Canadian Government Publications

Introduction : the evolution of government information services and stewardship in Canada / Amanda Wakaruk and Sam-chin Li -- Government publication deposit programs : the Canadian federal, provincial, and territorial landscapes / Graeme Campbell, Michelle Lake, and Catherine McGoveran -- Library and archives Canada : official publications and select digital library collections, 1923-2017 / Tom J. Smyth -- Parliamentary information in Canada : form and function / Talia Chung and Maureen Martyn -- Commissions and tribunals / Caron Rollins -- Alberta government publishing / Dani J. Pahulje -- Saskatchewan government publications deposit in the Legislative Library / Gregory Salmers -- Inside track : challenges of collecting, accessing, and preserving Ontario government publications / Sandra Craig and Martha Murphy -- Digitization of government publications : a review of the Ontario Digitization Initiative / Carol Perry, Brian Tobin, and Sam-chin Li -- GALLOP Portal : making government publications in legislative libraries findable / Peter Ellinger -- The Canadian Government Information Digital Preservation Network : a collective response to a national crisis / Amanda Wakaruk and Steve Marks -- Web harvesting and reporting fugitive government materials : collaborative stewardship of at-risk documents / Susan Paterson, Nicholas Worby, and Darlene Fichter.

Canadian Official Publications focuses on the various types of publications issued by the parliament, departments, and agencies of the federal government of Canada, including information contained in other documents. The publication first offers information on the structure of the Canadian parliamentary government. The discussions focus on the constitution; influence of the Crown in government functions; role of the Governor General; composition and functions of the Senate, House of Commons, and the Cabinet; and role of the prime minister. The text also elaborates on the classification and indexes of parliamentary or non-parliamentary documents, papers on parliamentary proceedings, and documents of the House of Commons and the Senate. The manuscript ponders on documents on parliamentary debates, bills, and acts. The book also takes a look at documents on commission of inquiry and task forces; delegated legislation and administrative tribunals; policy papers; and departmental commission and committee documents. The publication is a dependable reference for readers and researchers interested in the structure, functions, and roles of the different branches of the federal government of Canada.

The revised edition of The Canadian Style is an indispensable language guide for editors, copywriters, students, teachers, lawyers, journalists, secretaries and business people – in fact, anyone writing in the English language in Canada today. It provides concise, up-to-date answers to a host of questions on abbreviations, hyphenation, spelling, the use of capital letters, punctuation and frequently misused or confused words. It deals with letter, memo and report formats, notes, indexes and bibliographies, and geographical names. It also gives techniques for writing clearly and concisely, editing documents and avoiding stereotyping in communications. There is even an appendix on how to present French words in an English text.

This is the Final Report of Canada's Truth and Reconciliation Commission and its six-year investigation of the residential school system for Aboriginal youth and the legacy of these schools. This report, the summary volume, includes the history of residential schools, the legacy of that school system, and the full text of the Commission's 94 recommendations for action to address that legacy. This report lays bare a part of Canada's history that until recently was little-known to most non-Aboriginal Canadians. The Commission discusses the logic of the colonization of Canada's territories, and why and how policy and practice developed to end the existence of distinct societies of Aboriginal peoples. Using brief excerpts from the powerful testimony heard from Survivors, this report documents the residential school system which forced children into institutions where they were forbidden to speak their language, required to discard their clothing in favour of institutional wear, given inadequate food, housed in inferior and fire-prone buildings, required to work when they should have been studying, and subjected to emotional, psychological and often physical abuse. In this setting, cruel punishments were all too common, as was sexual abuse. More than 30,000 Survivors have been compensated financially by the Government of Canada for their experiences in residential schools, but the legacy of this experience is ongoing today. This report explains the links to high rates of Aboriginal children being taken from their families, abuse of drugs and alcohol, and high rates of suicide. The report documents the drastic decline in the presence of Aboriginal languages, even as Survivors and others work to maintain their distinctive cultures, traditions, and governance. The report offers 94 calls to action on the part of governments, churches, public institutions and non-Aboriginal Canadians as a path to meaningful reconciliation of Canada today with Aboriginal citizens. Even though the historical experience of residential schools constituted an act of cultural genocide by Canadian government authorities, the United Nation's declaration of the rights of aboriginal peoples and the specific recommendations of the Commission offer a path to move from apology for these events to true reconciliation that can be embraced by all Canadians.