Legislative Drafting

Date: June 4, 2026
Location: Online

OVERVIEW

This webinar will explore the evolving landscape of legislative drafting in the environmental context, highlighting how federal, provincial, and municipal jurisdictions navigate overlapping authorities and responsibilities. Presenters will identify recurring drafting challenges, and discuss best practices and mitigation strategies for responding.

Through real‑world examples and thematic discussion, attendees will leave with tools and perspectives to support drafting effective, adaptive, and principled environmental legislation.

SPEAKERS & MODERATOR

Speakers:

Moderator : 

CPD HOURS

Participation in this program is accredited in provinces where CLE requirements for lawyers are mandatory.

• Total: 1h
• No EDI hours

FEES

Webinar | Legislative Drafting and the Environment: From Backyards to Biomes

Date: September 16-18, 2024
Location: Ottawa & Online

OVERVIEW

CIAJ’s biennial Legislative Drafting Conference tackles the most important challenges in modern legislation.

This 22nd Edition (in-person and online) continues a long tradition of exploring the many facets of legislative drafting with a particular focus on the Canadian context. The 2024 conference will bring together practitioners and academics to discuss various aspects of the work of preparing legislative texts. The conference will address a broad range of topics including practical challenges drafters face in their work, developments in statutory interpretation and questions of diversity and inclusion in statutes. The 2024 conference will also pay tribute to the late Ruth Sullivan who had a profound influence on the field of legislative drafting.

PROGRAM

GUEST SPEAKERS

Guest of Honor

The Honourable Justice David W. Stratas, from the Federal Court of Appeal, will be present at the reception at the Supreme Court of Canada, which will take place at the end of the first day (Monday, September 16, 2024).

The Honourable Justice David W. Stratas, Federal Court of Appeal LL.B. (Queen’s University, 1984); B.C.L. (Oxford University, 1986); LL.D. (Queen’s University, 2012, honoris causa). Born in Toronto, Ontario. Law clerk to Justice Bertha Wilson of the Supreme Court of Canada (1986-1987). Called to the Bar of Ontario (1988). Litigation partner in firms in Toronto, Ontario. Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers (2008). Appointed Special Advocate by the Minister of Justice (2008). Adjunct member, Faculty of Law, Queen's University (1994 to the present), winning multiple faculty teaching awards. Instructor and presenter at over 60 judicial education sessions across Canada, most frequently in the area of administrative law. Author of over 200 articles or conference papers on various legal topics, particularly in the areas of administrative law, constitutional law, and legal writing. Appointed Judge of the Federal Court of Appeal, and a member ex officio of the Federal Court on December 11, 2009. Appointed Judge of the Court Martial Appeal Court of Canada, May 3, 2012. Acting Chief Justice from July to November 2023.

CPD Hours: 

• Total: 11h30

For provinces where professional hours apply:

• Total: 10h
• EDI hours: 1h30

Participation in this program is accredited in provinces where CLE requirements for lawyers are mandatory.

FEES

Per Day:

• CIAJ Members: $200
• Non-Members: $275
• Students: $25

Full Conference:

• CIAJ Members: $475
• Non-Members: $625
• Students: $75

Legislative Drafting Conference (2024 Edition)

Date

Tuesday, November 26, 2024

OVERVIEW

Legislative drafting is viewed as a specialized area of law that requires particular education, skills and experience. A legislative drafter’s legal opinion is that the text will have a certain legal effect when the relevant interpretative provisions are considered. To this end, professional legislative drafters follow specific drafting conventions, styles and practices.

However, drafting conventions are not well known by legal professionals outside of the specialized drafting community, nor are they commonly referenced by parties in court or in judicial reasons. This raises questions regarding their value in the statutory interpretation exercise, and what more could be done to increase familiarity with drafting conventions to those outside the professional legislative drafter community.

Further, principles of statutory interpretation have developed with reference to the way that drafters and drafting offices operate; however, contemporary realities may call reliance on some of these principles into question.

In this webinar, professionals from three branches of government discuss the theory and realities of drafting and statutory interpretation, and provide recommendations regarding how they can be better reconciled.

