Sociology 4861: Family Law and Social Policy

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Sociology 48-61Family Law and Social Policy
Katharine Ball Librarian Leddy
Library kball_at_uwindsor.ca Tel. [phone] x3852
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Overview of session

• Will be focussing on
• some of the different players involved in social
  policy development such as interest groups,
  researchers, and especially government
• the types of information and documentation
  produced at the different stages and how to
  track it down

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The Issue We Will Use As An Example

• Child Custody and Access Arrangements
• After Separation and Divorce

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Government Sources

• The Legislative Process
• All bills normally go through a similar series of
  steps in both the Senate and the Commons
• First Reading
• Second Reading
• Committee Stage
• Report Stage
• Third Reading
• Message
• Royal Assent

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Parliament of Canada

• http//www.parl.gc.ca/common/index.asp
• Key Areas Committee Business, Chamber Business,
  Bills
• Tip Look at the menus on the left-hand side
  make sure you select the relevant
  Parliament/Session.

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Parliament of Canada

• Find the oral submission that the interest group
  Kids Need Both Parents made to the Special Joint
  Committee on Child Custody and Access
• What date and time was this witness heard?

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Department of Justice

• http//canada.justice.gc.ca/en/index.html
• Important to know which department is responsible
  for sponsoring the bill or administering the
  existing statute
• gt Great source for both official parliamentary
  documents and also for background research
• How can you find this out?
• Bill itself, journals/debates Table of Public
  Statutes and Responsible Ministers (see Laws)
  InfoSource Sources of Federal Government
  Information (http//www.infosource.gc.ca)

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Department of Justice

• Laws
• http//laws.justice.gc.ca/en/index.html
• Retrieve the consolidated version of the Divorce
  Act.
• How current is this consolidation?
• How might you go about checking for any changes
  to the Act since this date?

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Library of Parliament

• http//dsp-psd.pwgsc.gc.ca/Collection-R/LoPBdP/mat
  -e.html
• (access this site through the Library)
• librarians/researchers provide consulting
  services and write reports for individual MPs,
  committees, and for Parliament as a whole
• gtGreat source of information for issues before
  Parliament

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Parliament of Canada

• http//www.parl.gc.ca/common/index.asp?LanguageE
• So what happened? After the Committees report
  and the governments response, did the government
  bring in new legislation?

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Parliament of Canada

• http//www.parl.gc.ca/common/index.asp?LanguageE
• For Bill C-22 (37th Parliament, 2nd Session)
• 1. Look up the debate on the 2nd reading of the
  bill. Who opened the debate?
• 2. Did the Standing Committee on Justice and
  Human Rights ever discuss this bill? On what date?

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Newspaper Indexes

• So has anything happened recently on this issue?
• Check newspaper indexes, e.g. Canadian Newsstand,
  Factiva
• Look under Find Journal Articles and Research
  Tools,
• By Subject, then Newspapers
• In Canadian Newsstand, do an Advanced search in
  Citations and Abstracts
• child custody and divorce
• Limit to the last 12 months

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Searching the Web Google

• A couple of search tips may help
• Phrase searching using quotation marks
• Special Joint Committee on Child Custody and
  Access
• Fathers for Equality
• Ontario Womens Justice Network
• Limiting by domain name site
• Special Joint Committee on Child Custody and
  Access sitegc.ca
• - will limit to federal government sites
• child custody divorce sitegov.on.ca
• - will limit to Ontario government sites

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Searching Databases For Scholarly Journal Articles

• e.g. Scholars Portal
• Look under Find Journal Articles and Research
  Tools, then By Subject, then Sociology
  Anthropology. Select Scholars Portal
• Do an Advanced Search
• (divorce or separation) and (child custody or
  child access) and (canad or ontario)
• Search the Social Sciences databases and limit by
  date to 1995-2006.

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APA Style Citations and Bibliographies

• Look under Writing Help for a short APA style
  guide
• Use the Publication manual of the APA 2001. It is
  on Course reserve under call number BF76.7.P83
  2001. There is a section for electronic materials
  on p. 268-281
• See also the APA website (especially for
  electronic materials) http//www.apastyle.org/ele
  cref.html