2021 Annual Meeting Press Release
UNIFORM LAW CONFERENCE OF CANADA
CONFÉRENCE POUR L’HARMONISATION DES LOIS AU CANADA
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
ULCC CONCLUDES ITS 103rd ANNUAL MEETING
Winnipeg, Manitoba, August 31, 2021 – The Uniform Law Conference of Canada (ULCC), a government-supported organization that works to modernize and harmonize federal, provincial and territorial laws and considers proposals to reform criminal laws, held its 103rd Annual Meeting from August 23 to 27, 2021. The meeting was held virtually for the second time, due to the Covid- 19 pandemic.
The ULCC is comprised of a Civil Section and a Criminal Section.
The ULCC’s Civil Section approved in principle the Uniform Court Jurisdiction and Proceedings Transfer Amendment Act (2021) and the Uniform Court Jurisdiction and Proceedings Transfer Act (August 2021 Consolidation). The amendment act, and its consolidation, update the Uniform Court Jurisdiction and Proceedings Transfer Act that was adopted by the ULCC in 1994 and amended in 1995.
The Civil Section received interim reports on four projects: Reform of General Partnership Law 2006/Joint Ventures, Charitable Organizations, Defamation Law in the Internet Age, and Uniform Enforcement of Canadian Judgments and Decrees Act projects. It also received reports from the United States Uniform Law Commission and the European Law Institute on their projects.
The Criminal Section debated and voted on proposals to reform Canadian criminal law by amending the Criminal Code and other related statutes. It considered twenty-four (24) resolutions relating to a wide variety of criminal justice issues, including the endorsement of certain warrants, the temporal application of criminal legislative reforms, the penalty for hate propaganda offences, as well as the use of technology in criminal proceedings. The Criminal Section also received status reports from working groups, one regarding the search warrant regime under section 487 of the Criminal Code, and the other on the detention of seized property regime under section 490 of the Criminal Code. It also discussed and approved a final report from a working group established to study the scope of the ULCC Criminal Section’s mandate. Finally, the Criminal Section was joined by the Civil Section for a presentation by the Director of Public Prosecutions and Deputy Attorney
General of Canada, Kathleen Roussel: Racism and Systemic Discrimination in the Criminal Justice System.
Delegates to the ULCC are legal experts appointed by the federal, provincial and territorial governments. They include government lawyers, prosecutors, lawyers in private practice, members of the judiciary, law professors, notaries, and representatives from the Canadian Bar Association, the Barreau du Québec, the Chambre des notaires du Québec, the Indigenous Bar Association, and Canadian law reform organizations. This year’s Annual Meeting saw a record number of participants, with 129 individuals registered, including the immediate past president of the United States Uniform Law Commission and the president of the European Law Institute.
The ULCC was founded in 1918 and over the years has recommended the implementation of numerous uniform acts and other law reform proposals. Those recommendations have often been enacted into law by federal, provincial and territorial governments.
Media contact:
Christian Delaquis
Executive Director
cdelaquis@ulcc-chlc.ca
https://ulcc-chlc.ca