Panelists:

• Gabriela Dedelli, Parliamentary Counsel, Legislative Assembly of Ontario
• The Hounourable Justice Gareth Morley, Judge of the Supreme Court of British Columbia in Victoria
• Christina Wasyliw, Deputy Legislative Counsel & General Counsel, MB Justice

Moderator: Jaimie Graham, Legal Counsel, Alberta Utilities Commission

RESOURCE: Legislative Drafting in Statutory Interpretation: A Plea for Recognition – Gabriela Dedelli

Fees
CIAJ Members: $40
Non-members: $55

Webinar | The (Dis)Connect between Legislative Drafting and Statutory Interpretation: Perspectives from Three Branches of Government

Date

Thursday, November 9, 2023

90-minute webinar

This program contains 1.5 CPD hours in all Canadian provinces

Theme

In this webinar, OKT Partner Maggie Wente and Professors Naiomi Metallic and Sarah Morales will explore the theory and practice of legislating Indigenous laws. The discussion will examine how linguistic diversity and meta-principles can be incorporated into legislation, as well as the use of oral stories and Indigenous languages in legislative development. Panellists will also recount their own experiences assisting Indigenous nations who are drafting legislation, with a focus on child welfare laws under An Act respecting First Nations, Inuit and Métis children, youth and families and the lessons learned.

Speakers

• Naiomi W. Metallic, Associate Professor, Schulich School of Law, Dalhousie University
• Sarah Morales, Associate Professor, Faculty of Law, University of Victoria
• Maggie Wente, Partner, Olthuis Kleer Townshend LLP

Fees
CIAJ Members: Free
Non-members: $45

2023  I  Legislative Drafting Webinar on The Power of Languages and Stories in Drafting Indigenous Laws

Date

Wednesday, November 16, 2022

90-minute webinar

This program contains 1.5 CPD hours in all Canadian provinces

Theme

What can we learn from histories of legislative drafting about the many ways that drafters shape the world? In this highly engaging presentation, Lara Tessaro will narrate the dramatic history of the 1953 revision to Canada’s Food and Drugs Act, focusing specifically on how legislative drafters and departmental solicitors grappled with cosmetics. Her historical research on Canadian cosmetics regulation has uncovered how these drafting and policy choices made 70 years ago continue to influence—if unintentionally and accidentally—how cosmetics are governed today, including their environmental and human health effects. As with much of Ms. Tessaro’s PhD research at the University of Kent, the central source for this historical account is a drafter’s file—notably, the file of well-known legislative counsel Elmer A. Driedger. As such, this presentation will also provide an opportunity for legislative counsel to reflect on the ways that modern-day filing, documenting, and archiving practices, all changing rapidly in response to electronic and remote work, will give form to important “future histories” written about the present.

Speaker

• Lara Tessaro, PhD Candidate & Graduate Teaching Assistant, Kent Law School, University of Kent

Lara Tessaro is a socio-legal researcher and historian of law, gender, and toxicity in twentieth-century Canada. Currently, she is pursuing a PhD in law at the University of Kent in the United Kingdom, funded by a Vice Chancellor’s research scholarship and a SSHRC doctoral fellowship. Her thesis explores histories of Canadian cosmetic regulation, with particular focus on the legal practices, ideas, and events that have given shape to cosmetic product labelling. In 2018, she attained a research-based LL.M. degree from Osgoode Hall Law School, which nominated her thesis for the York University thesis prize. From 2004 to 2017, Lara practiced law in BC and Ontario, primarily in environmental and administrative law. For much of that period, she worked as a staff counsel at Ecojustice Canada (formerly Sierra Legal Defence Fund), where she developed and advanced test case litigation on behalf of environmental organizations, First Nations, and scientists. She has also served as junior commission counsel to two federal public inquiries, the Commission of Inquiry into the Actions of Canadian Officials in Relation to Maher Arar (the Arar Inquiry), and the Commission of Inquiry into the Decline of Sockeye Salmon in the Fraser River (the Cohen Inquiry).

Moderator

• Pauline Rosenbaum, Legislative Counsel, Ontario’s Office of Legislative Counsel

Pauline attended law school at the University of Toronto and articled as a judicial research clerk at the Ontario Superior Court of Justice. She joined Ontario’s Office of Legislative Counsel in 2010. Before joining OLC, Pauline worked as counsel at the Ontario Human Rights Commission, at the Office of the Chief Justice of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice and at a speciality legal aid clinic serving low-income seniors. Pauline also has experience working in the heath regulatory sector at the Ontario College of Pharmacists and the Royal College of Dental Surgeons of Ontario.

Fees
CIAJ Members: Free
Non-members: $40

2022  I  Legislative Drafting Webinar on Cosmetics Regulation and Product Labelling in Canada: The Challenges

Date (Online & In Person in Ottawa)

September 8-9, 2022

Program accredited in provinces where CLE requirements for lawyers are mandatory.

