Improving Canadian legal practice through research

The Canadian Foundation for Legal Research supports research that explores emerging trends and issues in the law. It provides lawyers, notaries, judges and other legal professionals with high-level scholarly, yet practical, analyses of those trends and issues by supporting legal research conducted by Canada’s thought leaders in the profession.

Each year, we provide funding for research grants and we honour excellence through our prestigious Walter Owen Book Prize.

Special thanks

Special thanks to the Canadian Foundation for Legal Research gratefully acknowledges the financial generosity of the Law Foundation of British Columbia and the Chambre des notaires du Québec in contributing to our research grant fund.

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Our grants support legal research and writing that is of value to Canadian lawyers, notaries and judges in their day-to-day work in the law and in the administration of justice.

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Call for Entries: submit your application for the Walter Owen book prize!

The Walter Owen Book Prize honours Walter Owen, Q.C., P.C., (1904–1981), a prominent member of the Law Society of British Columbia.

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Browse CFLR funded research and publications

For more than 50 years, The Canadian Foundation for Legal Research has funded practical, leading edge legal research in Canada.

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Meet the 2024 Walter Owen book prize winner Meet Announcing the 2024 research grant recipients View

About CFLR

The Canadian Foundation for Legal Research enhances and contributes to Canada’s legal community by funding and promoting research about the law, legal science and justice reform.

Our grants support research on topics of interest to Canadian legal professionals and others directly connected to the justice system. This includes research related to criminal law, evidence and procedure, contract law, family law, Torts and the administration of justice, among many others.

The Canadian Foundation for Legal Research by the numbers:

years supporting legal research

400+

research publications

$5K$15K

grant quantum range

$4.5M

investments fund

Practical knowledge for legal practice

Our research funding supports original, practical research for lawyers, notaries and judges in all parts of Canada. Over the years, we have funded some of the major legal articles and books published for use before the Courts and in law offices and legislatures across the country.

Our goal is to provide legal professionals with access to reliable research and analysis that will equip them to meet the ever-evolving needs of clients and the demands of their practice.

Trustees of The Canadian Foundation for Legal Research

Ms. Ouellette was a senior litigation lawyer whose practice focuses on health law and professional defence and regulation. She has been an active volunteer and presenter in both the legal community and the community at large. She was appointed Queen’s Counsel in 2007. Ms. Ouellette formerly served as Chair of the Saskatchewan Legal Aid Commission. She currently Chairs the Saskatchewan Public Complaints Commission.

Mr. Bresolin has been an active supporter of the Foundation since 1991 when he joined as Treasurer. His role as trustee and Secretary-Treasurer began in 2007. Between 1991 and 2007, he served as Associate Executive Director and Chief Financial Officer at the Canadian Bar Association. In 2020, Mr Bresolin was named a Life Member of the Chartered Professional Accountants of Ontario.

Ms. Awad is a senior partner in McInnes Cooper’s Litigation and Insurance Groups. She is a Fellow of both the American College of Trial Lawyers and the International Academy of Trial Lawyers. Her practice areas include commercial litigation, products liability, securities, risk management, shareholder disputes, defamation and insurance.

David C. Day, K.C., admitted to the NL Bar in 1968 and since 2010 a Supreme Court and Court of Appeal Master. Concurrently, he functions as Master and practices (as well as publishes and lectures about) civil, criminal, family, constitutional and personal injury law. He has often appeared in Supreme Court of Canada and courts of five provinces. He was counsel to the Mount Cashel Enquiry. He occupied University of Calgary Law School’s Advocacy Chair. Since 1982, he has been an editorial board member of The Canadian Bar Review and at Carswell. He has, since 1999, served as Foundation Trustee (and, since 1989, as a jury member of the Foundation-funded Walter Owen Book Prize).

