The Agreement renewing the Law Commission of Ontario has now been signed by representatives of all the funders and law deans and we are well underway with our "second mandate".
First, though, expect to see a flood of interim and final reports as we complete the outstanding first mandate projects. Coming up first will be the interim report in the project developing a framework for the law as it affects persons with disabilities at the end of March - we'll be looking for feedback. The final report in the project developing a framework for the law as it affects older adults will be released at the end of June. We've heard from the project's Advisory Group members that it is breaking new gound. Look for the interim report in the vulnerable workers project at the beginning of July (feedback not due until mid-September) and the final report in the family project in mid-October (please send feedback on the interim report in the family project until the end of April). You can expect to see the final report in the project relating to persons with disabilities in September. It's unlikely, however, that we'll be able to release the final report in the vulnerable workers project until February 2013.
As I mentioned previously in an end of year blog in December 2011, we'll be beginning a new project in capacity and guardianship. This is a "second generation" project, arising out of the two framework projects relating to older adults and persons with disabilities. These projects do not deal with substantive law, but with principles to govern the development of law and policy; the new project on capacity and guardianship will address the law in those areas and in doing so, will take into account the similar and different experiences of older adults and persons with disabilities for whom capacity may be an issue. We'll be creating an advisory group early on in the project and one of our summer students will begin to undertake research in the area. Lauren Bates, who has excelled as head of both the framework projects, will head the new project. We're pleased to be building on knowledge we've gained and relationships we've developed with the framework projects, and of course will be enhancing both as we progress through this new project.
We're also understaking a very different type of project, a review of the (apparently) outdated Forestry Workers Lien for Wages Act, legislation that applies only to the Thunder Bay area. We'll be searching out advice in this area, too.
There'll be more new projects as we move along. If you have an idea for a project - just let us know in a couple of pages what the subject for reform is, why it needs reforming and why the LCO is the right body to undertake its review.
We've created two new bodies: a Community Council and a Law School Research and Liaison Group. The Community Council is intended to help us extend our community reach, as a general matter and for project consultations. I wrote about the first meeting in a January 26, 2012 blog. I'm looking forward to working with its members again soon. The Law School Group is meant to have reps from all the law schools (one to come) and we're scheduling a first meeting soon. I anticipate that the members will be a great help in finding faculty members who can prepare research papers for our projects, in giving feedback on project possibilties and in enhancing the relationships with the law schools.
We have a revised Strategic Plan to cover the period January 2012 to December 2016. The Board has now approved formal policies for Accessibility and for Use of Information, Privacy and Confidentiality (soon to be posted on the LCO website). We'll be reviewing other existing policies over the next few months.