Theme

The 21^st Legislative Drafting Conference fixes its gaze on the topic of change and the challenges it produces for legislative drafting. It looks at the changing environment in which legislative counsel work, the resulting changes to their roles and the way they perform them.

Change and its challenges are not new to legislative drafting. Although the COVID-19 pandemic is perhaps the most significant recent example of change affecting legislative drafting, the political, social, economic and technological environment for legislative drafting have produced changes affecting legislative drafting throughout its history.

The conference begins with this historical lens and then turns to examine the shifting role of legislative counsel resulting from current environmental factors, including client expectations, the political world and the policy issues that drive legislative agendas. These factors will be considered in terms of how they can be managed and their ethical implications. The conference will particularly address changing working conditions (working remotely and virtual meetings) and generational change (recruitment and training of legislative counsel).

One of the most significant continuing policy challenges for legislative drafting is reconciliation with Indigenous peoples. Legislation is the principal vehicle for recognizing and implementing the rights of Indigenous Peoples and their legal traditions. The conference will consider recently enacted legislation to implement the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and its implications for drafting legislation to respect these rights. Not since the enactment of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms in 1982 has there been such a significant change in the Canadian legal landscape affecting the preparation of legislation. One session will consider the implications of the UN Declaration generally and a second session will focus on its implications in the field of family law.

Finally, the conference will include a practical drafting workshop on preparing amending legislation or legislation based on existing legislation. The workshop will look at the scope for making drafting improvements and dealing with arguments against changing existing legislative texts.

Planning Committee

Chair

• John Mark Keyes

Members

• Pamela Louise Anderson
• Catherine Beaudoin
• Elena Bosi
• Nathalie Caron
• Charlie Feldman
• Melanie Samson
• Alexandra Schorah
• Mark Spakowski
• Lerissa Thaver
• Scott Webber

Fees

Per Day:
CIAJ Members: $200
Non-members: $275
Students (enrolled full-time at Canadian universities): $25

Related PowerPoint presentations and papers are available in the library under "documentation."

2022 I 2022 Legislative Drafting Conference (21^st Edition)

Date
The first episode of this series was webcast on May 17, 2021 and the second one on June 7, 2021.

List of webinars (scroll down to access the videos)

• Episode 1, May 17, 2021: Artificial Intelligence in Administrative Decision-Making (1 hour 20 minutes CPD)
  With Professor Paul Daly, Chair in Administrative Law and Governance, University of Ottawa; Patrick McEvenue, Director – Express Entry & Digital Policy, Strategic Policy and Planning, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada; Michelle Mann, General Counsel, Legal Services, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, Government of Canada
  
  
• Episode 2, June 7, 2021: Legislative Drafting in Time of Pandemic (1 hour 30 minutes CPD)
  With Glenn Joynt, Legislative Counsel and Assistant Deputy Minister, Legislative Counsel Division, Manitoba Justice; Riri Shen, Deputy Assistant Deputy Minister, Public Law and Legislative Services Sector, Department of Justice Canada; Mark Spakowski, Chief Legislative Counsel, Ministry of the Attorney General, Ontario

Date

Online program in 4 parts of 3 hours each, on September 10-18-24 and October 1, 2020.

Program accredited in provinces where CLE requirements for lawyers are mandatory. 

***Some technical problems occurred during the live broadcasts. The video prices have been revised accordingly***

Scroll down to see the videos

• Part 1, September 10, 2020 (2:32:56): Post-Modern Law (Jump to 00:18:50 for the beginning of the Conference)
  - From 00:18:50: Keynote Address: Machine-Made Law –The Next Step in AI? 
  With Professor Gillian Hadfield
  - Law as Code: Drafting Laws to Facilitate the Automated Delivery of Law
  With Jason Morris, Scott McNaughton, Marek Bilinski (Technical issues, incomplete session), Jennifer Dufresne and Charles Duperreault
  
  
• Part 2a, September 18, 2020 (2:14:01): Legislative Drafting 
  - Gender Inclusivity in Legal Discourse
  With Louise Langevin, Kyle Kirkup (In French Only)
  Part 2b, September 18, 2020 (00:38:32)
  - Gender Inclusivity in Legal Discourse
  With Peter Birt (Original presentation in English)
  
  
• Part 3, September 24, 2020 (1:48:51): Legislative Interpretation
  - From 00:10:27: Legislative Interpretation: Interpretative Presumptions / Deeming Provisions / Transitional Provisions
  With France Allard and Sylvie Parent
  
  
• Part 4, October 1, 2020 (2:40:07): Regulatory Matters
  - Post-Modern Regulation: Keeping up With a Changing World
  With Patricia Pledge and Claude Lesage
  - Regulation-Making Powers: Balancing Parliamentary Sovereignty Regulatory Flexibility and Judicial Review
  With Lorne Neudorf, Lerissa Thaver and Ajay Ramkumar

Related PowerPoint presentations and papers are available in the library under "documentation."

