Supreme Court of Canada: New Library Titles

The list of new library titles added to the Supreme Court of Canada collection from April 16 to 30, 2018 is now available on the Court website.

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

Statistics Canada Report on Hate Crimes

The Statistics Canada publication Juristat last week released an article on Police-reported hate crime in Canada, 2016.

It examines the nature and extent of police-reported hate crime in Canada, including motivations for hate crime (for example, race/ethnicity, religion, and sexual orientation), types of offences, geographical comparisons and accused/victim characteristics. The article uses data from the Incident-based Uniform Crime Reporting Survey, which gathers data from police records.

Highlights:

• In 2016, police reported 1,409 criminal incidents in Canada that were motivated by hate, an increase of 3% or 47 more incidents than reported the previous year.
• The increase in the total number of incidents was largely attributable to an increase in police-reported hate crimes motivated by hatred of a sexual orientation (+35 incidents) or of a race or ethnicity (+25 incidents). Hate crimes accounted for less than 0.1% of the nearly 1.9 million police-reported crimes in 2016 (excluding traffic offences).
• Police-reported hate crimes targeting sexual orientation rose 25% in 2016 to 176 incidents, compared with 141 incidents in 2015. These incidents accounted for 13% of hate crimes reported in 2016 and 11% of hate crimes reported in 2015.
• Between 2015 and 2016, the number of police-reported crimes motivated by hatred of a race or ethnicity increased 4% (from 641 to 666). In all, 48% of all police-reported hate crimes in 2016 were motivated by hatred of a race or ethnicity. Much of this increase was a result of more hate crimes targeting South Asians (+24 incidents) and Arabs and West Asians (+20 incidents). Despite posting a decrease in 2016, crimes targeting Black populations remained one of the most common types of hate crimes (15% of all hate crimes).
• Overall, 33% of hate crimes reported in 2016 were motivated by hatred of religion. Compared with 2015, the number of hate crimes motivated by religion decreased 2% in 2016 (from 469 in 2015 to 460 in 2016). Police-reported crimes motivated by hate against the Jewish population rose from 178 incidents in 2015 to 221 incidents in 2016 (+24%). In contrast, the number of crimes targeting the Catholic population fell from 55 to 27 incidents. Similarly, crimes targeting the Muslim population decreased 13% (from 159 incidents in 2015 to 139 incidents in 2016).
• Based on data from police services that reported characteristics of hate crimes, 43% of police-reported hate crimes in 2016 were violent offences. Violent offences included, for example, assault, uttering threats and criminal harassment. Overall, the number of violent hate crimes rose 16% from the previous year (from 487 to 563 violent incidents), driven by increases in common assault, criminal harassment and uttering threats.
• Crimes motivated by hatred of a sexual orientation continued to be among the most violent hate crimes. In 2016, 71% of these types of police-reported hate crimes were violent, compared with 45% of crimes motivated by hatred of a race or ethnicity and 27% of hate crimes targeting a religion.
• Non-violent offences made up 57% of police-reported hate crimes in 2016. Mischief, which includes vandalism and graffiti, was the most commonly reported offence among police-reported hate crimes and accounted for 41% of all hate crime incidents in 2016. 

Bloomberg's Points of Law Wins American Association of Law Libraries New Product of the Year Award

The American Association of Law Libraries (AALL) announced this week that Bloomberg's Points of Law is the winner of its 2018 New Product of the Year Award:

"Introduced in 2016 using artificial intelligence and machine learning to assist in legal research, Points of Law is a product of Bloomberg Law."

"Points of Law allows users to quickly identify and analyze language in a judicial opinion. The product adds a layer of automated indexing to its 13 million—and counting—library of published and unpublished state and federal court opinions to provide users with a decision’s legal points and identify legal precedents. In addition, researchers can conduct keyword searches across all case law or specific jurisdictions within the content library (...)"

"AALL’s New Product Award honors new commercial information products that enhance or improve existing law library services or procedures—or products that improve access to legal information, the legal research process, or procedures for the technical processing of library materials. "

New Law Librarians' Institute 2018 Program Now Available

The Canadian Association of Law Libraries is sponsoring the 2018 New Law Librarians' Institute (NLLI) at the University of Calgary from June 19 - 22, 2018.

