Statistics Canada Article on Impaired Driving in Canada

The Statistics Canada publication Juristat has published an article entitled Impaired driving in Canada, 2015.

It presents data on police-reported impaired driving, including data specific to drug-impaired driving. It looks at the age and sex of accused persons and the time of day or time of year when those incidents occur.

Among the highlights:

•  In 2015, police reported 72,039 impaired driving incidents, representing a rate of 201 incidents per 100,000 population. This is the lowest rate since data on impaired driving were first collected in 1986 (-65%) and 4% lower than in 2014.
• Almost 3,000 drug-impaired driving incidents were reported, representing 4% of all impaired driving incidents, double the proportion in 2009, when data on drug-impaired driving became available. 
• The majority of persons charged with impaired driving in 2015 were male. However, the proportion who were females has substantially increased over the past 30 years, from 8% in 1986 to 20% in 2015.
• Young adults aged 20 to 24 years had the highest impaired driving rates. However, the largest declines in rates since 2009 were also observed among young drivers.
• Almost half of impaired driving incidents reported by police in 2014 occurred between 11:00 p.m. and 4:00 a.m. This is also the time period which has shown the largest declines in recent years. Compared with alcohol-impaired driving, drug-impaired driving varies much less by day and time of day.
•  Drug-impaired driving incidents were less likely to be cleared by charge than alcohol-impaired driving incidents. When heard by the courts, these cases also took longer to resolve and were less likely to result in a guilty finding.
• At least 1 out of 6 persons accused in an impaired driving court case in 2014/2015 had been previously accused in another impaired driving case during the preceding 10 years.

Library of Parliament Research Publication on Driverless Cars

The Library of Parliament recently released a research publication on driverless cars entitled Automated and Connected Vehicles: Status of the Technology and Key Policy Issues for Canadian Governments (dated September 2016):

"This document provides background information on automated and connected vehicles (AVs and CVs), and highlights some of the key policy issues related to their deployment. The first section defines AVs and CVs. The second section explains when these vehicles are expected to be deployed. The third section provides an overview of the potential benefits of this technology. Finally, the paper explains the federal government’s jurisdiction related to AVs and CVs and outlines some of the key policy challenges raised by the deployment of these vehicles."

The new technology raises issues relating to safety standards, the management of wireless spectrum, policing, and privacy concerns, among many others.

Macdonald-Laurier Institute 2016 Review of the Supreme Court of Canada

The Macdonald-Laurier Institute, a public policy think tank based in Ottawa, recently released a report called The Supreme Court VS. Parliament Supreme Court of Canada 2016 Year in Review:

"The Supreme Court vs. Parliament emerged as the top theme of this third annual review of the Supreme Court of Canada’s major decisions. In a series of dissenting and concurring reasons, five of the nine judges on the Court voiced harsh criticism at various times of the majority judges for inappropriately intruding on Parliament’s policy-making role. This is a serious critique that goes to the heart of the relative responsibilities of the Court versus Parliament."

"Picking up where last year’s report left off, this report examines the legal significance and policy impact of the Supreme Court of Canada’s top-10 decisions from the last year (November 1, 2015 to October 31, 2016). These cases were selected based on the importance of their subject matter and broad significance to Canadians. While the start of the period covered by this report coincides with the commencement of the new Liberal government, decisions released during this period include litigation undertaken by both the former Conservative government as well as the new Liberal government."

"The main findings of this year’s study are:

1. A significant number of judges on the Supreme Court of Canada have been highly critical of their colleagues for intruding on Parliament’s policy-making role;
2. of the top-10 decisions in the last year, the federal government had zero wins, six losses, two mixed result outcomes, and two cases where it did not participate; and
3. major criminal justice reforms have been initiated by the Court to deal with significant concerns about delays and inefficiencies."

 It is the 3rd annual report on the country's top court written by University of British Columbia law professor Benjamin Perrin, Mr. Perrin once worked at the Court as a law clerk.

Fall 2016 Issue of Law Library Journal

The Fall 2016 issue of Law Library Journal is now available online. it is published by the American Association of Law Lbraries.