Date
The first episode of this series was webcast on February 19, 2020

List of webinars (scroll down to access the videos)

• Episode 1, February 19, 2020: Vavilov: Impact on Legislative Drafting (75 minutes CPD)
  With Professor Paul Daly, Chair in Administrative Law and Governance, University of Ottawa. Moderator: Professor John Mark Keyes, University of Ottawa
  
  
• Episode 2, June 17, 2020: Judicial Review of Delegated Legislation: The Long and Winding Road to Vavilov (90 minutes CPD)
  With Professor John Mark Keyes, Faculty of Law – Common Law Section, University of Ottawa. Moderator: Professor Mistrale Goudreau, Civil Law Section University of Ottawa

Date

Le mercredi 20 mars 2019

Ce webinaire de 90 minutes est parrainé par le programme de diplôme post-baccalauréat en rédaction législative de l’Université Athabasca.

Thème

Les légistes suivent des consignes standardisées pour la rédaction de textes législatifs et réglementaires. Dans ce webinaire, nous verrons comment de tels standards peuvent faciliter l’extraction d’informations fondée sur des règles. En s’appuyant sur une étude de cas portant sur la réforme de la réglementation, le professeur Alschner expliquera comment appliquer les règles issues de la rédaction législative pour mesurer automatiquement la prescriptivité (un concept relatif concernant les commandements par rapport aux autorisations) des règlements fédéraux canadiens. La prescriptivité a été mesurée en comptant les termes associés à la signalisation dans un corpus de 2 300 règlements canadiens. Les résultats obtenus sont significatifs quant aux caractéristiques des textes réglementaires pouvant être pertinentes pour l’élaboration de politiques. Ces résultats offrent des paramètres de base en vue d’effectuer une réforme de la réglementation. Ils attirent notre attention sur la valeur des analyses faites à partir de règles tirées de la rédaction législative. Le professeur Alschner présentera également un prototype de logiciel qui facilite l’examen des règlements en aidant les autorités à distinguer une « bonne » réglementation d’une « mauvaise » réglementation devant être modifiée ou abrogée.

Conférencier

Le professeur Wolfgang Alschner, Faculté de droit – Section de droit civil, Université d’Ottawa

Wolfgang Alschner est un spécialiste du droit économique international et de l’analyse computationnelle du droit. Il enseigne à la Section de Common Law de la Faculté de droit de l’Université d’Ottawa, de même qu’à l’École de science informatique et de génie électrique de la Faculté de génie. Il fait partie des chercheurs du Centre de recherche en droit, technologie et société de la même université. Avant de se joindre à l’Université d’Ottawa, Me Alschner a travaillé à titre de chercheur indépendant pour la Section sur les accords internationaux d’investissement de la CNUCED pendant plusieurs années. Il a aussi été chercheur invité à l’Institut de hautes études de Genève ainsi qu’au World Trade Institute à Berne, en Suisse. Me Alschner est titulaire d’un doctorat en droit international de l’Institut de hautes études internationales et du développement de Genève, d’une maîtrise de la Stanford Law School, d’une maîtrise en affaires internationales de l’Institut de hautes études, de même que d’un LL.B. de l’University of London et d’un baccalauréat en relations internationales de l’Université de Dresde, en Allemagne.
Modératrice: La professeure Mistrale Goudreau, Faculté de droit – Section de droit civil, Université d’Ottawa

Date

Monday, March 11, 2019

Sponsored by the Post-Baccalaureate Diploma in Legislative Drafting program at Athabasca University. 

Theme

Legislative drafters follow formalized conventions when crafting statutory and regulatory texts. Professor Wolfgang Alschner will explore how such conventions can facilitate rules-based information extraction. Using regulatory reform as a case study, he will show how to apply rules derived from legislative drafting to automatically measure prescriptivity—a relative concept of commands in relation to permissions—in federal Canadian regulations. We measured prescriptivity by counting associated signaling terms across a corpus of 2,300 Canadian regulations. The resulting prescriptivity scores meaningfully describe policy-relevant characteristics of regulatory texts. These scores provide a basic metric to inform regulatory reform and highlight the value of rules-based analytics derived from legislative drafting conventions. Professor Alschner will also discuss how to facilitate the review of regulations using a software prototype that helps regulators to tell a “good” regulation worth preserving from a “bad” one in need of amendment or repeal.

