Submitted by Section Chair, Laurel Courtenay
Summary of Meetings
Number of Meetings Held: 4
October 22, 2014
Guest Speaker: Nick Bower, WorkSafeBC
Meeting Title/Topic: Canadian Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL) - What's happened so far and what you can expect to happen in the future
Synopsis: This presentation introduced the activities covered by the Act (spam email, altering transmission data and installation of computer programs), when the various prohibitions and remedies come into force, how to comply, and what happens if you do not comply. Power point slides were provided.
February 18, 2015
Guest Speakers: Laura Track, BC Civil Liberties Association , Devyn Cousineau, Community Legal Assistance Society, and DJ Larkin, Pivot Legal Society
Meeting Title/Topic: Researching Social Justice Issues
Synopsis: The panel began the meeting with an overview of the perspectives on what social justice law is, and spent some time discussing the importance of researching the facts, as well as suggesting some creative methods to use in order to obtain this information. The panel also provided information on engaging experts, including how to find them and how to use them to challenge bias and/or stereotypes. Lastly, the panel spoke about researching and using international materials to advance domestic law in social justice cases.
May 12, 2015
Guest Speakers: Carmen Cheung and Raji Mangat, BC Civil Liberties Association
Meeting Title/Topic: US Legal Research
Synopsis: Carmen Cheung and Raji Mangat provided an excellent overview of how to conduct US legal research. This discussion included an overview of the US court system and the speakers provided a useful chart regarding the jurisdiction of federal and state courts. They also presented an overview of stare decisis in the US court system and provided a helpful list of resources to review before beginning the research process.
June 25, 2015
Guest Speaker: George Tsiakos, UBC Law Library and Peter A. Allard School of Law
Meeting Title/Topic: UBC's Legal Research & Writing program
Synopsis: George Tsiakos discussed the Legal Research & Writing program at the Peter A. Allard School of Law in relation to the Federation of Law Societies of Canada's national competency requirements. He highlighted what is taught in the upper year advanced legal research courses as well as the first year legal research and writing course.
Comments and Observations of the Chair
Our mandate remains to promote the development and enhancement of legal research and legal writing skills of our members and to also provide resources for this purpose. The presentations covered in the past year were selected with this mandate in mind, covering substantive law topics such as the anti-spam legislation presentation as well as pure legal research topics such as the U.S. Legal Research presentation.