It is an intensive, week-long program aimed at developing librarians' skills in the key competencies of law librarianship.

The full program is now available.

Register online for NLLI.

Updated International Law Research Guides From GlobaLex

GlobaLex, the electronic collection created by the Hauser Global Law School Program at the New York University School of Law, recently updated some of its research guides:

• A Legal Analysis of "Space Asset" Under the 2012 Space Protocol to the International Interests in Mobile Equipment: "The ongoing privatization and commercialization of today's space industry creates more financial risks for private sector financiers, and the movable nature of space activities may cause legal uncertainties of the security interests. Given such situation, the 2001 UNIDROIT Convention on International Interests in Mobile Equipment (the "Cape Town Convention") and the 2012 Protocol to the Cape Town Convention on Matters Specific to Space Assets (the "Space Protocol") marked a significant development in harmonizing and unifying the rules of asset-backed finance for mobile space equipment. As a key term in the Space Protocol, the concept of "Space Asset" was for the first time introduced in the Cape Town Convention and defined under the Space Protocol, which may impact contemporary international space law that formed mainly from the UN space law treaties. This article will first explain and analyze the definition of “Space Asset,” then further discuss issues related to this new concept, including the delimitation issue, the relationship between an Aircraft Object and a Space Asset, as well as the differences and similarities between Space Assets under the Space Protocol and a Space Object under the UN space law treaties."
• "Paper Satellites" and the Free Use of Outer Space: "At roughly 36,000 km above the equator lies a resource highly sought after by all States: the geostationary orbit (“GSO”). Declared a natural limited resource, with the characteristic of holding an object in the same position relative to the surface of Earth over the course of a day, it is not surprising that the available GSO satellite slots are approaching saturation. Yet, not all states have a satellite placed in orbit, due to economic, technologic or political constrictions. This impairment of the states in their capability to participate has triggered a speculative phenomenon with the International Telecommunications Union (“ITU”) known as “over-filing.” Over-filing consists of registering unneeded uses of orbit resources and has the effect of foreclosing others, who have near-term needs, from achieving access and enjoying the free use of this space resource. As a consequence of this practice, some states risk being denied the right to use outer space freely, a right which has been generally recognized in international space legislation. To set the framework, the beginning of this article will bring forth the emergence of the “paper satellite” practice, which will be more clearly reflected in section three in the cases of the Tongasat and the Iranian Zohrer-1 and 2 satellites. The nature of the GSO will be discussed in order to demonstrate the application of the principle of "free use of outer space" to the issue in the fourth chapter. The fifth chapter will deal with an analysis of the compatibility of over-filing practices and the free use of outer space principles. The sixth chapter will look into the most recent measures taken by the ITU to address paper satellites and this article ends with personal concluding remarks."
  

Manitoba Law Reform Commission Consultation Report on The Beneficiary Designation Act

The Manitoba Law Reform Commission has published a consultation paper on The Beneficiary Designation Act (Retirement, Savings and Other Plans):

"Pension plans, insurance proceeds, and other retirement savings vehicles play an important role in the savings strategies of Canadians. As individuals pay into these plans over the years, issues arise such as: what happens when the plan owner dies? Where does the money go?"

"In Manitoba, the treatment of the proceeds of these financial products upon the death of the owner is regulated by The Insurance Act, The Pension Benefits Act and The Beneficiary Designation Act (Retirement, Savings and Other Plans) (hereinafter “The Beneficiary Designation Act”). The latter provides for designation of beneficiaries to occur without the formalities required under The Wills Act."

"Recently, a gap in The Beneficiary Designation Act came to the attention of the Commission respecting beneficiary designations when plans are renewed, replaced or converted. In these situations, a new plan is created and the old plan ceases to exist. Plan beneficiary designations do not automatically roll over and a fresh beneficiary designation must be made or, upon the death of the owner of the plan, the proceeds are payable to the plan owner’s estate. A further look at the legislation and comparison with the legislation of other jurisdictions highlighted several other potential deficiencies in Manitoba’s legislative scheme."