Speaker

Professor Wolfgang Alschner, Faculty of Law – Common Law Section, University of Ottawa

Wolfgang Alschner is an empirical legal scholar specialized in international economic law and the computational analysis of law. He is a permanent faculty member of the Common Law Section with cross-appointment to the Faculty of Engineering, School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. He is also a faculty member of the Centre for Law, Technology and Society at the University of Ottawa. Wolfgang holds a PhD in International Law from the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva, a Master of Law from Stanford Law School, a Master in International Affairs from the Graduate Institute as well as an LLB from the University of London and a BA in International Relations from the University of Dresden, Germany.

Moderator: Professor John Mark Keyes, Faculty of Law – Common Law Section, University of Ottawa

Date

Wednesday, May 23, 2018

This program contains 1.5 CPD hours in all Canadian provinces.  Sponsored by the post-baccalaureate diploma program in legislative drafting at Athabasca University. 

Theme 

Au Canada, le principe moderne de Driedger a été déclaré « la méthode d’interprétation législative privilégiée » par la Cour suprême du Canada, mais certains auteurs notent un manque de cohérence des tribunaux dans l’utilisation de ce principe, notamment une alternance déroutante dans leurs décisions entre textualisme et intentionalisme. La thèse selon laquelle l’intention du législateur est en fait un construit juridique permet peut-être de sortir de ce malaise conceptuel, ce qui fera l’objet de cette présentation.

Speaker

Professor Mistrale Goudreau
Faculty of Law – Civil Law Section | University of Ottawa

Date

Wednesday, September 13, 2018
Thursday, September 14, 2018

Theme

The 2018 bi-annual Legislative Drafting Conference will tackle one of the most pervasive challenges in modern legislation: complexity, beginning with its principal drivers in public policy. Why does our world generate legislative complexity? And how can legislation address this complexity intelligibly, coherently and effectively?

Conference sessions will also focus on examples of today’s complexity challenges in international trading relationships, cannabis de-criminalization and the interaction of state law with indigenous legal traditions. Other sessions will focus on pragmatic drafting solutions to particular facets of these challenges, such as interjurisdictional coherence, resolving policy blockages, drafting for clients with limited policy-resources and achieving legislative coherence over time. The conference will include a wide range of speakers from Canada, the UK and beyond.

Planning committee

Co-Chairs 

• Annette M. Boucher
• John Mark Keyes

Members

• Richard Denis
• Janet Erasmus
• Wendy Gordon
• Laura Hopkins
• Hoi Kong
• Jacqueline Kuehl
• Sandra Markman
• Eric Milligan
• Melanie Mortensen
• Peter J. Pagano
• Isabelle Parrot
• Mark Spakowski

Date

Wednesday, February 1, 2017

This program is offered by an accredited provider of professionalism content and is eligible for up to 1.5 Substantive Hours. Sponsored by the post-baccalaureate diploma program in legislative drafting at Athabasca University.

Theme

Administrative forms may seem trivial, but they are essential to many operations of government. Forms are often a key means of communication between the public and public officials; they enable access to government services and they structure flows of information in both directions. But what is a form? What are legislators actually doing when they require one? Who should establish forms, and how much tolerance for deviations should there be? This webinar will address these and related issues from the perspective of the legislative drafter and adviser.

Speaker

The webinar will be conducted by Lawrence Purdy, an experienced drafter at both the national and subnational levels. The presentation is based on one Lawrence gave last August in Halifax at the Joint Conference of the Canadian Associations of Parliamentary and Legislative Counsel.

Date

Tuesday, November 14, 2017 & Wednesday, November 15, 2017

This program contains 1.5 CPD hours in all Canadian provinces.  Sponsored by the post-baccalaureate diploma program in legislative drafting at Athabasca University. 

Theme

Legislation usually consists of words written in accordance with the linguistic conventions of a particular natural language such as English or French. But if you look closely, you will see that it sometimes has features derived from mathematics rather than natural languages. In this webinar, Nicky Armstrong, an experienced Australasian legislative counsel now working in New Zealand, will take you through the various ways mathematical symbols and calculations crop up in legislation and how they can be used effectively to convey complex ideas.

