So far, there are few documents that recount the origins of PLE, or major aspects of it, in Canada: Lois Gander’s Radical Promise of Public Legal Education in Canada which looks at how public legal education got started in this country and Roland Case’s On the Threshold which documents the beginnings of law-related education in Canada.
However, there are a host of reports documenting specific PLE initiatives which help to tell the PLE story. There are also some specific artifacts with records of meetings or other key events.
Resources of Interest: History of PLE
Documents of interest: History of PLE
2001 Notes of a facilitated workshop between representatives of the Department of Justice Canada and representatives of PLE agencies to develop a vision for PLE. PLEI Notes 2001 Version 1
San San Sy,ACJNet: Electronic Publishing. (1998). This is one of the papers in the series on the components of ACJNet (Access to Justice Network). This paper focuses on the multi-faceted nature of electronic publishing and its possibilities within ACJNet.
San San Sy, ACJNet: Online Education. (1997).This is one of the papers in the series on the components of ACJNet (Access to Justice Network). Online education is described in the paper as one of the five stated goals of ACJNet. The hope was that this paper would provide the basis for ACJNet to engage in the design and delivery of online education.
San San Sy. ACJNet: Library Without Walls. (1997) This paper focuses on one of the more prominent components of ACJNet: the Library without Walls. The Library without Walls (LWW) is one of the four components of ACJNet, the other three being the Virtual Community, Electronic Publishing and On-Line Education.
Canadian Forum on Civil Justice. News and Views on Civil Justice Reform Cross country snapshot, (2003) 6, 10.
Roland Case, On the threshold : Canadian law-related education. (1983). Legal Services Society of British Columbia.
Lois Gander, Radical Promise of Public Legal Education in Canada. (1999)
Public Legal Education and Information Program Review (1997) – Federal Department of Justice. This document is a summary of the comments received during the telephone and in person interviews held with some 50 federal Department of Justice staff and over 70 Public Legal Education Information (“PLEI”) providers, intermediaries, and experts across Canada. This is not a preliminary report. This is a description of the categories of comments without an attempt to analyze them or draw conclusions.
Kirsten Wurmann, ( 2008) The Role and Impact of Librarians in the History and Development of Public Legal Education in Canada: A Literature Review and Annotated Bibliography. Legal Resource Centre of Alberta Ltd.
Kirsten Wurmann & Diane Rhyason, (2004) Power to the People: The Legal Studies Program Pamphlet Collection, 1976-1995.
Links of Interest: History of PLE
History of the Legal Studies Program (Legal Resource Centre)
Legal Studies Program Experience and Awards
An essential aspect of documenting and preserving the history of public legal education is the archiving of its websites. The intention of the Internet Archive is to keep the intellectual content of web-based material available on a permanent basis. With the waybackmachine — a device that displays the Web as it looked on a given date — the Internet Archive literally offers a window on the past and allows people to access and use archived versions of stored websites.
To access the web presence of public legal education sites since 1996, simply enter the web address into the Internet Archive’s waybackmachine at http://web.archive.org/collections/web.html. For example: enter www.acjnet.org for archived versions of the Access to Justice Network since 1996; or enter www.plena.org for versions of the Public Legal Education Network of Alberta from 2000 onwards.