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Home   Research Contract Opportunities Research Contracts in Progress
The Community Law and Justice Initiative A Community Approach To Access To Justice The concept of access to justice can encompass many different issues: cost of litigation and representation, legal aid, delays, physical accessibility, language and cultural barriers including plain language, alternative dispute resolution mechanisms, simplified procedures and public education, to name a few. Issues relate to both procedural and substantive issues, objective (cost, delay, complexity) and subjective (perceptions of justice; socio-demographic differences) barriers. Solutions to the problems are neither simple nor one-size-fits-all. * * * * * * * Enforcing Security Interests and Money Judgments on Reserve The initial work by the Law Commission of Canada on this issue has examined the practical and legal effects of relevant sections of the Indian Act. In summary, it indicates that there are risks that the current level of credit available to First Nations entrepreneurs, First Nations corporations and bands may not be adequate to facilitate economic development. Considering these potential risks, the Law Commission has invited proposals from Aboriginal suppliers to produce a study on what approaches should be pursued to improve the access to the credit market for First Nations citizens. * * * * * * *
Community Scholar in Law Reform
A Study Of The Legal And Policy Barriers To Successful Immigrant Settlement Law Commission of Canada (LCC) and Community Foundations of Canada (CFC) are pleased to announce the awarding of the Community Scholar in Law Reform research contract to Sarah Wayland of Hamilton, Ontario. Ms. Wayland's research into the legal and policy barriers to successful immigrant settlement commences in September 2005 and will be completed in the Spring of 2006. Ms. Wayland has been researching in the area of immigration settlement for a number of years. She has extensive experience with community-based research and has taught on immigration policy for McMaster University. Ms. Wayland will be working closely with the national advisory committee established by the LCC and CFC and will also be assisted by a group of community representatives from Hamilton. * * * * * * *
A Documentary Film On Canada's Indigenous Legal Traditions
The Law Commission of Canada is pleased to announce that the contract for the production of a documentary portraying Indigenous legal traditions in Canada has been awarded to the team of Madeleine Redfern, Bossy Jossy Productions and EnTheos Films. Production on the documentary will begin in September. The completed documentary, which will highlight specific Indigenous legal traditions, will be used to stimulate discussion about the nature of Indigenous legal traditions and the ways of developing these traditions and more fully incorporating them into Indigenous and, perhaps, non-Indigenous legal orders.
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What is a Crime? - Case Studies
Fraud Against the Public Purse by Medicare Professionals: The Difference of Location Professor Joan Brockman, Simon Fraser University About the Project
"What is a Crime?" usually conjures up images of bank robbers, child abductors, sex offenders, and perhaps, fraudulent welfare recipients. Rarely does one think of doctors or health professionals who defraud the public purse through medicare fraud. Part of this perception might be because we have other words to sanitize the activity. Health professionals may engage in "over-billing," "mis-billing," "double-billing," or "inappropriate billing". Rarely is it called "fraudulent billing" or a crime. For the most part, medicare professionals are trusted to submit correct bills to medicare, and therefore medicare fraud is very much an "abuse of power" or an abuse of trust issue.