Speaker

Ms. Nicky Armstrong, Parliamentary Counsel, New Zealand

Ms. Nicky Armstrong graduated from the University of Western Australia with a BJuris (Hons) (1988) and LLB (1989) and was admitted to practice in Western Australia in 1991. After graduating, she worked in one of Australia’s largest commercial law firms for 5 years before joining the Western Australian Parliamentary Counsel’s Office as a drafter. Nicky worked there for 15 years before moving to the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel in Australia’s Northern Territory in 2010. In 2015, she moved to New Zealand to take up her current role as a parliamentary counsel at the NZ Parliamentary Counsel Office.

Date

Thursday, February 25, 2016

Theme

Interpretation Acts are the lynch-pins of the statute book. They establish its structure and organizational principles. They define fundamental concepts that constantly recur in legislation. Lord Thring, the first First Parliamentary Counsel, said "It is the duty of every draftsman to know it by heart and to bear its definitions in mind in every bill which he draws."

This Webinar will consider Interpretation Acts, including the revised Model Interpretation Act recently adopted by the Uniform Law Conference of Canada. It will also consider Interpretation Acts from an Australian perspective. 

The Webinar will be led by two of the most experienced legislative counsel in the Commonwealth: Peter Pagano, the Chief Legislative Counsel of Alberta, and Eamonn Moran, Commissioner of the Victorian Law Reform Commission and formerly the Chief Parliamentary Counsel of Victoria (Australia) and the Law Draftsman of Hong Kong.

Date

Monday, September 12, 2016
Tuesday, September 13, 2016

Theme

The theme of the conference is the "new legislative counsel". It will begin by considering new political realities that have altered not only the policy content of legislation, but also the way it is developed and prepared, and indeed its political significance as a tool of government. Consideration will also be given to how the media and communications now affect the preparation and enactment of legislation.

The conference will then turn to the role of legislative counsel and how they can equip themselves to work in this new environment. It will include practical sessions focusing on the use of legislative precedents and technological innovations in drafting.

Topics include:

• Political Perspectives
• Communications Perspectives
• The Pull of Precedent
• The Roles of Legislative Counsel
• Technology and Drafting

Planning committee

• Ms. Annette Boucher
• Mr. Jean-François Couture
• Mr. Richard Denis
• Mr. Philippe Dufresne
• Ms. Janet Erasmus, Q.C.
• Mr. Philippe Hallée
• Ms. Laura Hopkins
• Mr. John Mark Keyes
• Ms. Barbara Kincaid
• Mr. Hoi Kong
• Ms. Melanie Mortensen
• Ms. Pamela Muir
• Mr. Peter Pagano, Q.C.
• Mr. Michel Patrice
• Mr. Mark Spakowski

Date

Tuesday, March 10, 2015

Theme

Much legislation still mandates or contemplates the use of written material and processes that require paper documents.  The implementation of the UNCITRAL Model Law on Electronic Commerce through Electronic Transactions Acts in many jurisdictions has permitted the use of electronic technologies as an alternative to paper.  While legislation of this kind may be useful in the context of commercial transactions, it may not always clearly apply where government processes are involved.

This presentation will explore the problem of drafting legislation to allow for both paper and electronic processes, particularly in the governmental context. The key questions covered include:

• to what extent does the use in legislation of many apparently paper-centric terms (such as document, written, signature, sealed and certified) inhibit the implementation and use of electronic technologies?
• what role can interpretation legislation and Electronic Transactions Acts play?
• can judges, through the application of statutory interpretation principles, help?
• is it possible to future-proof legislation to cater for ongoing developments in electronic technologies?

Date

Tuesday, March 17, 2015

Theme

Les textes législatifs traitent constamment des documents et des moyens de communication numériques ayant des incidences juridiques, ce qui pose des grands défis rédactionnels dans un monde de changement technologique. Dans ce contexte, on parle souvent de neutralité technologique.

Or, comme l’avance la Cour fédérale d’appel dans la décision Société Radio-Canada c. Sodrac 2003 Inc. (2014 CAF 84), présentement en appel devant la Cour suprême du Canada, le principe de neutralité technologique peut être compris de différentes façons. Il peut s’agir d’une « neutralité de support » c’est-à-dire d’une règle selon laquelle la valeur d’un document ne dépend pas de son support (papier ou électronique). On peut aussi y voir une notion d’ « équivalence fonctionnelle »; le droit doit régir de la même façon les situations analogues, peu importe la technologie en cause. Enfin pour certains, et on trouve dans la jurisprudence de la Cour suprême des déclarations en ce sens, la règle de la neutralité technologique serait un principe d’interprétation beaucoup plus large, voulant que les lois s’appliquent uniformément, malgré la diversité technologique.