Justice Ferland was appointed to the Superior Court of Québec in 2024. Prior to his appointment to the Bench, he was a partner at LCM Attorneys Inc., where his practice covered various aspects of civil and administrative law. He is the co-author of the École du Barreau du Québec’s Collection de droit chapter on private international law and has coedited and contributed to numerous publications, including a treatise on Quebec commercial arbitration. From 2011 to 2024, he thought Evidence in Civil Matters at McGill University’s Faculty of Law. He also served as a member of the Canadian delegation during the works of the Hague Conference on Private International Law that led to the adoption of the Convention of 2 July 2019 on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Judgments in Civil or Commercial Matters.

Mr. Harding is a long-term practitioner with Field Law (Edmonton office), currently in the role of Counsel. His wide-ranging practice includes in the Post-Secondary, Constitutional, Estate and Trusts, and Public Sector areas. He is a Past-President of Lawyers Financial and of the Canadian Bar Association – Alberta Branch and is active in the community including as a CKUA Radio Foundation Board Director.

In 2014, in recognition of his status as an extraordinary alumnus, Mr. Harris was inducted into the Bertha Wilson Honour Society at Dalhousie University’s Schulich School of Law. His long career as a corporate and tax litigator has involved writing, as well as lecturing at the former Dalhousie Law School.

Nicholas Kasirer was appointed to the Supreme Court of Canada in 2019, after serving as a judge in the Quebec Court of Appeal since 2009. During his distinguished career at McGill University, he served as James McGill Professor of Law, Director of the Quebec Centre for Private and Comparative Law, and Dean of Law. Nicholas Kasirer is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and a Titular Member of the International Academy of Comparative Law. He has authored over 100 publications in a variety of fields, including civil law, comparative law and jurilinguistics.

Justice Caroline Kim presides at the Ontario Court of Justice. She was appointed to the bench in 2022. Prior to her appointment she practiced in family law at the Barbra Schlifer Commemorative Clinic in Toronto, then at Miller Thomson LLP, and finally as a sole practitioner. She has represented children through the Office of the Children’s Lawyer and was a Dispute Resolution Officer at the Unified Family Court in Kitchener. In addition to her law practice, for over ten years Justice Kim was an instructor for the International Diploma in Mental Health, Human Rights, and Law offered by the Centre for Mental Health Law and Policy at ILS Law College in Pune, India.

Since being called to the bar in 1979, Ms. McGrath has operated a law practice in Iroquois Falls while actively serving the legal community at local, provincial and national levels. From May 2012 until May 2019 Ms. McGrath volunteered as Chair of Lawyers' Professional Indemnity Company based in Toronto. She remains a member of the Canadian Foundation for Legal Research.

Ms. Roy is a litigation practitioner at McCarthy Tetrault in Montreal. Her practice areas include professional and civil liability, administrative and public law. After graduating from McGill University Law School, she clerked at the Supreme Court of Canada from 2007‒2008. She has published work on arbitration, contractual, extra-contractual and constitutional matters.

Master Short was appointed in 2009 after a distinguished law career that focused on civil litigation, construction law and alternative dispute resolution (ADR). The Ontario Bar Association presented him with its Distinguished Service Award in 1999 and its Award for Excellence in ADR in 2001. He is now a retired Associate Judge as of May 2023.

John Stefaniuk, K.C. is a past president of the Canadian Bar Association. He is a partner with the Manitoba based firm Thompson Dorfman Sweatman LLL where he has a diverse practice in property development, natural resources, environmental, municipal, and business law. He is a regular writer and presenter on these subjects. John is a Fellow of the American College of Mortgage Attorneys and a member of its Board of Regents. John is a trained mediator.

Thomas S. Woods served as a judge of the Provincial Court of British Columbia from 2007 until his retirement in September 2019. His first career (1974–1984) was spent as a behaviour therapist and director of a program serving autistic children. After graduating from law school in 1987, he practised civil litigation as an associate (1988‒1995) and then as a partner (1995‒2007) at Lawson Lundell LLP in Vancouver. He has published and presented widely on law and on behaviour therapy. He also writes short fiction, poetry and literary criticism under his pen name, P.W. Bridgman.