White-collar crimes, and more specifically crimes in the professions, are a much-neglected phenomenon in the social sciences. This research examines the context in which medicare fraud is defined and the responses it generates. Of particular interest is whether our responses to medicare fraud can help us to think more thoroughly about our responses in other contexts (e.g., welfare fraud). About the Researcher
Joan Brockman, School of Criminology, Simon Fraser University, teaches courses on Crimes and Misconduct in the Professions, Corporate Crimes and Misconduct, Gender in the Courts and the Legal Profession, and Criminal Procedure and Evidence. Her publications include Gender in the Legal Profession: Fitting or Breaking the Mould (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2001) and (with V. Gordon Rose), Canadian Criminal Procedure and Evidence for the Social Sciences (Toronto: Nelson, 2001, 2nd edition). Articles on the professions include: (with Caroline Murdoch) "Who's On First? Disciplinary Proceedings by Self-Regulating Professions and other Agencies for 'Criminal' Behaviour" (2001) 64(1) Saskatchewan Law Review 29; "A Cold-Blooded Effort to Bolster Up the Legal Profession:" The Battle Between Lawyers and Notaries in British Columbia, 1871-1930" (1999) 32(64) Social History 209-235; "'Fortunate Enough to Obtain and Keep the Title of Profession:' Self-Regulating Organizations and the Enforcement of Professional Monopolies" (1998) 41(4) Canadian Public Administration 587; "Better to Enlist Their Support Than to Suffer Their Antagonism:" The Game of Monopoly Between Lawyers and Notaries in British Columbia, 1930-1981" (1997) 4(3) International Journal of the Legal Profession 197; and "The Use of Self-Regulation to Curb Discrimination and Sexual Harassment in the Legal Profession" (1997) 35(2) Osgoode Hall Law Journal 209. The Legalization of Gambling and its Consequences: A Cross-National Comparison Dr. Colin S. Campbell, Department of Criminology, Douglas College
Dr. Gary J. Smith, G. Smith Consulting
Dr. Tim Hartnagel, Department of Sociology, University of Alberta About the Project
Until several decades ago, most forms of gambling in Canada were illegal. Today, legal gambling operates on a scale that was unimagined thirty years ago due to a profusion of new games and gaming outlets licensed, operated and regulated by provincial governments. Canadian academics and government policy-makers have paid scant attention to the evolution of gambling laws and regulatory policies in Canada.
Recent changes to the Criminal Code of Canada clearly indicate a transition from criminal prohibition to legalization of specific forms of gambling, as well as a consistent pattern of lesser federal responsibility and greater provincial authority over gambling matters. However, "gambling" remains an elusive term in Canadian society because, depending upon the format and circumstances surrounding it, a variety of legal statuses are possible. In addition, some gambling formats have changed legal status in recent years - electronic gambling devices and dice games were illegal until Criminal Code amendments in 1985 and 1998. Legalization tends to blur public perception about the status of gambling. Some forms of legal gambling behaviour, despite their "legal and licensed status", are still nevertheless singled out for social censure independent of the criminal law. As gambling's legal status has been transformed, new forms of deviance associated with gambling have emerged (e.g., "excessive" gambling).
Despite an obvious transformation towards greater legalization, crime and gambling are nevertheless still directly linked in numerous ways (e.g., illegal gambling, criminogenic problem gambling, gambling venue crimes, family abuse, and organized crime). This study will examine the transformed status of gambling in Canadian society, with particular emphasis on the social, economic and cultural forces that changed the public perception of gambling from a sin, to a vice, to a mode of entertainment. This study will also explore the impacts of various intervention techniques that have surfaced during an era of increased legalization. About the Researchers
Dr Colin Campbell has studied and written about Canadian gambling policy developments for more than twenty years. In addition to having worked extensively in western Canadian charitable casino operations, Dr. Campbell has provided research and consultation services to private and public sector organizations. Prior to teaching in the Criminology Department at Douglas College, he provided research services and policy advice to the Commission of Inquiry into the Nanaimo Commonwealth Holding Society. Dr. Campbell's academic research has focused on government regulatory policies with respect to gambling in Canada. He is a frequent speaker at national and international conferences on gambling, has edited two books on gambling in Canada and currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Responsible Gambling Council.
Dr. Garry Smith is a Gambling Research Specialist with the Alberta Gaming Research Institute. Dr. Smith has been investigating gambling issues for over 15 years, during which time he has produced numerous scholarly articles for academic journals, contributed scientific reports for governments and private sector corporations, and presented before national and international audiences. He is frequently called upon by North American media outlets to comment on gambling issues and teaches a university course on the subject. Dr Smith's current research interests include the social and economic impacts of gambling, public policy issues related to gambling, crime and gambling, and sports gambling.
