Thursday, February 06, 2025

Deadline Approaching for IFLA PressReader International Marketing Award

For more than 20 years, the International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA) has been giving out an annual International Library Marketing Award in partnership with sponsor PressReader.

"These awards shine a spotlight on creative strategies and campaigns that promote library services, engage communities, and highlight the vital role libraries play in people’s lives."

"Every year, libraries of all types—academic, public, special, and more—share their most inspiring ideas and initiatives. The awards are a chance to showcase great work, exchange best practices, and demonstrate how smart, thoughtful marketing can make libraries more visible, more impactful, and more valued."

The deadline to apply is February 25, 2025. The top three contenders receive grants to help defray costs of attending IFLA's 2025 annual conference in late August that will take place in Astana, Kazakhstan. 

The list of past winners is available on the IFLA website.

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Wednesday, February 05, 2025

Canadian Bar Association Podcast Interview with Chief Justice of Canada Richard Wagner

Modern Law: Verdicts and Voices is a monthly podcast produced by the Canadian Bar Association that looks at key legal stories and celebrates the 150th anniversary of the Supreme Court of Canada.

The first episode features an interview with the Chief Justice of Canada Richard Wagner.

It also includes a discussion of the Constitution's notwithstanding clause and an exploration of a Prohibition-era case that continues to have an impact on interprovincial trade, Gold Seal Ltd. v. Alberta.

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Tuesday, February 04, 2025

Supreme Court of Canada Calendar of February 2025 Hearings

The Supreme Court of Canada has published its calendar of upcoming appeals that will be heard in  February 2025

To find out more about any particular case, click on a case number in parentheses to find docket information, case summaries as well as factums from the parties and any interveners.

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Monday, February 03, 2025

Recent Government of Canada Publications from the Weekly Acquisitions List

The Government of Canada's Weekly Acquisitions List is a list of publications by various public bodies and agencies of the federal government that were catalogued in the previous week

Among other documents, the most recent list features:

  • Public inquiry into foreign interference in federal electoral processes and democratic institutions : final report (The Honourable Marie-Josée Hogue, Commissioner): "I also note from the evidence that Canada has responded to attempts at foreign interference with measures and mechanisms to  better detect, deter and counter them. I took note of the competence, dedication and experience of the members of Canada’s senior public service and national security and intelligence community who testified before me. These men and women, who work in the shadows and beyond partisan lines, play a crucial role in safeguarding our democratic institutions, and they do it well. That said, the government’s response has been far from perfect: I have observed that the government has sometimes taken too long to act, and that coordination between the various players involved has not always been optimal. Processes by which information had to be passed on to certain decision-makers, including elected officials, have not proved as effective as they should have been.  In addition, the government has proven to be a poor communicator and insufficiently transparent when it comes to foreign interference. The measures implemented over the past two years, along with several statements made on the matter, suggest that the government is now prioritizing the fight against foreign interference. This must continue. (from Volume 1 - Word from the Commissioner)"
  • Protecting language rights : overview of the Commissioner's interventions in the courts (2018-2025) (Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages): "Here I am—already at the end of a seven-year mandate as Commissioner of Official Languages, during which great progress has been made in terms of language rights in Canada. As the cases I participated in—either as a party or intervener—throughout my mandate show, I have not hesitated to appear in court to both protect language rights and advance jurisprudence in this area. Unsurprisingly, I have been involved in many cases involving my enabling statute, defending fundamental rights such as access to the courts in the official language of one’s choice, the public’s right to receive services and communications in the official language of their choice, the right to work in the official language of one’s choice in the public service and the vitality of official language minority communities. Like my predecessors, I also took every opportunity to make innovative arguments before the Supreme Court of Canada regarding the right to minority-language education, as is constitutionally protected by section 23 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Lastly, twice before the Supreme Court of Canada, I helped protect access to the courts in the official language of one’s choice under section 530 of the Criminal Code. Reflecting on all these cases, I am finishing out my mandate with cautious optimism about the protection of language rights for individuals and official language communities in Canada. (Raymond Théberge, Commissioner of Official Languages)"
  • What We Heard - The Law Commission of Canada in Listen & Learn Mode June to December 2024: "When the LCC officially resumed its operations in June 2023, it immediately began its formal engagement with individuals and organizations who, each in their own ways, embodied aspects of the agency’s raison d’être: living law, pursuing justice, renewing hope. Through roundtables, multilateral discussions, individual meetings, larger conferences, and informal conversations, the LCC sought to develop an understanding of the law reform and justice landscape in Canada and beyond. These engagements bore many fruits: they helped to uncover issues which interlocutors considered pressing or likely to emerge on the horizon; they presented an opportunity to understand interesting initiatives already underway, so as to avoid unintended duplication and to identify potential partnerships; and the roundtables and multilateral discussions served as a site for mutually beneficial exchange, allowing participants to learn about the work and perspectives of others, and to form connections across their endeavours (...) This is the LCC’s third What We Heard report, covering the period from June to December 2024. It sets out the preoccupations, projects, and possibilities that emerged from the LCC’s engagements during that period, including: Listen & Learn roundtables with faculties of law; meetings with Parliamentarians; participation in numerous conferences; discussions with scholars interested in questions of law and justice; focus circles with subject-matter experts; and rich exchanges with members of the judiciary, public policy makers, and community organizations."

