THE CANADIAN BAR ASSOCIATION A TIME FOR CHANGE?

A. M. LAIDLAW*

It is normal for organizations to resist change. Voluntary associa- tions, in particular, with large memberships widely dispersed and with resulting divergent views, are especially hesitant to intro- duce any novelty that might ruffle the existing equilibrium. If a system is functioning, however inadequately, the natural tendency is to leave it alone. It was in this atmosphere of caution that the Canadian Bar Association developed ; for over forty years' it evolved slowly, adjusting itself to meet problems as they arose, not the least of them the result of the existence in of two systems of law, two languages and two faiths. Yet this evolution- ary process, I suggest, if no action is taken from time to time to redefine objectives and establish efficient machinery to attain them, inevitably will bring the Association to a comfortable state of in- significance . Colonel Hutchison's recent presidential address acknowledged the need for a new concept of the role of the Canadian Bar Asso- ciation and for new machinery.' "As a matter of fact", said Colonel Hutchison, "the Canadian Bar Association has gone ahead so fast during these past twenty-five years we have hardly had time to stop and consider where we are heading". He saw certain immediate problems facing the Association in the matter of internal organi- zation and of the steps necessary to ensure the continuation of a national bar. The Association, he suggested, should concentrate on law reform, legal research, the efficiency of the courts and the availability of improved legal services to the public. His address *A. M. Laidlaw, of Maclaren, Laidlaw, Corlett & Sherwood, Ottawa. Mr. Laidlaw was Secretary-Treasurer of the Canadian Bar Association from 1946 to 1951. 1 The present association was organized in 1914 and incorporated in 1921 . An older association lapsed shortly after its organization in 1897. 2 The Immediate Future of the Association (1956), 34 Can. Bar Rev. 887.

1957] The Canadian Bar Association 171

departed from the approach of many former presidents who chose to report on their own year of office, or to point out special prob- lems arising in the administration of justice, or to discu'ss gener- ally the ideals of the legal profession. Colonel Hutchison was ap- parently convinced that the "time to stop and consider" is now, but that a mere evaluation of the present activities of the Canadian Bar Association is not enough and should be followed by some specific action.' The purpose of this article is to present, from the point of view of an individual lawyer, some practical considerations that must be examined before the hopes of the Immediate Past President and others can materialize. This examination involves several factors : in the first instance, the aims of the Association; secondly, a review of the Association's membership trend during the past decade ; and, thirdly, the Association's actual and anticipated financial resources. Certain recommendations will be made that, it is hoped, will provide a basis for further study and discussion . The views expressed in the article are, of course, solely my own.

Aims and Objects The Canadian Bar Association's Act of Incorporation sets out six specific reasons for its existence: to,advance the science ofjurisprudence ; promote the administration of justice and uniformity of legislation throughout Canada so far as is consistent with the preservation of the basic systems of law in the respective provinces ; uphold the honour of the profession of the law, and foster harmonious relations and co-operation among the incorporated law societies, bar- risters' societies and general corporations of the Bars of the several provinces and cordial intercourse among the members of the Canad- ian Bar ; encourage a high standard of legal education, training and ethics ; publish its own transactions as well as reports of cases and informa- tion and decisions concerning the law and its practice, and generally to do all further or other lawful acts and things touching the premises . There is no reason to suppose that it was the will of the founders that any one of these objects should receive greater emphasis than another. The six together form a general platform of hopes, which can be realized only if all its planks are fashioned with equal 3 In 1956 a Committee on Reorganization to study the Association's internal structure was set up under the chairmanship of D. Park Jamie- son, M.B.E., Q.C., LL.D., the president of the Association in 1954-1955 . This article is written without knowledge of the minutes of that committee .