Dr. Timothy Hartnagel is a Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Alberta specializing in criminology. He has served as the Director of the Department's B.A. program in criminology, as well as Associate Chair for Graduate and for Undergraduate Programs. Currently he is the Dean of St. Joseph's College at the University of Alberta. In addition to Introductory Criminology, he teaches such courses as: Crime and Public Policy; and Social Structure and Crime. He has also supervised a number of MA and PhD students. He is the co-author of Fractured Transitions from School to Work (1995, Oxford University Press) and editor of the text Canadian Crime Control Policy (1998, Nelson). He has also published widely in professional journals, including Criminology, Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, Canadian Review of Sociology and Anthropology, and the Canadian Journal of Criminology. He recently authored a paper on "Youth Crime and Justice in Alberta: Rhetoric and Reality" for the Parkland Institute at the University of Alberta, as well as articles on gun control attitudes; and on street youth, labour market strain and crime. His current research includes an investigation of punitive attitudes toward offenders; gambling and crime; an evaluation of the Kids in the Hall bistro program; and female crime trends in Canada. Professor Hartnagel has received funding from SSHRC, the Solicitor General of Canada, Alberta Gaming Research Institute, and Alberta Manpower. He has twice been appointed as a Visiting Fellow at the Institute of Criminology at Cambridge University; and recently was a Visiting Scholar at the Center for the Study of Law and Society at the University of California Berkeley. A Study of 'Welfare Fraud' as Crime Dr. Joe Hermer, Division of Social Sciences, University of Toronto at Scarborough
Professor Janet Mosher, Osgoode Hall Law School, York University About the Project
Over the last decade "welfare fraud" has been presented as a widespread public menace that requires tough new laws and regulatory action. Provinces such as Alberta, British Columbia and Ontario have enacted new regulations and regulatory programs to deal with this perceived threat. Underlying this movement is a much wider shift that has been central to the reform of the welfare state where the notion of social assistance payments as an entitlement to those who are poor has been replaced by a contractual notion of social support where recipients are expected to "pay back" society. The discourse of 'welfare fraud' now permeates both official and public mindsets to such an extent that social assistance programs have been firmly re-located by governments as a problem of crime, social order and regulation. The now widespread belief that welfare fraud is rampant has justified and rationalized expensive and expansive fraud detection mechanisms and harsh punishments for those convicted.
This research examines how social assistance has been transformed into a site of aggressive regulation that evokes rampant crime and criminal conduct. The invocation of the language of 'welfare fraud' to refer to a wide range of behaviours and actions raises significant questions about how processes of social criminalization are working in the area of public welfare to order and punish behaviour that is 'unwanted' in our current political climate. This issue is particularly important given the historically central role that social assistance has played in relation to equality and social justice in Canadian society. About the Researchers
Joe Hermer is an Assistant Professor of Sociology and Criminology at University of Toronto. He holds a Doctorate in Socio-Legal Studies from the University of Oxford. His recent research examines the regulation and criminalization of poverty, with a particular focus on how the subsistence activities of the homeless are policed on modern streets. Professor Hermer is the author of Regulating Eden : The Nature of Order in North American Parks (University of Toronto, 2002) Policing Compassion: Begging, Law and Power in Public Space (forthcoming from Hart publishing) and is co-editor (with Janet Mosher) of Disorderly People: Law and the Politics of Exclusion In Ontario. (Fernwood Press, 2002).
