Legislative Research – Page 3 – Know How, the blog of the Great Library

Sessional Papers – Federal and Ontario

Sessional Papers from the Federal and Ontario governments provide an interesting glimpse into the evolution of Canadian governance. They capture the policies, debates, and decisions of the time, making them a valuable resource for exploring legislative intent, especially behind historical statutes. In today’s blog post, we’ll take a closer look at the Great Library’s collection of Federal and Ontario Sessional Papers.

Out of Date, Not Obsolete: The Wisdom of Older Editions

A common question we get here at the Great Library is: “If everything is now online, why do you need to keep these musty old books?” While it would be nice to assume that everything you need to know is available online through Google or a quick query to ChatGPT, you shouldn’t disregard the older editions of texts and their tables of cases that can be found in our often overlooked 1^st floor and extensive closed stacks.

Finding Ontario Orders in Council

Last year, we shared a blog post highlighting the sources and tools for finding current and historical federal orders in council – but what about Ontario? This blog post, together with a previous post – Finding Ontario OICs– will provide a checklist for where to look when searching for Ontario Orders in Council. A task that often leaves researchers empty-handed.