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Thursday, January 30, 2025

Canadian Association of Law Libraries Research Grant Deadline Looming

Members of the Canadian Association of Law Libraries (CALL) can get up to $5000 in funding to help with the costs of a research project - apply by February 24, 2025!

Questions about the application can be directed to either Dominique Garingan or Beth Galbraith (Co-Chairs of the CALL Committee to Promote Research).


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posted by Michel-Adrien at 6:56 pm 0 comments

Wednesday, January 29, 2025

Newest Episode of Arrêt sur le Droit Podcast from Bar Association of Montreal

Arrêt sur le droit is a French-language podcast whose goal is to help people better understand decisions by the Supreme Court of Canada. 

 It is co-produced by the Bar Association of Montreal and CAIJ (the free legal information portal of the Quebec Bar Association) in collaboration with the Supreme Court of Canada.

The most recent episode deals with the case R. v. Bissonnette, a 2022 Supreme Court of Canada criminal law decision that looked into the constitutionality of a specific sub-section of the Criminal Code that allowed for consecutive life sentences. 

The case arose out of the 2017 mass shooting in a mosque in a Quebec City suburb. 6 worshippers were murdered and five seriously injured by the accused.

Arrêt sur le droit is hosted by Michel Désautels who for years was one of the top current affairs hosts of the public broadcaster Société Radio-Canada. 

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posted by Michel-Adrien at 7:51 pm 0 comments

Monday, January 27, 2025

January 2025 Issue of Governance and Recordkeeping Around the World

The Governance and Recordkeeping Around the World newsletter, published by Library and Archives Canada, highlights issues pertaining to government and recordkeeping practices in the public and private sectors around the world.

The January 2025 issue has just been published. 


It includes:

  • news items from Canada and around the world
  • announcements of upcoming Canadian and international events (meetings, conferences, seminars)
  • project and product news in areas such as digitization, archives, open source, e-government, access to information etc.
  • listings of papers and readings (white papers, presentations, reports)


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posted by Michel-Adrien at 7:05 pm 0 comments

Supreme Court of Canada Launches New Website

The Supreme Court of Canada has redesigned its website.

Content has been streamlined and reorganized to make it easy to navigate and enhance accessibility.



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posted by Michel-Adrien at 6:59 pm 0 comments

Sunday, January 26, 2025

International Federation of Library Associations Report on Library Leadership Programs

The International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA) recently published a report on Learning to Lead: A Scan of Global Library Field Practice:

"A major focus for IFLA is ensuring that emerging leaders have opportunities to gain experience and recognition. As a result, IFLA is keen to provide its members with a reference document that outlines the types of leadership programmes available, highlighting their commonalities, differences, and evidence of impacts where possible."

"The Learning to Lead: A Scan of Global Library Field Practice is the first of-its-kind IFLA publication, aiming to provide a representative and comprehensive overview of leadership programmes run by library associations, libraries, museums, archives, and related organisations. It identifies their objectives, methods, and impact data, as well as key features and commonalities. It also aims to support library associations and libraries in their own decision-making about leadership programmes, and enable IFLA to make strategic decisions regarding its future leadership initiatives."

"This report employed a survey methodology as the primary research tool for collecting data for analysis over the period from October to November 2024. The web-based questionnaire was sent to 143 active IFLA Associations and 1129 IFLA volunteers/individuals. To boost the number of programmes surveyed and reviewed, the team also selected leadership programmes from the Arabella Advisors report that was released in January 2015, the total number of programmes reviewed were 66. It is worth mentioning that several criteria were applied in selecting the leadership programmes."

IFLA is an international, non-governmental organization that advances the interests of library and information associations, as well as those of librarians and the communities they serve throughout the world.

Formed in 1927, the Federation has its headquarters in The Hague, Netherlands.