Featured articles include:

• The Need for Experiential Legal Research Education: "With most legal research courses having experiential components, designating legal research courses as experiential would allow schools to increase offerings in legal research and to meet the ABA’s newly expanded experiential course requirement. When structured appropriately, legal research courses clearly meet the requirements laid out in the simulation category of experiential courses."
• Here Come Your New Colleagues: Are They Ready? A Survey of U.S. Library and Information Science Programs’ Education of Aspiring Law Librarians: "Law library professionals contend that they need some specialized training in law librarianship to perform effectively in their jobs. Based on that philosophy, the profession should determine whether U.S. library and information science programs are meeting the need for such instruction. This article explores whether the programs’ offerings are sufficient for educating aspiring law librarians."
• Human Subjects Research Review: Scholarly Needs and Service Opportunities: "Academic law libraries have evolved to support new forms of legal research and instruction. Attendant to the rise in empirical legal research, law libraries could provide human subjects research review services. These interesting and value-added offerings leverage librarians’ regulatory analysis skills and contribute valuably to the campus research community." 
• Discovering the Knowledge Monopoly of Law Librarianship Under the DIKW Pyramid: "Historical debates demonstrated that knowledge monopoly is a key to a profession. This article explores the exclusive knowledge base of the law librarianship profession through the lens of the Data-Information-Knowledge-Wisdom (DIKW) paradigm."

New Canadian Association of Law Libraries Awards

In the last year, Thomson Reuters established two (2) new awards for Canadian law librarians for which nominations are open until February 24, 2017.

They are the:

• Michael Silverstein Prize for $1500 for a Canadian Association of Law Libraries (CALL) member who has made an outstanding contribution to enhancing understanding, analysis and appreciation of primary law or legal taxonomy
• Gisèle Laprise Prize for the same amount for an outstanding contribution by a member of CALL to an understanding and appreciation of the civil and common law systems in Canada

The winners of both awards will be announced at CALL's next Annual General Meeting and Conference to be held in Ottawa in May 2017.

Research Tips on Finding Canadian Grey Literature

Bronwyn Guiton, Senior Librarian at the B.C. Ministry of Justice, and Lindsay Tripp, Copyright Librarian at Vancouver-area Langara College, have assembled a small Canadian primer on grey literature in a recent tip column for the Slaw.ca website.

The expression "grey literature" refers to materials produced outside traditional commercial or academic publishing and distribution channels and includes documents such as working papers, government documents, white papers, technical reports etc.:

"In our own work, we have had ample opportunity to help clients dive deep into research topics through grey literature. Grey literature can be especially important when the client has budgetary constraints and limited access to specialized subscription-based databases. It can also be helpful when addressing either a very old or very new topic. New topics may not yet have been addressed by academic journals due to the long lead time required for vetting and publication. Older topics may no longer be addressed by current publications on the topic and relevant commentary may only be available through digitization of archived materials."

Library of Parliament Article on National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women

The Library of Parliament blog HillNotes has published a brief article about the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women (December 6):

"The National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women – marked every year on 6 December – provides an opportunity to reflect on how violence affects women in Canada and how our communities can take action to end violence against women. Established in 1991 by the Parliament of Canada, the day commemorates the anniversary of the 1989 gender-based murders of 14 young women at l’École Polytechnique de Montréal."

"In Canada and around the world, violence against women and girls remains a serious challenge. It impedes women’s full and equal participation in public life; it causes short- and long-term damage to women’s mental and physical health; and it hurts families and society as a whole."

Favourite Songs about the Law

The Law Library of Congress polled its staff in Washington, D.C. to find out "their favo[u]rite songs about the law or that somehow relate to law".

In the first blog post about the results, Betty Lupinacci describes results that are rock or pop.Part II will look at the classical genre and musicals.

Nominations Open for 2016 Canadian Law Blog Awards

Nominations are now being accepted for the 2016 Canadian Law Blog Awards known as the Clawbies.

As the organizers explain:

"You can nominate a blog by:

• Writing a blog post nominating up to three Canadian law blogs you currently read, with a brief explanation of why you think those blogs deserved an award in 2016.
• Tweeting your nomination on Twitter, using the hashtag #clawbies2016" 

The deadline for nominations is end of day on Thursday, December 22nd and the winners of the 2016 Clawbies will be announced on New Year’s Eve.

December 2016 Issue of In Session: Canadian Association of Law Libraries' e-Newsletter

The December 2016 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.