1. Sociology of Law
Library and online resources
SOCI 2301/4250
February 2014

2. Start at Resources by Subject on the
Library website (under Find)

3. Choose the option to Browse all guides

4. The Law Research guide has
• Newspaper indexes for
searching current events,
legislative issues and public
opinion.
• Links to online legislation and
parliamentary documents for
Canada, Ontario and other
jurisdictions.
• Citation guides and reference
sources.

5. News Databases can be found under
Find Journal Articles tab.

6. Laws can be found under
Find Statutes tab.

7. Check out the various documents about how a Bill
becomes a Law in Canada and Ontario under the
Home tab of the Law Subject Guide

8. Choose your subject Carefully
Consider:
- Who has jurisdiction?
- Is this piece of legislation recent or historical?
Historical topics may need to be searched in print
sources which are scarce.
- Some issues can take time before legislation is
passed and can be discussed at several sessions
of parliament. If there is a long legislated history,
limit your scope.

9. The distribution of legislated power was
established in the British North America Act
1867
Provinces
Hospitals
Education
Federal Government
Criminal Law
First Nations
Current Laws (Statutes) can be found online
through the Legal Resources Subject Guide
E-laws – Ontario
Canada - Department of Justice

10. Canadian Laws and sources
• Revised Statutes of Canada - RSC 1985 C2A3A 1985
ground floor
• Annual updates to Canadian Statutes DOC K C2A3 ground
floor
• E laws online at the Department of Justice
• Table of Statutes and Responsible Ministers lists changes
to Federal Legislation since the RSC 1985. Refer to annual
updates for changes listed here.
• Regulations made under Acts are also law.

11. Ontario Laws and Sources
• Revised Statutes of Ontario K 05A 21 1990
ground floor
• Annual updates to Ontario Statutes ground floor
• Online Acts and Regulations Ontario

12. How to start?
If you don’t know who legislates in a
particular area…
-Try RSC 1985 index or table of statutes and
Responsible ministers
-Try index to RSO 1990 or browse appropriate
online legislation sites
-Search CanLii (case law site) but for legislation
using key words

13. How to start?
If you know who has legislative
authority
•Find the act and when it was debated
•Try searching bills and then debates
from the appropriate legislature if you
know the bill number or name.

14. How to start?
Option 3
•Browse a session of parliament or provincial
legislature for an interesting bill that has gone
through several parliamentary stages.
•Search news for major issues that have been put
through parliament or provincial legislature and
then search by bill, bill title or legislative session.

15. Why Search news?
To obtain dates for legislative debate
To obtain bill numbers and/or names of acts.
To obtain public opinion and names of interested lobbyists
Canadian Business and Current Affairs has
•Newspapers
•Magazines
•Television transcripts

16. Use the advanced search to add concepts by line
and to specify where to search for your terms

17. When Searching
• Link synonyms on one line connected by
“or”
• Add other concepts on rows
For Example:
Law or Legislation or Act
(or bill if you are looking for proposed legislation)
And
Same Sex Marriage

18. If you are after dates and names of legislation,
deselect options for full text, peer reviewed etc.

19. You can refine your results by limiting by
location (i.e. Canada)or by timeframe

20. Searching Canadian Newsstand
• Canadian Newsstand includes
full text newspaper content
from across Canada
• The Canadian Newsstand
search looks the same as
CBCA.
• To limit results, you may
want to avoid searching the
full text of articles. To do
this, search your terms in the
“citation and abstract” section

21. When the government
legislates change (a brief recap)
• Government or private member adopts a stance on an
issue
• Bill is proposed – There is a first reading.
• Debated at second reading and may be forwarded to a
standing or specially established Committee for input.
• Committee members study the Bill in detail and make
recommendations to accept, modify or start over.
• Bill goes back to the whole House for the third Reading. If
approved the bill will then move to the Senate
• Senate has a similar process.

22. Find Bills associated with your
legislation - Federal
• Determine when (which parliament and
session) the bill was passed. Having a
rough idea of the timeframe is important.
This information can be taken from your
news database search or any other valid
source.