La présentation passera en revue ces différentes approches, fera une récapitulation des principales décisions où la Cour suprême du Canada a expressément fait référence à ce principe et présentera quelques-unes des difficultés que ces développements pourraient entraîner.

Date

Monday, September 8, 2014
Tuesday, September 9, 2014

Theme

This conference is organized by the CIAJ Legislative Drafting Committee chaired by John Mark Keyes, former Chief Legislative Counsel of Canada. The conference will address a variety of current issues relating to the use and making of regulatory instruments. It will begin by considering how the concept of “nudging” is changing the regulatory landscape by focusing on prompting behavioural changes rather than dictating conduct through legally binding rules. The conference will also look at many important and developing facets of regulatory instruments, including public engagement in regulatory development, drafting questions, incorporation by reference of standards, public access to legislation and parliamentary review of regulation-making. An update on recent case law relating to regulatory instruments will also be provided as well as an address by Mr. Justice Cromwell of the Supreme Court of Canada on Access to Law.

Planning committee

• John Mark Keyes (Chair)
• Mark Audcent
• Jean-François Couture
• Richard Denis
• Janet Erasmus, Q.C.
• Philippe Hallée
• Laura Hopkins
• Barbara Kincaid
• Professor Hoi Kong
• Pamela Muir
• Peter Pagano, Q.C.
• Kimberly Poffenroth
• Mark Spakowski

Date

Friday, November 15, 2013

Theme

Webinar on Legislative Drafting sponsored by the Post-Baccalaureate Diploma Program in Legislative Drafting at Athabasca University.

This 2-hour presentation will address practical issues in legislative drafting, based on the “Master Class” session of the 2013 Commonwealth Association of Legislative Counsel conference held April, 2013 in Cape Town, South Africa.

In the CALC master classes, senior drafters from around the Commonwealth participate in a drafting challenge where all participants are provided with the same set of instructions and directed to prepare the required legislation as if it were for their own jurisdiction. The usual results provide a fine demonstration of how different drafters using the same instructions can produce remarkably different but effective drafts.

This year Janet Erasmus, Senior Legislative Counsel with the British Columbia Office of Legislative Counsel, was a master class participant who took a different approach to the challenge. Her draft was not prepared to produce a perfect draft from the instructions, rather it was prepared to demonstrate drafting techniques she uses to invite effective instructions from the instructing officials. In Cape Town, the time for presentation was very short. In this CIAJ/ICAJ webinar, she will talk in more depth about those invitation techniques (both substantive and visual), as well as the readability techniques and other techniques she used in preparing the master class draft.

Date

Monday, September 10, 2012
Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Theme

This conference is organized by the CIAJ Legislative Drafting Committee co-chaired by Ms. Judith Keating, Q.C., Deputy Minister of Justice and Attorney General of New Brunswick and John Mark Keyes, Chief Legislative Counsel of Canada. The conference will examine the general structure of legislative systems, including the interplay of different forms of legislation with other regulatory instruments as well as regulatory reform and legislative revision. It will also include updates on recent case law on legislative matters,the impact of international accessibility standards on the publication of legislation and workshops on practical aspects such as ethical issues for legislative counsel and drafting provisions authorizing the making of delegated legislation or governing the commencement of legislation.

Planning committee

• Judith Keating, QC (Chair)
• Mark Audcent
• Pierre Charbonneau
• Richard Denis
• Janet Erasmus, QC
• Philippe Hallée
• Laura Hopkins
• John Mark Keyes
• Barbara Kincaid
• Peter Pagano, QC
• Michel Patrice
• Mark Spakowski

Date

Monday, September 13, 2010
Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Theme

This conference is organized by the CIAJ Legislative Drafting Committee chaired by Ms Judith Keating, Q.C., the Chief Legislative Counsel of New Brunswick. It will focus on how the evolving legal concepts of a diverse community are redefining legislative drafting. Those entrusted with preparing draft legislation bring specialized knowledge and understanding to their creation.  In response to a growing environment, they are further called upon to integrate the new and broader concepts of an evolving global community.