Janet Mosher is an Associate Professor at Osgoode Hall Law School and presently the Director of Osgoode's Intensive Program in Poverty Law at Parkdale Community Legal Services. Her teaching and research interests include law and poverty, legal ethics, legal process, evidence and violence against women. She is co-editor with Joe Hermer of Disorderly Conduct: Law & the Politics of Exclusion in Ontario and presently the principal investigator for the Woman Abuse & Welfare Research Project (a study of the intersections of welfare regimes and violence against women in their intimate relationships). How Residents of Social Housing in Montréal Perceive Incivility Professor Frédéric Lemieux, School of Criminology, Université de Montréal About the Project Incivility is associated with negative and undesirable behaviour that is socially unacceptable. However, the concept of incivility remains ambiguous due to the influence of factors affecting individual perceptions. First, the definition of incivility is based on subjective representations that refer to personal characteristics (internal factors) that characterize the individuals experiencing or living with incivility. Thus, knowing that residents of social housing are from varying ethnocultural backgrounds, that they are often part of "dysfunctional" families and that they include all age categories, it is plausible that these attributes clash with the subjective representation of incivility. Furthermore, the level of social cohesion within the community and its consequences (social control) are external factors. These factors appear in the types of governance established for social housing. Therefore, in response to the question "What is incivility?" this research project examines the influence of social housing governance (external factors) and personal characteristics (internal factors) on the definition of incivility. It will also examine whether or not these factors play a role in residents determining a course of action in reaction to incivility. About the Researcher
Frédéric Lemieux is an Assistant Professor at the School of criminology, University of Montreal. He is also an associated researcher at the Centre International de Criminologie Comparée (CICC). His academic activities address, in particular, on police intelligence and risks management. In December 2002, Frédéric Lemieux organized a seminar on the police and security intelligence which regrouped several specialists on the subject. He recently completed a doctoral dissertation on various aspects relating to crisis management within the January 1998 ice-storm in Quebec. His work on the subject is in Criminologie and he communicated his results at the Colloque interdisciplinaire sur les conséquences des catastrophes et des événements traumatiques (Novembre 2001) and to the Séminaire international sur les politiques publiques de sécurité (April 2002). Frédéric Lemieux's more recent research focuses on two themes: the use of the SWAT Teams as tools in violent crises management and the integration of a community policing model in intelligence-led policing. Unwanted Communication and Unwanted Disclosure: Demands on the Criminal Law to Protect the 'Informational Person' Mr. Eric Ward About the Project
Informational privacy is an emerging topic of great importance to Canadians. In various ways, Canadians' movements, activities, and expressions are captured increasingly through such methods as surveillance cameras, consumer transaction records, and Radio Frequency Identification Devices, to name a few. The autobiographies and biographies of Canadians as 'informational persons' are being continuously written in persistent and diffuse media.
As Canadians become increasingly aware of the extent to which their daily lives have an informational dimension, they will likely also perceive new or intensified threats to their persons resulting from unwanted communicative behaviour or the unwanted collection, storage and use of information by non-state agents. This research sets out a series of questions to assess the extent to which threats to privacy to the person resulting from communication or the management of information should be dealt with by the criminal law given the existence of many alternatives. About the Researcher
Eric Ward is former law clerk to the Hon. Justice Frank Iacobucci at the Supreme Court of Canada. He holds law degrees in common and civil law from McGill University and a degree in Philosophy and Political Studies from Queen's University. Eric worked for several years as an assistant to Senator Landon Pearson, notably during the Senator's co-chairing of a Special Joint Committee on Child Custody and Access and while she was tasked with studying the Youth Criminal Justice bill. Eric has co-published an article in a law journal, lectured at conferences and university classes, and prepared an 'environmental scan' for an OAS Minister's meeting. The Criminalization of Aboriginal Harvesting: A Case Study Professor Lisa D. Weber, Indigenous Law Program, Faculty of Law, University of Alberta
Professor Cora Weber-Pillwax, First Nations Education, Faculty of Education, University of Alberta
About the Project
In recent years, issues relating to Aboriginal harvesting have received increased attention in Canadian media and the courts. Many Aboriginal persons, families and communities live under conditions of severe poverty. Such conditions often force people to rely on hunting, fishing and trapping as mans of subsistence. This reliance on resources that accrue from hunting, fishing and gathering activities are typically connected to social practices that include trading, sharing, and sales. Such activities and practices are viewed generally as being representative of the social context of Aboriginal peoples in Canada. Notwithstanding this reality, such "behaviour" often attracts the attention of law enforcement representatives, which many observers argue is an abuse of power. In addition, the criminalization of Aboriginal harvesting has affected the quality of life and the mental, physical and emotional well being of many Aboriginal peoples in the province of Alberta.