 

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posted by Michel-Adrien at 9:06 pm 0 comments

Thursday, January 23, 2025

Pre-Print: A bibliometric analysis of Canadian LIS scholars and practitioners' research contributions

The Arxiv.org website has published a pre-print by a team of Canadian academics that examines the publishing output of  information studies faculty members and academic librarians:

"Canada's research productivity in Library and Information Science (LIS) is significant: studies have found that Canada ranks third globally in terms of output. As the LIS field continues to grow, the pace of output accelerates, and the scope of this work expands. The recently launched Canadian Publications in Library and Information Science Database compiles all Canadian scientific publications, including those authored by faculty members and academic librarians. This database offers the advantage of encompassing articles and librarian publications that may not be typically included in traditional bibliometric surveys, such as those conducted using databases like Web of Science, Scopus, and Library and Information Science Abstracts (LISA). Using this data, this study maps the scholarly contributions of Canadian LIS scholars and academic librarians to the field of LIS and examines whether Canadian LIS research is characterized by silos. This paper examines the similarities and differences in research output, impact, topics, and publication venues between academic librarians and scholars in Canada, as well as the extent to which academics and practitioners engage in research collaborations or reference each other's work. We find that while there is some degree of overlap in research topics and publication venues between LIS academics and academic librarians, the two groups appear to act as distinct research communities with distinct topical foci and publishing habits. The two groups also do not appear to engage with each other strongly, either through collaboration or citing each other's work."

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posted by Michel-Adrien at 8:50 pm 0 comments

Wednesday, January 22, 2025

Norton Rose Fulbright LLP Primer on Tariffs

Lawyers from law firm Norton Rose Fulbright LLP have put together a primer on tariffs.

"On November 25th, President-elect Trump pronounced via social media that he plans to impose a 25% tariff on all products imported into the United States from Canada and Mexico, among other countries, as one of his first executive orders on January 20, 2025. This would have a significant impact on the Canadian economy, as the US accounts for about 75% of all Canadian exports. This announcement came after a number of campaign promises by President-elect Trump that he would impose trade measures and tariffs on goods entering the US if he was elected."

"In response to these potential measures, Norton Rose Fulbright has established a US/Canada cross-border trade law task force made up of trade lawyers in its Canadian and US offices to advise on current and future international trade measures adopted in Canada and the US that will have an important impact on our clients’ supply chains and business models."  

"At the time of publication, President-elect Trump has not announced any details on the potential tariffs being imposed on Canada or any other country.  While we wait for details, the cross-border trade law task force provides the following primer on tariffs and how they work based on how tariffs have been imposed by the US and Canada in the past."

The primer covers questions such as:

  • What are tariffs?
  • Who pays tariffs and who collects them?  
  • How are tariffs calculated?  
  • Can I avoid tariffs by declaring that their value is $0?  
  • What are the current tariffs paid at the US border for Canadian goods?
  • President-elect Trump has threatened to impose a 25% tariff on Canadian imports: this section of the primer has many, many sub-sections
  • What are some other measures President-elect Trump might impose on Canadian goods and services?  
  • What else should I keep in mind when importing/exporting goods between Canada and the US?

I certainly plan on reading the whole thing. 

Because we all know the topic is going to come up in conversations over the next months with colleagues, family, friends, random acquaintances at the coffee shop and Costco and the dog park and the skating rink, your letter carrier, your doctor, your pharmacist, the bus driver, the car mechanic, etc.



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posted by Michel-Adrien at 8:05 pm 0 comments

Tuesday, January 21, 2025

What Are U.S. Executive Orders?

Newly inaugurated American President Donald Trump yesterday signed dozens of what are known as executive orders which are forms of presidential decisions that do not require approval of the American Congress.

Here are a few sites that explain what executive orders are and how they fit into the American legal system:

  • Executive Orders and Presidential Transitions (Congressional Research Service, July 30, 2024): "Since at least the Administration of Franklin D. Roosevelt, the concept of a President’s first “100 days” has been a touchstone for evaluation of presidential effectiveness and places at least some pressure on incoming Administrations to act quickly on their campaign commitments and other priorities. Executive orders have developed into one of the most expedient tools available to a new President to change federal policies, priorities, and operations, including during that closely watched early window. Concerns about the volume, timing, and content of executive orders, therefore, may be heightened during presidential transitions. In particular, it appears that both incoming and outgoing Administrations may use executive orders to establish preferred policies closer to Inauguration Day than could be accomplished through laws or regulations. When the incoming and outgoing Presidents are members of different political parties, this  perception may be especially strong."
  • Executive Orders: An Introduction (Congressional Research Service, March 29, 2021): "Executive orders are written instruments through which a President can issue directives to shape policy. Although the U.S. Constitution does not address executive orders and no statute grants the President the general power to issue them, authority to issue such orders is accepted as an inherent aspect of presidential power, though their legal effect depends on various considerations."
  • Executive Orders and Other Presidential Documents: Sources and Explanations (Law Librarians' Society of Washington, D.C., May 2, 2019)


