Author: A Burdett

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Summer Listening

As the summer exam period comes to an end we have a few podcast recommendations to tide students over until the start of classes in September.

The fine folks behind WNYC’s Radiolab recently launched a new podcast called More Perfect which delves into important jurisprudence of Supreme Court of the United States and what those decisions mean for American society.

How does an elite group of nine people shape everything from marriage and money, to safety and sex for an entire nation? Radiolab’s first ever spin-off series, More Perfect, dives into the rarefied world of the Supreme Court to explain how cases deliberated inside hallowed halls affect lives far away from the bench.

The second, Sui Generis, A Small Radio Show About the Law, is hosted by Halifax lawyer, Kyle Ereaux, and explores some of the bizarre aspects of Canadian law.

Happy listening!

 

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National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls

On Tuesday (August 2), the federal government released the terms of reference for the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. The government also released the names of the five inquiry commissioners, including two UVic Alumni, the Honourable Marion Buller (B.A. 1975; LLB 1987) who will serve as Chief Commissioner, and Quajaq Robinson (LLB 2005). The other three Commissioners are:

  • Michèle Audette
  • Marilyn Poitras
  • Brian Eyolfson

The terms of reference, in part, call on the Commissioners to:

Inquire  into and to report on:

  • systemic causes of all forms of violence — including sexual violence — against Indigenous women and girls in Canada, including underlying social, economic, cultural, institutional and historical causes contributing to the ongoing violence and particular vulnerabilities of Indigenous women and girls in Canada, and
  • institutional policies and practices implemented in response to violence experienced by Indigenous women and girls in Canada, including the identification and examination of practices that have been effective in reducing violence and increasing safety.

Make recommendations on:

  • concrete and effective action that can be taken to remove systemic causes of violence and to increase the safety of Indigenous women and girls in Canada, and
  • ways to honour and commemorate the missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls in Canada.

Read the full Terms of Reference here.

For more background information see the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls website and the several research, studies and reports that the Commissioners are referred to in the Terms of Reference:

  • Final report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (2015). E96.5 T78 2015; [Electronic]
  • Report of the inquiry concerning Canada of the Committee of the Elimination of Discrimination against Women under article 8 of the optional protocol to the Convention on the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women / United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (2015) [Electronic]
  • Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women in British Columbia, Canada / Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (2014). [Electronic]
  • Missing and murdered Aboriginal women : a national operational overview / Royal Canadian Mounted Police (2014). [Electronic]
  • Invisible women : a call to action : a report on missing and murdered indigenous women in Canada : report of the Special Committee on Violence Against Indigenous Women / Stella Ambler, chair (2014). [Electronic]
  • Forsaken : the report of the Missing Women Commission of Inquiry / Oppal Commission, British Columbia (2012). [Electronic]
  • What their stories tell us : research findings from the Sisters in Spirit initiative / Native Women’s Association of Canada (2010). [Electronic]
  • Report of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples. KF8205 A3384 1996
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Summer Exam Hours and BC Day Closure

As we enter the end of the summer session, we wish all students the best for exams, papers, and assignments. We wish to ensure we offer all law students the support and study environment that is needed at this time. We alert all library users to the following updates and reminders:

  • The library will be closed on August 1st for BC Day.
  • Summer exam hours are now in effect until August 12:
Summer Exam Hours
Monday – Thursday 8:00 AM – 8:00 PM
Friday 8:00 AM – 6:00 PM
Saturday – Sunday 10:00 AM – 5:30 PM

Finally, we trust all law library users will respect the increased need for quiet study at this time.

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Section 35 Métis Rights and the Manitoba Metis Federation Decision

Metis Report

Thomas Isaac,  the Ministerial Special Representative to Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada,  released his report on Métis reconciliation yesterday. Last June Mr. Isaac was appointed by the federal government to lead engagement with the Métis organizations and other interested parties to set out a framework for dialogue on Métis rights and reconciliation in response to the Supreme Court of Canada decision in Manitoba Metis Federation et al v Canada, 2013 SCC 14.

You can read Mr. Isaac’s report and background information about the report here.