23. Searching Federal bills
• 2001 to present through LegisInfo with
added links to committees, legislative
summary, links to speeches in the house...
• Some bills go back to 1994 – first drafts
• 2007 onward in print at the Library - See J
103 A45 (ground floor)

24. Canadian Parliamentary Sources
LEGISInfo
LEGISInfo – One Stop shopping.. Quick access to
text of proposed bills, legislative histories, press
releases the debates (Hansard) from the house.
Web Content starts in 2001.
TIPS:
• Start with the FAQ section
• Search by keywords in titles of bills
• Search by bill number
• Use terms obtained from your newspaper
searches for bill numbers or title words.

25. Tips for LEGISInfo
• The default is to search the current
session of parliament.
• Bills are sequential for each session of
parliament. Know the year or the session
of parliament that proposed the bill and
use the “refine” options to select the
appropriate section of parliament.

26. LEGISInfo
- select the specific session of parliament
-search by bill number or a word from the title of the bill

27. Canadian Parliamentary Sources
parl.gc.ca for debates and committee
proceedings
Parliament of Canada Website
Select the Parliamentary business section for
• schedules for the house and the senate
• Debates and indexes to debates (1994 onward)
• Committee information – online from 1995
(1995-97 is available in an archival format.

28. Canadian Parliamentary Sources
parl.gc.ca for debates and committee proceedings

29. The Search and browse finds information contained in the
House of Commons Debates (Hansard) and Committee
Evidence of the 1st Session of the 39th Parliament (2006) and
onward.

30. To get into older indexes for Debates (Hansard)
Select the parliamentary session and then scroll up
for the index

31. Aha!

32. Canadian Parliamentary Sources
Committee Proceedings
Any organization or individual may submit a
written brief to a committee of the House of
Commons, even if they did not have the
opportunity to appear as a witness.
• Committee Proceedings and reports online
• Older print materials can be searched in the
library catalogue.

33. Federal Committees information
online
Federal (House) Committees site
Has a list of existing committees.
You can search by subject area,
check for committee reports and see
who is a witness for the committee.
Senate Committees
Similar information is available for
Senate Committees.

34. Committees information is
organized by session.

35. Example Bill C-38 – passed
in 2005
• Search in LegisINFO.
• review “legislative history” for description and analysis,
commentary, and background committee information.
• NOTE – This legislation went to house and senate
committees.
• NOTE - Justice and Human Rights Committee was debating
this in 2002 guided by a justice dept. report…Marriage and
Legal Recognition of Same-Sex Unions: A Discussion Paper.
FYI It is in the library

36. Example Bill C-38 – passed
in 2005
• Major speeches are linked from LegisInfo
site.
• Review Debates (for Oct 4-2004-Nov 25,
2005) by first checking the index. From
the index, link to full text of the debate.
Debates will often include notices of
petitions and statements by members of
parliament.

37. For Committee Information
• Go to house business section of
parliamentary website.
• Select committees.
• Select session of parliament.
• Look for committee that reviewed
the legislation – minutes, evidence
and members of the public
petitioning the committee should be
accessible from 2001 on.

38. Federal debates and committee
information before 1994/5
• Print Debates – (ground floor J 103
A42) Indexes found at the end of
each session.
• Older committee reports can be
searched in the library catalogue.

39. Ontario Sources
• Ontario Legislature online
has links to
• Ontario Bills – coverage from 1995 J
108 H5 ground floor in print
• Ontario Debates (Hansard) - online
since 1981 - use advanced search) J
108 H2 in print
• Committees Section

40. Ontario Sources

41. Example
• Bill 34, Education Amendment Act, 1996
• Search the session of parliament and
browse for the bill of interest.
• Click status for history of debate,
significant dates for readings and
committee input.

42. Review Debates and Committee transcripts
for dates given in the status section

43. For links to
bills and
debates for
all provinces
See - How to Locate
Canadian Current and
Historical Legislation
– University of
Toronto

44. Other Sources for
Interest Groups, Political Activists, Lobbyists
input from the general public
Check the websites section of the Legal
Resources page for:
Provincial Lobbyists registries. “Lobbyists” are
defined by legislation and they may need to
register with the level of government they are
trying to persuade.
Also try www.Hillwatch.com

45. More useful resources
Tracing a bill Queens University flowchart
for the legislative process
Updating Statutes and Regulations for all
Canadian Jurisdictions 3rd Edition See REF KE
250 S61 1989
Canadian Guide to Uniform Legal Citation 5th
Edition. Carswell. 2002 See REF KE 259
C35 2002

46. Ask Us