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posted by Michel-Adrien at 8:08 pm 0 comments

Monday, January 20, 2025

Deadlines Approaching for Awards and Scholarships from Canadian Association of Law Libraries

The deadlines for a number of Canadian Association of Law Libraries (CALL) awards and scholarships are approaching:

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posted by Michel-Adrien at 6:35 pm 0 comments

Sunday, January 19, 2025

Canadian Association of Law Libraries Webinar on Canadian Open Access Legal Citation Guide

The Canadian Association of Law Libraries (CALL) is hosting a webinar on the new Canadian Open Access Legal Citation Guide on January 23, 2025 at  1:00-2:00 EST:

"Canada’s new – and free – legal citation guide, the Canadian Open Access Legal Citation Guide, was recently published in June 2024 and is available on CanLII at 2024 CanLIIDocs 830.  Hear from several of its creators and learn more about the COAL Guide, including why the guide was created, the benefits of the guide, the details of some of its citation rules, and the reasoning behind some of the many decisions that were made in the process of creating these rules."

The speakers are:

  • James Bachmann, Editor-in-Chief of the Canadian Open Access Legal Citation Guide and the Instruction Librarian at the University of British Columbia
  • Ann Marie Melvie, Librarian at the Court of Appeal for Saskatchewan and Managing Editor of the Canadian Open Access Legal Citation Guide
  • Michelle Terriss, also Managing Editor of the Guide and Law Librarian at Thompson Rivers University
The webinar is free to all attendees.


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posted by Michel-Adrien at 7:03 pm 0 comments

Canadian Bar Association Overview of the Supreme Court in 2024

The Canadian Bar Association's publication CBA National recently provided an overview of the 2024 activities of the Supreme Court of Canada:

"The Supreme Court of Canada’s 2024 workload was not quite back up to pre-pandemic levels, but it has been getting closer. And because the Court will mark its 150th anniversary this year, it will take on additional functions to mark the occasion."

"The Court granted 35 leaves in 2024, fewer than the 41 granted in 2023 and down from the high of about 50 in the early 2010s. Eugene Meehan, a partner with Supreme Advocacy LLP in Ottawa, says those numbers have been consistent over the past few years."

"Drawing on his tracking of the Court's statistics, he says that the percentage of leaves granted remains low at about 6.5 per cent in 2024, though up from six per cent in 2023, which was the lowest in the past ten years. The high rates were ten per cent in 2014 and 2017. Those leaves do not include mandatory as-of-right appeals."

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posted by Michel-Adrien at 6:52 pm 0 comments

Monday, January 13, 2025

Recent Government of Canada Publications from the Weekly Acquisitions List

The Government of Canada's Weekly Acquisitions List is a list of publications by various public bodies and agencies of the federal government that were catalogued in the previous week. 

Among other documents, the most recent list features Canada's action plan on combatting hate:

The Acquisitions List also includes links to many of the recent Departmental Results Reports (DRRs). These are annual performance reports by individual federal government departments and agencies. The reports measure their performance as against the plans, priorities and expected results in their annual plans.

The Treasury Board Secretariat has gathered the various DRRs on one page for ease of consultation.

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posted by Michel-Adrien at 8:22 pm 0 comments

Thursday, January 09, 2025

AI Reference Chatbot at the University of Calgary Library

OCLC, an international library services company, organized a webinar in November 2024 that showcased a chatbot project of the University of Calgary Library:

"In 2021, the University of Calgary Libraries launched a multilingual reference chatbot by leveraging a commercial product that combines a large language model (LLM) with retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) technology. The chatbot is trained on the library’s own web content, including LibGuides and operating hours, and is accessed from the library’s website."

"In a Works in Progress webinar hosted by the OCLC Research Library Partnership (RLP) on 20 November 2024, University of Calgary Library staff discussed the creation and implementation of the AI reference chatbot and shared lessons learned."

 

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posted by Michel-Adrien at 6:09 pm 0 comments

Statistics Canada Article on Monetary Penalties in Adult Criminal Courts

Statistics Canada today published an article on Monetary penalties in adult criminal courts:

"Fines were the most frequently ordered monetary penalty for guilty offenders, accounting for 23% of penalties in adult criminal court cases completed during the period from April 1, 2019, to March 31, 2023. These were followed by victim surcharge orders (16%) and restitution orders (4%)."

"In the Canadian criminal justice system, restitution, victim surcharges and fines are among the penalties judges can consider when selecting an appropriate sentence for an offender found guilty of the charges laid against them. These monetary penalties require that the offender pay a sum of money to the state or the victim as part of the imposed sentence."

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posted by Michel-Adrien at 6:01 pm 0 comments