Know How

The blog of the Great Library


by Leave a comment

November is Make a Will Month

An Angus Reid survey conducted last year found that 51% of Canadians do not have a will. This includes lawyers as it’s estimated that the percentage of lawyers without a will is about the same as the general population. Reasons for not having a will included being “too young to worry about it” (25%), not having any assets (23%) and not wanting to think about dying (8%).

It’s statistics like these that drive the need for “Make a Will Month”, the annual November campaign to raise awareness about the importance of having a well-drafted and up-to-date will.

In Ontario, the OBA’s Make a Will Month program gives its members the opportunity to promote their expertise and educate their clients and the public about the benefits of having a properly-drafted will.  Throughout November, the OBA is hosting free information sessions presented by wills and estates practitioners at public libraries and community hubs across Ontario.  In addition, the OBA website features timely information on how lawyers can help with complex estate issues, such as blended families, dependents living with disabilities, cross-border matters and digital assets.

Make a Will Month also gives us the opportunity to highlight some of the valuable tools we make available to help Law Society licensees in drafting wills for their clients.

Here’s a selection of current will drafting resources available through the Great Library:

  • Lexis Practice Advisor – Wills, Trusts and Estates Ontario (available online in the Library)
    • features will drafting checklists, precedent wills and clauses, as well as practice notes contributed by leading estates practitioners
  • O’Brien’s Encyclopedia of Forms – Wills and Trusts (available online in the Library)
    • includes sample wills, clauses and brief commentary to provide context for these precedents
  • Drafting Wills in Canada: A Lawyer’s Practice Guide, 2nd ed. by Robyn Solnik, Mary-Alice Thompson, Brian Gillingham. KF 755 S645 2016, Practice Collection, 2nd Floor.
    • guidance and best practices for drafting wills, powers of attorney and other estate planning documents

Need more information about our wills and estates materials? Just ask us!


by Leave a comment

House of Bills: Bills of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario

November 4 – November 7
42nd Parliament, 1st Session

legend

Bill 112, Lupus Awareness Day Act, 2019

Second Reading, carried (Nov 7)
Ordered referred to Standing Committee on General Government (Nov 7)

Bill 116, Foundations for Promoting and Protecting Mental Health and Addictions Services Act, 2019

Second Reading (Nov 5)

Bill 124, Protecting a Sustainable Public Sector for Future Generations Act, 2019

Bill considered by Standing Committee on General Government (Nov 4 & 6)
Second Reading (Nov 4)
Third Reading, carried on division (Nov 7)
Royal Assent (Nov 7)

Bill 125, Making Northern Ontario Highways Safer Act, 2019

Second Reading, lost on division (Nov 7)

Bill 132, Better for People, Smarter for Business Act, 2019

Second Reading, carried on division (Nov 4, 5 & 7)
Ordered referred to Standing Committee on General Government (Nov 7)

Bill 136, Provincial Animal Welfare Services Act, 2019

Second Reading (Nov 6 & 7)

Bill 137, Franco-Ontarian Community Act, 2019

First Reading (Nov 5)

Bill 138, Plan to Build Ontario Together Act, 2019

First Reading (Nov 6)

Bill 139, Caribbean Heritage Month Act, 2019

First Reading (Nov 6)

That’s it for now until November 18th as the legislature breaks for next week. The next House of Bills recap will resume Monday, November 25th. 


by Leave a comment

Legal Research Survival Guide – Part 7: Organizing Your Research

Being an effective organizer is just as important as being an effective researcher—identifying and locating the law and commentary relevant to your research problem is only as useful as your ability to a) find that information again at a later date when it is needed and b) effectively communicate those findings to your principal, your client, others working on the file and most importantly, yourself.

Trust me – future-you will thank past-you for not having to cipher through pages upon post-its upon scraps of paper for the information you need. Thankfully, there are a handful of free, online note-taking services which can be really handy when trying to keep neat and organized notes. Here are three which the staff at the Library have reviewed (in no particular order):

Microsoft OneNote

  • Available on all devices (Android | iOS | Windows | Mac)
    • Can run into trouble when trying to switch to and from personal and work accounts
  • Flexible digital canvas
    • type, clip or write anywhere on the page
  • Designed to look and function as a digital notebook
    • Separate, colour-coded sections comprised of multiple, cascading pages
  • Insert screen clippings from the web straight into your notebook
  • Notes are searchable with the search function
  • Annotates notes with a decent collection of edit features
  • Integrates with Microsoft Office

Evernote

  • Accessible on all devices (Android | iOS | Windows)
  • Free plan does not have all features available
  • Designed to look and function as a digital notebook
    • Compromised of notes which can be organized with tags
  • Web Clipper web browser extension
    • Take screenshots from the web straight into your notebook
  • Add reminders, checklists and external files to your notes
  • Annotates notes with a decent collection of edit features
  • Does not integrate with Microsoft Office

Google Keep

  • Available for Android, iOS and online
  • More minimal when compared to other apps
  • Notes organized as digital sticky notes which can be colour-coded and labelled
  • Speech-to-text functionality using voice memo feature
  • Add texts, photos, lists and reminders to notes
  • Invite others to collaborate on your notes

