - 2:30 p.m. EST. The cost is $45.20 for CALL members, and $67.80 for non-members.

There is an online registration form for the webinar.

Labels: , ,

Bookmark and Share Subscribe
posted by Michel-Adrien at 3:29 pm 0 comments

Tuesday, April 08, 2014

Publications Nominated for the 2014 Hugh Lawford Award for Excellence in Legal Publishing

Every year, the Canadian Association of Law Libraries (CALL) hands out the Hugh Lawford Award for Excellence in Legal Publishing.

It honours a publisher (whether for-profit or not-for profit, corporate or non-corporate) that has demonstrated excellence by publishing a work, series, website or e-product that makes a significant contribution to legal research and scholarship.

The nominees for this year are:
  • The Queen’s Bench Rules of Saskatchewan: Annotated, 4th ed. (Law Society of Saskatchewan Libraries)
  • Juris Classeur Québec (LexisNexis Canada)
  • Copyright Law, Fourth Edition (John Wiley and Sons, Inc.)
  • GALLOP: Government and Legislative Libraries Online Publications Portal (Association of Parliamentary Libraries in Canada/ L’Association des bibliothèques parlementaires au Canada)
The award honours Hugh Lawford (1933-2009), Professor of Law at Queens’ University and the founder of Quicklaw.

The award will be presented to the recipient at a reception during the 2014 CALL Annual Meeting in Winnipeg. 

Labels: , ,

Bookmark and Share Subscribe
posted by Michel-Adrien at 7:36 pm 0 comments

Monday, April 07, 2014

Blogs as a Legal Research Source

This is a follow-up to the March 20, 2014 post entitled Twitter as a Legal Research Source that described an advanced legal research and writing class given by Kim Nayyer, a law librarian at the University of Victoria.

On Slaw.ca last week , Nayyer published a second article related to that course, this time about the strategic value of law-related blogs . The article describes search tools that are specific to blog and law-related blog materials.

Nayyer concludes:
"Once again, critical evaluation is fundamental. As with any piece of information, basic research literacy requires us to consider factors like authority, credibility, and perspective of the blog post or similar content. If I’m reading a blog discussion about a recent labour law case, I need to consider whether this blog author’s perspective is influenced by the firm’s regular representation of unions or employers, for instance. Or I need to look at the profile of the person or organization who posted the particular Scribd document I’m reading, for example."

Labels: , ,

Bookmark and Share Subscribe
posted by Michel-Adrien at 5:50 pm 0 comments

CLA Government Library Network Interview With IM Policy Analyst Chantal Lareau

For the past few months, the CLA Government Library and Information Management Professionals Network, part of the Canadian Library Association (CLA), has been publishing 13 Questions With..., a series on its website that profiles a member of the Canadian library and IM community every week.

This week's interview is with Chantal Lareau, IM Policy Analyst, Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat:
"Career advice – what’s your top tip?
Make friends. The IM community is filled with such fantastic people and I can’t even recall the number of times that I was able to accomplish a task more quickly or more completely by simply giving someone a call. By the same token I would also say make sure to pay it forward and when a colleague calls for help support them as best you can."

Labels: , ,

Bookmark and Share Subscribe
posted by Michel-Adrien at 5:40 pm 0 comments

Sunday, April 06, 2014

CanLII Launches CanLII Connects Platform

CanLII, the Canadian Legal Information Institute, has launched a new platform called CanLII Connects that allows publishers, law firms and academics to share commentary on cases and legislation.

The site is open to everyone but only registered members are permitted to submit content and offer comments.

As CanLII explains in a blog post:
"Lawyers and others routinely prepare and share summaries and commentary on the decisions of Canadian courts. You will find these insights in journals, magazines, blogs, newsletters, commercial legal search tools and many other places. But until now, you could not find multiple thoughts about a single case in one place, at the same time, at no charge to the user and directly linked to the full text of the case!"

"CanLII Connects launched on April 4th with nearly 27,000 documents covering cases from 11 of Canada’s 13 provinces and territories."
CanLII, whose funding comes from members of Canada’s provincial and territorial law societies, makes Canadian jurisprudence and statutes available for free via the Internet. It already contains over 1 million documents across over 200 collections, including the statutes, regulations and current court rulings of all Federal, Provincial and Territorial Jurisdictions.

