Several times each month, we are pleased to republish a recent book review from the Canadian Law Library Review (CLLR). CLLR is the official journal of the Canadian Association of Law Libraries (CALL/ACBD), and its reviews cover both practice-oriented and academic publications related to the law.

Democracy, Protest and the Law: Defending a Democratic Right. By Michael Head. London, U.K.: Routledge, 2024. vii, 198 p. Includes index. ISBN 9780367608323 (hardcover) US$190.00; ISBN 9781003100652 (eBook) US$56.99.

Reviewed by Haley O’Halloran
Research Librarian
Toronto Lawyers Association

While reading this book, Toronto, the city where I live, passed a . . . [more]

Discourse on AI and the law often centres on the prospect (or lack thereof) of catastrophic injury to existing legal institutions and structures. Will AI tools decimate the legal profession, replacing all the lawyers? Or will lawyers who use AI simply replace lawyers who do not? Will our courts be overrun by hordes of robo-judges? Or is human decision-making essential and here to stay? These debates have proved remarkably resilient. Versions of them have bounced around for years, shifting shape as the technology progresses and our anxieties evolve.

I’m all for looking at the big picture and asking big questions, . . . [more]

Sticks and Stones

As a society, we tend to categorize folks. Introverts or extroverts. Calm or anxious. Easy to get along with or difficult. I struggle with these categorizations because I feel that they oversimplify matters. It has been my experience that most people shift how they behave based on who they are with, the environment they are in and the situation. As a result, I often question the benefit of these labels.

My greatest concern in this respect surrounds the impact of negative labels, in terms of what they project and the assumptions that are made around them. Groundbreaking . . . [more]

Every week we present the summary of a decision handed down by a Québec court provided to us by SOQUIJ and considered to be of interest to our readers throughout Canada. SOQUIJ is attached to the Québec Department of Justice and collects, analyzes, enriches, and disseminates legal information in Québec.

PÉNAL (DROIT) : Puisque la juge de première instance n’a pas déterminé les mesures raisonnables prises par l’accusé afin de s’assurer du consentement de la victime à une relation sexuelle, le jugement se prête difficilement à un examen en appel sur la question de la croyance sincère mais erronée au . . . [more]

As a supplement to our Sunday Summary each month, Supreme Advocacy LLP in Ottawa presents Supreme One-Liners, a super-short descriptive guide to the most recent decisions at the Supreme Court of Canada. Supreme Advocacy LLP offers its more comprehensive weekly electronic newsletter, Supreme Advocacy Letter, summarizing all Appeals, Oral Judgments and Leaves to Appeal granted.

Leaves to Appeal Granted

Elections: Delimitation of Electoral Divisions
Attorney General of Québec v. Xavier-Antoine Lalande, et al., 2025 QCCA 1558 (42152)

Process re delimitation of electoral divisions.

Transportation Law: Railways
Canadian National Railway Company v. Alberta Pacific Forest Industries Inc., 2025 FCA . . . [more]

Part of being a law librarian and professor on Foreign, Comparative and International Legal Research involves assuaging people’s interest in current events around the world. Personally, I call it the curse of current events. Instead of running away from it, I now take it as an opportunity to leverage that, at times, sudden interest in other parts of the world and further educate into the intricacies of this highly complex and ever changing research puzzle.

These days, Venezuela, Russia, Ukraine, Iran and Greenland are perfect examples of this sudden interest. However, Greenland differs from the others on this list . . . [more]

Claude Cowork has introduced a legal plug-in threatening to upend the traditional legal industry. The plug-in automates contract review, and provides NDA triage, compliance workflows, legal briefings, and templated responses. It claims to be able to reproduce work similar to that routinely provided by lawyers. In the AI race to see which company can dominate first, Claude has made a name for itself and is one of the frontrunners.

Brian Boyle writes in the Daily Upside that the introduction of the Claude AI plug-in has caused shares of predominant Software as a Service firms such as Adobe, HubSpot and Salesforce . . . [more]

Periodically on Thursdays, we present a significant excerpt, usually from a recently published book or journal article. In every case the proper permissions have been obtained. If you are a publisher who would like to participate in this feature, please let us know via the site’s contact form.

Constitutional Challengers: The Heroes, Villains, and Crusaders Behind Canada’s Biggest Cases

Author: Adam Dodek with Sean Cousins, Yasmeen Atassi, Sébastien Cyr, Asha Sahota, Marna Swart, Jamie Bell, Bionca Chu, and Dominique Charland
Publisher: Dundurn Press
Publication Date: January, 2026
Shipping dimensions: 9″ H x 6″ W x 1″ L
ISBN:9781459755222
288 pages, . . . [more]

It is with deep sorrow that we mark the unexpected passing of our friend and colleague at the Canadian Forum on Civil Justice (CFCJ), Lisa Moore, who passed away in December. Lisa was a generous colleague, an incisive researcher, and a quiet but formidable force in the access to justice community. Lisa devoted her professional and academic life to understanding how people actually experience legal problems, and to insisting that access to justice research remain accountable to those lived realities. Her passing leaves a profound absence in a field she helped shape with care, rigour, and compassion.

What distinguished Lisa’s . . . [more]

At the beginning of January, the Globe and Mail ran an article about the Chief Justice of Ontario’s visits to communities across Ontario, part of an outreach undertaking. From Chief Justice Tulloch’s perspective, this type of initiative provides the members of the bench with an opportunity to gain a, “better understanding of the people we are serving.”

While this is a crucial consideration for adjudicators, such outreach serves to benefit communities as well. Not only does it humanize the law by putting an actual face on justice, but it serves to humanize the individuals who are engaged in interpreting and . . . [more]

For most of my career, I have worked on the inside of law firms — advising partners, managing change, fixing things that quietly but persistently get in the way of good work. Strategy. Marketing. Associate retention. Recruitment. Training. Culture. All the unglamorous but consequential pieces that impacts whether a firm thrives or stalls.

Along the way, I noticed something that never really changed.

Every year, bright, capable law students arrive at firms deeply motivated to do well — and surprisingly underprepared for what the job actually requires. Not because they lack intelligence or work ethic, but because no one ever . . . [more]