There is a lack of public and professional understanding and knowledge base on which to construct fair and just legal and social consideration of the issues that Aboriginal peoples face on a daily basis. As a result, the goal of this research is to gain a better understanding of the issues related to Aboriginal harvesting and to develop resolutions of these issues for Canadians. The subject of this project is the harvesting and usage of wildlife and other natural resources by Indigenous peoples and the legal categorization of criminality that has tended to accompany the practices and activities associated with harvesting and usage. About the Researchers
Lisa Weber is Director, Indigenous Law Program at the Faculty of Law, University of Alberta. In this position, she provides support services to students of Aboriginal ancestry who are attending law school at the Faculty of Law. She is also an adjunct professor with the School of Native Studies, University of Alberta, where she teaches courses in Aboriginal law. Lisa has extensive life and professional experience working with and for Aboriginal individuals, organizations, and governments. Prior to embarking on her legal career, her work was closely connected with the Alberta Metis groups. She has also worked for numerous Aboriginal groups throughout the Treaty 8 area of northern Alberta in various advisory and management capacities. Lisa's professional experience has included working with both First Nations and Metis communities to resolve outstanding Aboriginal rights issues. She has also been involved in key Aboriginal law cases, such as Benoit v. A.G. Canada and has been involved in the research and negotiation of specific claims brought by First Nations groups against Canada. She has also gained experience in the claims process through work with the Government of Canada. Lisa has lectured and written a number of articles and papers related to the Aboriginal rights of Metis people in Canada, including formal submissions to Canada in response to Gathering Strength, educational materials for the National Judicial Institute regarding Metis harvesting rights, and legal analyses of Aboriginal law jurisprudence. Lisa currently resides in Edmonton, Alberta. She has three children, Justin (18), Jenna (17), and Emilie (9).
Cora Weber-Pillwax is Assistant Professor in the First Nations Education Program, University of Alberta.
* * * * * * * Does Age Matter? - Studies of Issues The Law Commission of Canada is currently funding the following research: Transitions to Retirement. Age distinctions in law and policy that can affect transitions to retirement.
Morley Gunderson, Industrial Relations, University of Toronto
Rafael Gomez, London School of Economics Child Labour and Training Wages: Are BC's New Employment Standards Fair to Youth? The impact of lowering the starting age for work and the new training wage.
John Irwin, The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives
Marjorie Griffin Cohen, Political Science and Women's Studies, Simon Fraser University Study of the normative framework for participation and reflection provided to seniors and their families in decisions and approaches concerning treatment in institutions (management). The management of vulnerable seniors in the grey area between having capacity and being incapacitated, and whether these regulations reflect desirable values and the Quebec Charter.
Louise Lalonde, Faculty of Law, University of Sherbrooke
Georges Legault, Director of the Centre for Inter-university Research in Applied Ethics, University of Sherbrooke
Josée Grenier, Ph.D. Candidate, Humanities, University of Montréal The End of an Age: Equal Treatment for 'Mature' Minors Who Make Health Care Decisions. Multidisciplinary study of the diversity of minors' cognitive capabilities and psychosocial development.
Lucinda Fisher, S.J.D. Student, University of Toronto
* * * * * * * Does Age Matter? - Age Distinctions in Insurance The Law Commission of Canada, in partnership with the Insurance Bureau of Canada, is funding the following two studies: Correlation of age with driving behaviour. Aging and driving ability, risk classification of insurance, and public policy and automobile insurance.
Mary Kelly, School of Business and Economics, Wilfrid Laurier
Norma Nielson, Haskayne School of Business, University of Calgary
Kimberly Ellis-Hale, Sociology, Wilfrid Laurier The use of age as a pricing variable in life and pension/annuity industry from the actuarial, ethical and legal perspectives. Other potential pricing variables; a critical examination of classification ratemaking.
Robert L. Brown, Actuarial Science, University of Waterloo
Sally Gunz, Faculty of Law and Director, Centre for Accounting Ethics, University of Waterloo
Darren Charters, Faculty of Law, University of Waterloo | |
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