[Prodev] Canadian research
Don Sanders
sanders@ucalgary.ca
Thu, 04 Oct 2001 17:15:06 -0600
To Connie's excellent summary I would only add two points. For federal bills, the Parliamentary Research Branch sometimes produces what they call a "Legislative Summary" which can be a useful guide to the bill's legislative history. I don't know how far back these go in print (not very far I suspect) but for the last few sessions of Parliament they are linked from the Web version of the Bill on the Parliament site. An explanation is at http://www.parl.gc.ca/information/about/leg-summaries/legsum_info-e.htm
The Branch's site is:
http://www.parl.gc.ca/common/library_prb.asp?Language=E
The second point is that for Alberta's statutes, the tracing of a statute back through its various revisions and amendments (as described by Connie) has been made a bit easier by the recent digitization of the statutes up to 1990. At the end of each page of each statute revision (1922, 1942, 1955, 1970 and 1980), the historical notes that Connie mentions are hot linked to the earlier statutes. Because these links are generated by OCR, there are some (a couple thousand out of about 135,000 generated) that need to be fixed. I was going to post this information soon anyway, but this discussion prompts me to do it now. The link for Alberta's statutes (Bills and Gazettes will be done next) is: http://ahdp.lib.ucalgary.ca/law/law_home.asp
Don Sanders
CONNIE CROSBY wrote:
> Good question, Jennifer. I don't know of any guides to Canadian historical legislation research--I'm wondering if anyone else knows of any? When I look in our usual research sources such as Banks on Using a Law Library and Legal Research Handbook by MacEllven and McGuire, they all talk about current legislation and updating legislation, but nothing about going back in time. This type of research is largely passed on from one librarian to another, or learned through trial and error. My knowledge is certainly from these two.
>
> Here is my method and a few tips--hold onto your hat!--
>
> Typically the scope of historical research, as with any other type of research, depends on the question being asked and the purpose for the information needed. If someone is researching individual sections of a statute, for example, and just wishes to see when it was first introduced and how it was amended through the years, I would trace it back using the historical note at the bottom of the individual section or subsection. This is time-consuming, but I don't know of any specific table to speed this up--in Ontario or at the Federal level, at any rate.
>
> If someone is questioning *why* a provision was put into place, that is more involved and usually quite time-consuming. Tracing a provision (or full statute) back to when it was first introduced using the method I just described, you can then hopefully figure out the Bill number and session when the Bill went through the legislature or parliament.
>
> The trick is to figure out the key dates such as when the Bill passed the various Readings and when it was in Committee. You can use those dates to search backwards through the debates (the Hansard) for discussion on the topic. If you are lucky, the Hansard is indexed so you can easily locate discussion, but I'm afraid it is usually pretty labour-intensive looking through them.
>
> Recent Hansards from some jurisdictions are on-line and sometimes have links from tables of contents or indices that take you right into the discussion, so that helps a lot. Otherwise, you have to find a paper collection if you don't have one and slog your way through them.
>
> Especially look at the debates from the Committee a Bill has gone to, since that is where the meat of the discussion really is. It usually goes to Committee after 2nd Reading--it will mention which Committee it is scheduled to go to when it is passed at 2nd Reading. I have, however, seen Bills go to Committee after 1st Reading on rare occasion.
>
> The Hansard may or may not make reference to reports related to the legislation. That is something to keep an eye out for--government reports or law commission reports that resulted in changes to the legislation. These would precede the introduction of the legislation, perhaps by several years. Also, it is nice when you can locate things like press releases when a Bill was introduced or passed which might give a little bit of discussion. The other well-known trick is to locate the First Reading of a Bill because, starting on the inside front cover, an explanatory note of the legislation is frequently given. This is not reproduced in later versions of the Bill. This is one of the reason why we like to hang onto First Reading versions of Bills in our Library, if no other versions.
>
> On the Ontario Legislative Assembly Website www.onlta.on.ca , they have done a wonderful job putting together historical material for current Bills--look under "Library" and then "Bills before the House". Each individual Bill will include links to things like Hansard (linking specifically in to the discussions), links to government press releases, reports and related Websites, predecessor Bills that did not pass through, and they reprint the Explanatory Note from the First Reading version of the Bill.
>
> My one beef--going back to the problem of materials disappearing from the Web--is that, for these great Webpages from past sessions, the government agencies seem to pull their press releases and reports from the Web, so you can identify something existed, but you can no longer gain access to it.
>
> Of course, the further back in time, the more difficult it is to track these things down!
>
> I'm interested to hear if I have missed any great trick, method, or other source to check.
>
> Cheers,
> Connie
>
> >>> "JENNIFER HOLLAND" <jholland@weirfoulds.com> 10/04/01 03:44PM >>>
> As a new reference librarian I haven't had any extensive experience researching Canadian legislative histories. I do have some general idea where to look and what to do but am wondering if others could offer up some of their own personal words of wisdom? I know I would certainly appreciate any insights, sources, pathfinders etc.
>
> Jennifer Holland
> WeirFoulds LLP
> Tel: 416-365-6513
> Fax: 416-365-1876
> jholland@weirfoulds.com
>
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--
Don Sanders 2318 Murray Fraser Hall
Head, Law Library University of Calgary
(403)220-6702 FAX:282-3000 2500 University Drive N.W.
sanders@ucalgary.ca Calgary, Alberta T2N 1N4
Law Library Home Page:
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