"This Consultation Report considers possible amendments to improve the legislation and procedure related to beneficiary designations in Manitoba. Given the popularity of pension plans, registered savings plans, and other retirement savings vehicles in the marketplace today, it is important to ensure that the legislative scheme in place provides appropriate and adequate guidance to plan owners, designated beneficiaries and the legal profession. "

CanLII Announces More Commentary

CanLII, the Canadian legal Information Institute that makes legal information content available to Canadians free of charge, has been aggressively adding commentary to its online collections in recent months.

As a recent blog post on its site explains, it is expanding its offerings of law journals, newsletters, materials from legal non-profits and law reform commissions, etc.:

"We continue to work at making sure that the Canadian legal community has the tools it needs in ways that give them the best value possible. Commentary is the next logical step. For the growing number of users of CanLII who rely only on open materials for their practice (for need or by choice), knowing that one particular law review or content provider publishes materials openly on its site or other platform is great. Having access to a list of what’s open and the possibility of searching it all at once in the same interface than where they search for primary law is better by several orders of magnitude."

"In short, publishing more commentary on CanLII will facilitate improved access and discoverability of existing secondary content that’s currently published around the web, which will help this valuable content become more integrated into researchers regular processes."

Report on Higher Education Inter-Library Loan Management Benchmarks

New York-based Primary Research Group has released a report entitled Higher Education Inter-Library Loan Management Benchmarks, 2018:

"The study presents data from 39 colleges and universities predominantly from the USA but also from the UK, France, Spain, Denmark, Israel and New Zealand, among other countries.  The 160+ page comprehensive study presents detailed data on budgets, staffing, borrowing and lending, turnaround time, technology use, consortia and partnerships, revenues and costs, eBook lending, special collections lending, audio-visual materials lending and much else ..."

"Just a few of the report’s many findings are that:

• The vast majority of respondents reported that ILL staffing has stayed the same over the last three years.
• Only 10% participated in international agreements or consortia.
• For borrowing requests fulfilled through transfer of paper resources by post or courier, the average turnaround time for articles is between 6 and 7 days and for books is between 7 and 8 days."

Print and PDF versions are available for $112.00 (US). Site licenses are also available.

Getting to Know the Index to Foreign Legal Periodicals Part Two

This is a follow-up to the February 26, 2018 post entitled Getting to Know the Index to Foreign Legal Periodicals.

The Index has been around since 1960 and is now available on the HeinOnline platform.

In this 2nd post, DipLawMatic Dialogues, the blog published by the Foreign, Comparative, and International Law Special Interest Group of the American Association of Law Libraries, looks at the breadth and scope of the database:

"As its name implies, the IFLP focuses primarily on law journals published outside the U.S. Casual users of the Index may be surprised at just how broad its coverage is. The IFLP includes over 365,000 records of articles and book reviews published in more than 500 top law journals from jurisdictions throughout the world. More than 60,000 of these articles are available in full text on HeinOnline. Articles from nearly four dozen international, regional, jurisdiction-specific, and subject-specific legal yearbooks also are included. In addition, the IFLP analyzes the contents of approximately 50 individually published collections of essays, Festschriften, Mélanges, and congress reports each year. Roughly half of the articles indexed are published in languages other than English. In total, more than two dozen languages are represented, making the IFLP the only truly multilingual index to legal scholarship worldwide."

Statistics Canada Articles on Violent Victimization and Discrimination

Last week, the Statistics Canada publication Juristat published 3 articles on violent victimization and discrimination:

• Violent victimization and discrimination, by religious affiliation in Canada, 2014
• Violent victimization and discrimination among visible minority populations, Canada, 2014
• Violent victimization, discrimination and perceptions of safety: An immigrant perspective, Canada, 2014

Among the highlights: 

