Once a month, Robeside Assistance will feature a resource that we purchase for the library that you might not know we have. Our collection is full of great books, databases, programs, and other materials, so definitely visit us in the library if you’d like to use anything mentioned here!
As we frequently remind researchers (and even ourselves), there’s no one complete source for case law. Neither Westlaw, Quicklaw, nor CanLII has everything. One supplemental product that we have at the library to address gaps in electronic versions of decisions is the Canadian Human Rights Reporter Online. This is the most complete source of human rights cases in Canada, featuring a database that goes back to the first edition of the reporter in 1980, and also includes many unreported decisions.
In addition to having the full text of decisions (and where available, the decision in either French or English as well as the original language), there is an note-up functionality built-in.
As you can see in the above example, Hendry v. Ontario is listed as being cited by 10 other decisions in the CHRR database. A pop-up window will let you review that list, and link through the to text of those decisions as well. The advanced search function is fairly simple and easy to use, allowing you to search by topic, specific tribunal type, and of course by year, jurisdiction, and any keywords or names you want to look for.
Unfortunately, due to licensing restrictions, access to this database is only available to one person at a time, so please see us at the library desk if you want to use this yourself. Alternatively, if you require any decisions from this service, you can always let us know, and we’ll send them over to you.