And lastly here are some general pointers to help you stay focused, organized and able to back-track when needed:

  • Always record the search terms and search strings you used throughout your research process
  • Make sure to record citations and pinpoint references clearly and accurately
  • Record the sources that you referenced throughout your search, and star those which you had more success using
  • Be concise yet thorough—leave yourself notes as to why you included something in your notes if it’s not obvious
  • Date your pages—this will help you keep track of your progress
  • Don’t be an information hoarder! Having too much or unnecessary information in your notes can be confusing and overwhelming—cut things out as soon as it is clear it is not useful


by Leave a comment

The Ontario Legislature Returns

After an extended vacation, the Legislative Assembly of Ontario is officially back in session as of October 28, 2019. The return of the Legislature also signals an exciting development for our blog, as we begin posting weekly updates of federal and Ontario legislative activity in our new series: House of Bills. Every Monday, we’ll recap the previous week’s progress of public bills in Parliament and the Ontario Legislature.  

While we’re waiting for the Parliament of Canada to reopen, we’ll begin to gather and post updates made to Ontario public bills as they move through the Legislature. So, without further ado, our first post from the series:

House of Bills: Bills of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario

October 28-October 31
42nd Parliament, 1st Session

Bill 116, Foundations for Promoting and Protecting Mental Health and Addictions Services Act, 2019

Second Reading (October 31)

Bill 124, Protecting a Sustainable Public Sector for Future Generations Act, 2019

Second Reading, carried on division (October 28, 29, 31)
Ordered referred to Standing Committee on General Government (October 31)

Bill 130, Combatting Litter for the Environment and Nature Act, 2019

Second Reading, carried on division (October 31)
Ordered referred to Standing Committee on General Government (October 31)

Bill 132, Better for People, Smarter for Business Act, 2019

First Reading (October 28)
Second Reading (October 31)

Bill 133, Buy in Canada for Mass Transit Vehicles Act, 2019

First Reading (October 28)
Second Reading, lost on division (October 31)

Bill 134, Caribbean Heritage Month Act, 2019

First Reading (October 28)

Bill 135, La Francophonie Act, 2019

First Reading (October 28)

Bill 136, Provincial Animal Welfare Services Act, 2019

First Reading (October 29)


by Leave a comment

Legal Research Survival Guide – Part 6: Help with Hansard

In our previous Survival Guide posts, we’ve covered planning your research and getting off to a quick productive start with research guides, current legal texts and CPD papers. This week we’re continuing with some practical tips for conducting effective statutory research, using Hansard.

Hansard is the term commonly used for the record of the debates of Parliament and provincial and territorial legislatures. It is a key resource for research into statutory interpretation, helping to shed light on the context and intent of legislative changes.

Hansard research can however be confusing and time-consuming. So here some useful preliminary steps to help you clarify and focus your Hansard search before you dive in:

  1. Identify the statute section(s) of interest

Don’t make your job harder than it needs to be! While there are times when an entire statute may be relevant to your research, quite often you’re really only interested in the legislative intent behind changes to specific provisions. Identify those sections using the current consolidated version of the statute. This will make the next stages of your research more efficient.

  1. Trace your section(s) back

Once you’ve identified the section(s) for which you want to find legislative intent, you’ll need to then trace the section(s) back to the point at which a relevant change was made by amending legislation, or to the point at which the section was first introduced. To do so, use the source (historic) notes included at the end of your section(s) in the current consolidated version of the statute. For a primer on how to read statutory source notes, see Following the Breadcrumbs: Source Notes and How to Use.

  1. Identify the bill number, parliament and session

Once you’ve located the amending or original statute of interest, you’ll need to find the corresponding bill number because Hansard deals with bills not statutes.

It’s also important to take note of the year, the parliament or legislature and the session number for your bill so you can search the correct Hansards. For example, knowing you’re looking for debate on Bill C-20 is not enough. You’ll need to know it’s the Bill C-20 from the 36th Parliament, 1st Session (1997-1999), not Bill C-20 from 35th Parliament, 2nd Session (1996-1997).

You can find bill numbers, parliament and session information on LEGISInfo (federal bills) and the Ontario Legislative Assembly website, as well as in the official annual print volumes of the Ontario and Federal statutes.

  1. Use the indexes

At this point, you have all the information you need to locate the correct Hansard volumes. Select the index for the parliament/legislature and session you need, and look up the bill number or name to find the pages numbers where debate at each stage (reading) of the bill’s legislative process can be found. (Page numbers in online versions of debate indexes are typically direct links into the full-text of Hansard.)

When searching Hansard online, you can use Ctrl-F or available keyword search boxes to get to the points in Hansard where your bill is mentioned. However, relying on Hansard indexes will give you a more complete and clearer picture of your research path.

Need to find Hansards online? Look to our blog posts Finding Hansard Online: Canada and Ontario and Ontario Hansard Then and Now for pointers.

And there you have it. While each bill is unique and the road to finding information on legislative intent may not always be straightforward, you can depend on the framework described above to guide you to the Hansards you need—just as you can depend on the library staff to help you along the way. Be sure to come to the Reference Office, or contact us through Ask a Law Librarian if you have any questions.