Within that context, particular topics will examine the value and contributions of the legislative drafter to the intricate fabric of legislation; the professional and ethical dimensions of the drafter within a modern, complex work environment; the evolving legal, cultural and language issues that must be considered and integrated into legislation and how they are redefining the way we draft. The conference will also include workshops dealing with practical drafting issues as they relate to English, French and Aboriginal languages.

Conference participants can expect to come away with a better understanding of how legislation is being redefined in broad terms to adapt to an ever changing environment and how the drafting profession is responding to re-imaging of the law.

Planning committee

• Judith Keating, Q.C.(chair), Chief Legislative Counsel of New Brunswick, Fredericton, NB
• Mark Aitken, Director, Northwest Territories Legislation Division, Yellowknife, NT
• Mark Audcent, Law Clerk and Parliamentary Counsel, Senate of Canada, Ottawa, ON
• Pierre Charbonneau, Senior Legislative Counsel, Department of Justice of Quebec, Quebec City, QC
• Richard Denis, Law Clerk and Parliamentary Counsel, House of Commons, Ottawa, ON
• Janet Erasmus, Chief Legislative Counsel of British Columbia, Victoria, BC
• Philippe Hallée, Deputy Chief Legislative Counsel, Department of Justice Canada, Ottawa, ON
• Laura Hopkins, Legislative Counsel, Office of Legislative Counsel (Ontario), Toronto, ON
• John Mark Keyes, Chief Legislative Counsel of Canada, Department of Justice Canada, Ottawa, ON
• Barbara Kincaid, General Counsel, Supreme Court of Canada, Ottawa, ON
• Naiomi Metallic, Associate, Burchells LLP, Halifax, NS
• Peter Pagano, Q.C., Chief Legislative Counsel, Department of Justice Alberta, Edmonton, AB
• Rob Walsh, Law Clerk and Parliamentary Counsel, House of Commons, Ottawa, ON

Date

Thursday, September 11, 2008
Friday, September 12, 2008

Theme

This conference organized by the CIAJ Legislative Drafting Committee, chaired by Mr. John Mark Keyes, Chief Legislative Counsel of Canada, will focus on the intersecting roles of those involved in determining the wording of legislative texts (statutes and regulations). This group most obviously includes legislative drafters whose task is to turn drafting instructions into text. But it also includes those responsible for developing drafting instructions and their underlying policy, whether acting within government or parliamentary institutions as policy officials or legal advisers, or outside these institutions on behalf of interest groups. Draft texts are also often further processed by yet another constituency that includes translators, editors, jurilinguists and bijuralists. Finally, parliamentarians and subordinate legislative authorities are involved in writing, reviewing, amending and adopting draft texts that are presented to them.

The multiplicity of participants in law-making processes poses the question that forms the title of the conference: who really writes the law? What are the distinctive roles of these participants? Are there overlaps or conflicts? Are these roles evolving in response to changes in the political culture or environment for law-making? The conference speakers will consider these questions and more. Conference participants can expect to come away with a better understanding of the legislative landscape and, if not a definitive answer to the main question, at least a point of view.

Planning Committee

• John Mark Keyes, (Chair) Chief Legislative Counsel of Canada, Department of Justice Canada, Ottawa, ON
• France Allard, General Counsel, Manager and Comparative Law Specialist, Department of Justice Canada, Ottawa, ON
• Mark Audcent, Law Clerk and Parliamentary Counsel, Senate of Canada, Ottawa, ON
• Pierre Charbonneau, Senior Legislative Counsel, Department of Justice of Quebec, Quebec City, QC
• Richard Denis, Law Clerk and Parliamentary Counsel, House of Commons, Ottawa, ON
• Janet Erasmus, Chief Legislative Counsel of British Columbia, Victoria, BC
• Nicole Fernbach, President, Juricom, Montreal, QC
• Philippe Hallée, Deputy Chief Legislative Counsel, Department of Justice Canada, Ottawa, ON
• Laura Hopkins, Legislative Counsel, Office of Legislative Counsel (Ontario), Toronto, ON
• Judith Keating, Q.C., Chief Legislative Counsel of New Brunswick, Fredericton, NB
• Barbara Kincaid, General Counsel, Supreme Court of Canada, Ottawa, ON
• Peter Pagano, Q.C., Chief Legislative Counsel, Department of Justice Alberta, Edmonton, AB
• Donald Revell, Legal Drafting Consultant, former Chief Legislative Counsel of Ontario, Toronto, ON
• Rob Walsh, Law Clerk and Parliamentary Counsel, House of Commons, Ottawa, ON