Minutes of the March 11th, 2003 conference call

The teleconference was chaired by Frédéric Pelletier and begun at 12:00, Montreal time.

The following members attended: Jane McDonald, Denis Lemay, Jennifer Jordan, Rick Leech, Ruth Rintoul, Martin Felsky and Daniel Poulin.

Diane Lutes, Edna Brewster, Diane Bourque, Carolle Piché-Burton and Suzan Baer were not available for this call.

The agenda for this meeting was as follows:
1- A new CCC member: Jane McDonald, from Carswell;
2- Implementation strategy for the next 12 months;
3- CCC’s role in the next CALL meeting;
4- Comments on the first version of the Word template by Irosoft.

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1- A new CCC member: Jane McDonald, from Carswell

The Committee welcomes a new member, Ms. Jane McDonald. She is based at Calgary as the manager of court liaison for Carswell. Her task consists mainly in facilitating the acquisition of judgments from various courts and tribunals.

Ms. McDonald will of course represent Carswell’s interest as a stakeholder, but also share what expertise she may bring to the CCC's works. She is very interested in helping the Committee implement the Guide.

2- Implementation strategy for the next 12 months

Daniel Poulin and Frédéric Pelletier proposed an implementation timeframe for the next 12 months, as reproduced in the hereafter attached schedule.

The Committee members agree with the strategy in general. It is understood that the mention of a possible “second version” of the Guide would not represent any modification of the standards themselves, but only a revision of the wording and a clarification of some concepts, merely to permanently fill the gaps revealed by the courts frequently asked questions.

In Quebec and Ontario, Denis Lemay adds that the Courts of appeal should be contacted in priority for the implementation of the Neutral citation standard.

In Quebec, Daniel Poulin informs the Committee that the technical problems with the judgments central repository may be the major cause of delay in the Neutral citation’s implementation. Regarding the Guide to uniform preparation, SOQUIJ deferred the implementation decision to the deputy minister, Louise Roy. In order to stress the importance of implementing of both standards in Quebec courts, Daniel Poulin proposes to meet with Ms. Roy along with representatives from Carswell (Yvon Blais) and Quicklaw. Denis Lemay offers to join the party as well.

In Ontario, Martin Felsky believes that the implementation of the Neutral citation will be a court question, and going first to the Court of Appeal is a good idea. The Committee agrees to try to get help from Justice Kiteley in this matter.

Martin also adds that the CJC must have a greater role in implementing its standards, besides providing funds to the CCC. Since improving technology usage by the judicial is an official priority of the CJC, we should coordinate our actions with the JTAC members. The Committee will prepare a report to initiate discussions at the next JTAC meeting, on May 9^th.

3- CCC’s role in the next CALL meeting

Daniel Poulin raises the possibility of obtaining an official endorsement of the Canadian Guide to the Uniform Preparation of Judgments by Canadian case law vendors at the next CALL meeting.

After some discussions about the means and opportunity of doing it, the Committee agrees that we should put forward a resolution reasserting that case law dissemination would benefit from the inclusion in the decision of the Neutral citation and other standardized data elements as described in the Guide. It is also agreed that the Committee should submit to the CALL a report on the current implementation status of both standards across Canada.

4- Comments on the first version of the Word template by Irosoft

Our sponsor Irosoft Inc. has submitted the first version of what would be a general Word template facilitating the implementation of the Guide. This document will be adaptable to each court that needs it in order to minimize the amount or information to fill.

The members are pleased with the general approach although the current template has to be improved in some respects. Frédéric Pelletier will meet with Irosoft to help them produce a better version to be circulated before the next Committee’s meeting or whenever possible.

Daniel Poulin informs the Committee that the agreement between the Committee and Irosoft is a sponsorship one. Irosoft will provide the template at no charge and their name will be associated with it. The document will be in the public domain and the code will be opened for modifications provided that the Irosoft name remains in it as the creators.

The issue of producing a WordPerfect version of the template has been discussed. Since WP expertise has become hard to find, the Committee may have to rely on the existing templates created by some courts. Rick Leech will ask Alberta courts to grant us permission to use their template as the basis of a more general one.

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The next meeting of the Committee will take place on Tuesday April 8^th at noon, Montreal time.

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