• According to the 2014 General Social Survey on Canadians' Safety (Victimization), individuals who reported no religious affiliation experienced a higher rate of violent victimization (113 incidents per 1,000 population) than Christians (67 per 1,000 population). This difference was in large part attributed to age as individuals with no religious affiliation tended to be younger. People who reported a religion other than Christianity (72^E per 1,000 population) experienced violent victimization at a rate similar to Christians.
• People affiliated with a non‑Christian religion were significantly more likely to report experiencing discrimination on the basis of their religion in the previous five years than Christians (11% compared to 1%). 
• Between 2004 and 2014 there was a significant decline (-44%) in the rate of violent victimization among the visible minority population. The decrease was much larger than that of the non-visible minority population (-25%).
• Visible minorities reported being physically assaulted at a far lower rate than non-visible minorities but were equally as likely to report having been sexually assaulted. 
• Canadian-born visible minorities experienced violent victimization at a rate almost five times higher than that of their immigrant counterparts. 
• One in five (20%) members of the visible minority population reported experiencing some form of discrimination in the five years preceding the survey. Of these, over three in five (63%) believed that they were discriminated against because of their race or skin colour.
• Visible minorities expressed lower levels of satisfaction than non-visible minorities on three out of six indicators of police performance: being approachable and easy to talk to (62% versus 67%), providing information on ways to prevent crime (51% versus 57%), and treating people fairly (59% versus 63%).
• In 2014, there was a marked decline (-43%) in self‑reported violent victimization rates among immigrants compared to what was reported in 2004 (39 incidents versus 68 incidents per 1,000 population); among the non‑immigrant population, a decline of 26% was reported over the same time period (86 versus 116 incidents per 1,000 population).
• In 2014, violent victimization rates were similar between immigrant men and women. This was not the case among the non‑immigrant population where women were found to be at a higher risk for victimization than men.
• Although most violent incidents against an immigrant did not lead to serious physical injuries, most had negative emotional consequences. About one in ten violent incidents led to symptoms that align with those associated with post‑traumatic stress disorder.
• The large majority of immigrants who were victims of violent crime did not believe their victimization was motivated by hate (76%). However, they were more likely than non‑immigrants to report that the violence was gang‑related.
• More than half (53%) of immigrant victims of violence did not report the incident to police. Of all victims who reported the incident to police, immigrants were more likely to have been dissatisfied with police action than non‑immigrants.
• Experiences of discrimination were more commonly reported by immigrants (17%) than non‑immigrants (12%). This was more common among recent immigrants, those who had immigrated to Canada after 2004 than established immigrants, those who had immigrated to Canada earlier (20% versus 16%).
• Immigrants who had experienced discrimination most often reported this occurring at work or when they were applying for a job or promotion (54%) and the most common reasons cited were their ethnicity or culture (54%) or their race or skin colour (47%). Recent immigrants were more likely to experience discrimination because of their language than established immigrants (42% and 27%, respectively).

Supreme Court of Canada: New Library Titles

The list of new library titles added to the Supreme Court of Canada collection from April 1 to 15, 2018 is now available on the Court website.

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

Issue no. 6 of Information Matters

The website librarianship.ca has published Issue no. 6 of Information Matters, its regular newsletter.

Each issue includes:

• news/announcements from the Canadian librarianship community
• new items from Librarianship.ca
• people highlights
• articles and reports
• upcoming events

US Government Publishing Office Digitizes Entire Collection of Federal Register

The Government Publishing Office (GPO), the official publisher of the U.S. government, has completed the digitization of all issues of the Federal Register going back to the initial issue in 1936.

The Federal Register is the official daily publication for rules, proposed rules, and notices of Federal agencies and organizations, as well as executive orders and other presidential documents. It is analogous to the Canada Gazette.

The material is available on the Govinfo information portal which contains official versions of US Congressional, Presidential, judicial and federal agency materials.

Merger of Canadian Research Knowledge Network and Canadiana.org

The Canadian Research Knowledge Network (CRKN) and Canadiana.org merged operations earlier this month:

"Merger discussions began in June, 2016 in recognition of a changed research environment and with the goal of building on the strengths and complementary activities of two of Canada’s most impactful content-based national organizations serving Canada’s digital research infrastructure. This merger allows CRKN and Canadiana to cohesively pursue a united and coordinated strategy that is envisioned and directed by member libraries, and works in partnership with research and memory institutions, funders, and other partners, broadening and expanding Canada’s vision and impact in digital scholarship."