Labels: , ,

Bookmark and Share Subscribe
posted by Michel-Adrien at 6:20 pm 0 comments

Thursday, April 03, 2014

Canada Gazette Publishes Its Last Print Issue

The last ever print issue of the venerable Canada Gazette was published this week. It includes a short history of the publication.

The Gazette continues free of charge as an exclusively electronic publication on the government website.

The Gazette, the official newspaper of the government of Canada, started life in 1841. There are digital archives going back to the first edition.

Labels: , , ,

Bookmark and Share Subscribe
posted by Michel-Adrien at 4:05 pm 0 comments

Australian Law Reform Commission Discussion Paper on Serious Invasions of Privacy in the Digital Era

The Australian Law Reform Commission has released a Discussion Paper on Serious Invasions of Privacy in the Digital Era.

The Commission is seeking feedback from the community on proposals for reform including new national legislation that would provide for a statutory cause of action for serious invasions of privacy.

Labels: , ,

Bookmark and Share Subscribe
posted by Michel-Adrien at 3:50 pm 0 comments

March 2014 Issue of Connected Bulletin on Courts and Social Media

The March 2014 issue of Connected is available online. The bulletin covers news about the impact of new social media on courts.

In this month's issue:
  • State Court Public Information Officer Attacked over Social Media Usage
  • Admissibility of Social Media Postings into Evidence
  • Judges’ Use of Social Media
  • Survey of 583 Actual US Jurors on Social Media
Most of the items are about the United States, but there is occasional coverage of other jurisdictions.

The bulletin is published by the Virginia-based National Center for State Courts and the Conference of Court Public Information Officers.

Labels: , , ,

Bookmark and Share Subscribe
posted by Michel-Adrien at 3:43 pm 0 comments

Wednesday, April 02, 2014

New Zealand Law Commission Report on Media Reporting of Suicide

The Law Commission of New Zealand has released a report entitled Suicide Reporting that recommends revisions to that country's Coroners Act 2006:
"The Report recommends that sections 71 to 73 of the Coroners Act 2006 that restrict the reporting of suicide be repealed and replaced by new provisions. Those provisions should only prohibit the reporting of the method of suicide and the fact that a death is a suicide. A person should be able to apply to the Chief Coroner for an exemption from those prohibitions. It also recommends that the Coroners Act requires the Minister of Health to prepare, in consultation with media and mental health experts, a new set of standards for reporting suicide, and to implement an ongoing programme to disseminate, promote, support and evaluate the implementation of those standards."
The report looked at the situation in other jurisdictions such as Australia and the United Kingdom.

Labels: , , , ,

Bookmark and Share Subscribe
posted by Michel-Adrien at 4:38 pm 0 comments

Tuesday, April 01, 2014

British Columbia Law Institute Report Proposes Franchise Act

The British Columbia Law Institute (BCLI) has released a Report on a Franchise Act for British Columbia.

The report recommends that British Columbia become the 6th Canadian province to adopt franchise legislation. The report analyzes franchise legislation in force in Canada, the U.S., and elsewhere, and contains a detailed legislative proposal with commentary.

Alberta, Ontario, Manitoba, PEI, and New Brunswick already have legislation that imposes pre-sale disclosure requirements to guard against investors being misled when purchasing a franchise. Those laws also offer other protections to ensure a level playing field between franchisors and franchisees.

The Uniform Franchises Act developed under the Uniform Law Conference of Canada Commercial Law Strategy was the model for the franchise enactments of several of those provinces.

Labels: , , ,

Bookmark and Share Subscribe
posted by Michel-Adrien at 6:05 pm 0 comments

April 2014 Issue of In Session: Canadian Association of Law Libraries' e-Newsletter

The April 2014 issue of In Session is available online.

It is the monthly e-newsletter of the Canadian Association of Law Libraries (CALL) and contains news from CALL committees and special interest groups, member updates and events.

Labels: ,

Bookmark and Share Subscribe
posted by Michel-Adrien at 5:47 pm 0 comments

Supreme Court of Canada: New Library Titles

The list of new library titles added to the Supreme Court of Canada collection for the period of March 16-31, 2014 is now available on the Court website.

The web page explains: "The Supreme Court of Canada Library lends materials from all but the most recent New Library Titles list in accordance with its Interlibrary Loan Policy."

It is possible to subscribe via e-mail to receive the list.

Labels: , ,

Bookmark and Share Subscribe
posted by Michel-Adrien at 5:46 pm 0 comments