For more background information check out these items at UVic Libraries:

  • “Métis” : race, recognition, and the struggle for indigenous peoplehood – Chris Andersen. ELECTRONIC;  FC109 A53 2014
  • Métis in Canada : history, identity, law & politics – edited by Christopher Adams, Gregg Dahl & Ian Peach. FC109 M492 2013
  • Métis-Crown relations : rights, identity, jurisdiction and governance – Frederica Wilson & Melanie Mallet, editors. ELECTRONIC; FC125 M48
  • Métis rights – Thomas Isaac. E99 M47 I83
  • From recognition to reconciliation : essays on the constitutional entrenchment of Aboriginal and treaty rights – edited by Patrick Macklem and Douglas Sanderson. KIB1810 F76 2016
  • From new peoples to new nations : aspects of Métis history and identity from the eighteenth to the twenty-first centuries – Gerhard J. Ens and Joe Sawchuk. E99 M47E57 2016
  • “The people who own themselves” : recognition of Métis identity in Canada : report of the Standing Senate Committee on Aboriginal Peoples –  The Honourable Vernon White, chair ; The Honourable Lillian Eva Dyck, deputy chair. ELECTRONIC
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Quebec legislation now free on LégisQuébec

The Québec Official Publisher recently replaced its paid subscription website with a new bilingual site LégisQuébec for distributing its collection of official Quebec Laws and Regulations. Quebec now joins the growing number of jurisdictions in Canada that are making their online collections of legislation available to the public for free.

The collection includes:

  • Consolidated Statutes and Regulations (in HTML, PDF, and EPUB)
  • Annual Statutes and Regulations (in HTML and EPUB since 2016; in PDF since 1996)
  • Table of Amendments (Statutes)
  • Table of Provisions not in force
  • Table of Provisions brought into force

In the words of Publications Québec – “Bonne consultation!”

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South China Sea Arbitration

The Permanent Court of Arbitration released its unanimous arbitral award yesterday (July 12, 2016) in  The Republic of Philippines v. The People’s Republic of China. The arbitration between the Philippines and China concerned the status of certain maritime rights of the respective parties and the lawfulness of certain actions by China under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.

The Permanent Court of Arbitration’s press release and Award can be read here.

To learn more about the dispute, the Permanent Court of Arbitration, and the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, check out these resources at UVic Libraries:

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Call for Papers: First Nations, Land, and James Douglas

Readers may be interested in a Call for Papers issued recently by the Songhees Nation and UVic Faculty of Law, for the forthcoming conference, First Nations, Land, and James Douglas: Indigenous and Treaty Rights in the Colonies of Vancouver Island and British Columbia, 1849–1864.

The organizers welcome individual and panel proposals “from researchers, legal professionals, and community members, on topics including, but not limited to, the following:

1) Relations between First Nations and James Douglas
2) Indigenous and Colonial Concepts of Land, Law and Territory
3) Hunting and Fishing Rights
4) The End of Treaty-Making
5) The Roles of the HBC and the Colonial Office
6) The History of Douglas Era Reserves
7) Current relevance of these historical events.”

The deadline for proposals is June 21, 2016.

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Inaugural Call for Papers for New UVic Libraries Journal

UVic Libraries has just issued a call for papers for its new open-access, peer-reviewed journal, KULA: Knowledge Creation, Dissemination, and Preservation Studies. Editor-in-chief Jonathan Bengtson, UVic University Librarian, notes the journal is “dedicated to understanding past, present, and future transformations of scholarly publishing.”

KULA is a multidisciplinary journal, and researchers and scholars in law may their work encompassed by the wide-ranging themes:

KULA will publish articles related to the past, present, and future of Citizen Science; Cultural Heritage; Cultural Heritage Informatics; Culture of Researchers; Data Sharing; Digital Archaeology; Digital Asset Management; Digital Curation; Digital Humanities; Digital Infrastructure; Digital Libraries; Digital Methods; Digital Preservation/ Curation; Digital Repositories; Digital Scholarship; Digitization; Emulation; Humanities Computing; Inclusive Design; Information Systems; Institutional and Policy Design; Knowledge & Research Infrastructures; Knowledge for Development; Knowledge Infrastructure; Knowledge Representation and Reasoning; Linked Data; Literary Studies; Media Studies; Multi-Institutional Collaboration; Open Access; Open Access Publishing; Open Scholarship; Open Science; Open Social Scholarship; Peer-Review Systems; Professionalization; Publishing Technologies; Research Assessment; Research Data Management; Research Libraries; Scholarly Communication; Scholarly Editing; Search and Discovery; Semantic Extraction; Social Exclusion; Social Knowledge; Sustainability Models; System Analysis and Design.

KULA logo

Check out KULA’s site and call for submissions to read more about the journal, its distinguished international editorial board, and how to connect with KULA.

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Opinion piece by UVic Law graduate student

UVic law graduate student Preeti Dhaliwal wrote a piece published in the Victoria Times-Colonist on the Prime Minister’s recent apology for Canada’s treatment of those aboard the Komagata Maru. She wrote about the historic importance of that apology; the impact and significance of Canada’s decisions at the time of the Komagata Maru event; and the relative emphasis in the press of this apology and the underlying event, as compared with other apologies the Prime Minister delivered the same week and the events giving rise to them.

Read Preeti’s piece, and read more in UVic Libraries’ holdings about the Komagata Maru incident.