CKRN is a partnership of Canadian universities that undertakes large-scale content acquisition and licensing initiatives to help its member institutions.

Canadiana.org is a not-for-profit, charitable organization made up of public libraries, archives, research institutions, and other organizations committed to digitizing, preserving, and providing access to Canada’s documentary heritage.

The press release announcing the merger provides some "quick facts":

• CRKN has worked with Canadiana since 2006 to provide subscription access to the Early Canadiana Online (ECO) collection, which is a large collection of full-text historical content about Canada, including books, magazines and government documents.
• Currently, 54 CRKN members have subscriptions to Canadiana Online or the ECO collection. CRKN members provide the bulk of Canadiana's funding through subscriptions and membership fees.
• In 2013, CRKN and Canadiana collaborated on the Heritage Project, a 10-year initiative to digitize and make accessible online some of Canada’s most popular archival collections encompassing roughly 40 million pages of primary-source documents. This project was funded by 46 CRKN members.
• The merger will leverage Canadiana’s certification as a Trustworthy Digital Repository (TDR) to support members in their own institutional digitization work.
• As part of the merger, CRKN will propose By-Law changes at its next Annual General Meeting that would allow Library and Archives Canada (LAC), Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec (BAnQ) and Toronto Public Library (TPL) to qualify as CRKN institutional members
• The merger allows CRKN and Canadiana coordinated representation as part of the Canadian National Heritage Digitization Strategy, which outlines a way for Canadian memory institutions to work together to digitize, preserve and make accessible Canada’s documentary heritage.
• The merger allows for CRKN and Canadiana to pursue activities that further the preservation, digitization, access, and discoverability of content, as well as goals in the development of open access to Canadian content.

Canadian Association of Law Libraries Webinar on Digital Repository Success Stories

The Canadian Association of Law Libraries (CALL) is hosting a webinar on April 19, 2018 on Digital Repository Success Stories. It starts at 1PM Eastern time:

"Open access to scholarship has become an important mandate for research and teaching institutions in Canada and around the world. For the better part of the past decade, the number of universities and law schools that have implemented digital repositories has grown dramatically. In this movement, Librarians have naturally assumed the role of facilitating, preserving and expanding access to the intellectual output and educational materials of their organizations. In this webinar, you will hear digital repository success stories from three librarians who have been entrusted with protecting the vital assets of their respective law school or university."

The three speakers will be:

• Mariya Maistrovskaya, Institutional Repositories Librarian, University of Toronto
• F. Tim Knight, Associate Librarian and Head of Technical Services at the Osgoode Hall Law School Library, York University
• Kim Nayyer, Associate University Librarian, Law and Adjunct Associate Professor, Faculty of Law, University of Victoria

Supreme Court of Canada Calendar of April 2018 Hearings

The Supreme Court of Canada has published its calendar of appeals that will be heard from April 16 to April 27, 2018.

To find out more about any particular case, click on the docket number in parentheses next to each case name to find docket information, case summaries as well as facta from the parties.

CanLII Adds Newsletters

CanLII, the Canadian legal Information Institute, has started adding newsletters to its online collections. CanLII is a law society-supported open access Internet site for finding Canadian jurisprudence and legislation.

The first publications added are the Siskinds Class Actions Review and Justice as Healing from the Native Law Centre at the University of Saskatchewan.

This comes after the recent announcement that CanLII is adding a number of law journals going back to 2015.

CanLII's secondary sources include a few e-books but mostly the tens of thousands of case summaries and commentaries on the CanLII Connects platform.

CanLII Connects allows publishers, law firms and academics to share commentary on Canadian cases and legislation for anyone to read free of charge.

April 2018 Issue of In Session - E-Newsletter of Canadian Association of Law Libraries

The April 2018 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.

Supreme Court of Canada: New Library Titles

The list of new library titles added to the Supreme Court of Canada collection from March 16^st to 31^th, 2018 is now available on the Court website.

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