THE ADVOCATE 531
VOL. 79 PART 4 JULY 2021
NEWS FROM
BC LAW INSTITUTE
By Emily Clough*
BCLI is pleased with its release of a series of reports over the course of this
spring. We are particularly buoyed to be publishing reports in light of the
recent announcement in the 2021 budget that the federal government will
re-establish the Law Commission of Canada. Having a federal counterpart
return to the law reform landscape is an important development, and the
issues that have been identified connect well with many of the issues that
are top of mind in British Columbia. The federal government’s announcement
references “systemic racism in the justice system, legal issues around
climate change, establishing a new relationship with Indigenous peoples,
and rapid technological shifts in the world”.
In the meantime, BCLI is doing a “deep dive” into research projects that
are focused on Crown legal frameworks related to families and children. We
recently published our Report on Pension Division, reviewing Part 6 of the
Family Law Act, and we are undertaking a review of the parentage provisions
in Part 3 of the Family Law Act.
In respect of children, we are now concluding our Child Protection Project.
This project has two components. The first part is a report focused on
modernizing the Child, Family and Community Service Act, which we
described in the March edition of the Advocate, and which has just been
released. The second part is a study paper on the experience of youth aging
out of care and into the community.
NEW STUDY PAPER COMPARING LEGISLATION ON YOUNG PEOPLE’S
TRANSITION FROM CARE TO COMMUNITY
The Study Paper on Youth Aging into the Community contains comparative
legal research on models for supporting young people who have been in the
* Emily Clough is the chair of the board of BCLI.