172 THE CANADIAN BAR REVIEW (VOL . XXXV strength. In short, the Association is not accomplishing its objects and purposes if any plank in its platform is missing or weak. What does a searching look at what the Association has actu- ally done so far to achieve its objects reveal? Satisfaction that the Association now fulfils its purposes? Or, alternatively, an aware- ness that with its present organization our national bar cannot sup- ply the time, imagination and energy necessary to achieve all these ideals? Most associations, throughout their initial years of develop- ment at least, concentrate their efforts on satisfying as many of their members as possible through the realistic, direct approach that what benefits a member's pocketbook eventually benefits his association. This can never be said of the Canadian Bar Associa- tion. The outstanding evidence to the contrary is that the Associa- tion has, since 1923, but particularly in recent years, placed heavy emphasis through its publication, the Canadian Bar Review, on advancing the science of jurisprudence. Without the Review, con- sidered by many as now among the most scholarly legal periodi- cals of the western world,4 the Association would not have reached, perhaps, its present significance or merited such a noteworthy place among professional associations. Yet the excellence of this publi- cation does not silence those members who, more interested in bar activities throughout Canada, topical legal questions, address- es, personalities, and the like-the material one expects to find in a "house organ" in fact-do not consider their present mem- berships of any particular value to them. Perhaps it is unfortunate that many members hold this opinion. But, as the Canadian Bar Association grows, an increasing demand may be expected for other, if less valuable, contributions by the Association to its mem- bership. It is surely unrealistic, however regrettable, to believe that no Canadian lawyer would ever ask the question, "What has the Canadian Bar Association done for me or what will it do for me?", but will ask instead, "What can I do for the Canadian Bar Association?"' In any event, whatever criticisms may be directed against any of the activities of the Association, its objects are far from reali- zation ; and ifthey are to be approached in the near future, a change is required in the organization of the Association's affairs more drastic than can be expected in the normal course of evolution. Report of the Committee on Legal Research (1956), 34 Can. Bar Rev. 999, at p. 1033. 6 Cf. E. K. Williams, K.C. (now the Hon . E. K. Williams), in his pres- idential address (1946), 29 Proceedings of the Canadian Bar Association 79, at p. 82; (1946), 24 Can. Bar Rev. 647, at p. 650.

1957] The Canadian Bar Association 173

Any substantial progress towards the full attainment of the Association's objects .can only conic about as the result of care- ful, long-term planning. If this is so, an appealing, and unwrit ten, piece of presidential rationalization must be changed-the "we-must-not-.tie-the-hands-of-the-next-president" theory. In earl- ier days, when the membership of the Canadian Bar Association was small and annual meetings hadthe quality ofanintimate gather- ing of the faithful, it was not only possible to adopt short-term poli- cies year . by year, but it was eminently desirable. Within a small group a president wielded much influence. That was the expecta- tion; that was his right and privilege. In accordance with a presi- dent's wishes came the expression of aims capable of precise at- tainment during the limited term of his office. Times, however, have changed. The Canadian Bar Association is now a large, complex organization. Its annual meeting is no longer an intimate gathering, but a milling congress, with friends and acquaintances lost among the many who are strangers. Groups with special legal interests have come into being in the Association. Gone is the day when it was possible for a member to take part in all the activities the Association offers ; now he must pick and choose among study groups, business meetings, addresses and, even, social events. In such circumstances the president has become, or should have become, a head responsible not for planning but for leadership in planning; not for detailed administration but to prevent shortsightedness on the part of officials whose intimate knowledge of the Association's affairs may keep them from seeing the wood for the trees. With this turn in circumstances, then, it becomes apparent that the aims and objects of the Canadian Bar Association can only be realized fully by long-range planning on a scale far in excess of the former bit by bit, year by year planning.

A Decade in Review A statistical review of the Association's affairs during the last ten s years reveals certain interesting facts from which it is possible to predict trends and draw conclusions for the future. Anyone making such an analysis must remember that the Association should not s The ten years since the Second World War have been chosen for vari- ous reasons: the writer is familiar with the Association's affairs over much of this period ; the war itself and the depressed thirties' were abnormal periods from which no sound conclusions can be drawn; and only in recent years have the Association's statistics been kept in sufficient detail to admit of useful analysis .

174 THE CANADIAN BAR REVIEW [VOL . XXXV be considered in isolation, apart from the professional group it claims to represent in Canada. For example, a doubling of mem- bership in a given period cannot fairly be considered a doubling in "strength" if during the same period the total number of lawyers in the country has also doubled. Or, an increase in the income from fees means little in itself unless it is related to the increase in law- yers' incomes at the same time. Or, again, the advisability of an increase in membership fees or of reducing expenditures can only be considered intelligently in the light of the general rise in the cost of living. The fact that the last decade has been marked by an ex- panding economy with decided inflationary tendencies must always be kept in mind.

Membership The numerical increase in the membership of the Canadian Bar Association is indicated in the following table :

Honorary Law & Student Society Year Life Active Junior Asso- Total* Member- Members Members Members ciates ship**

1947 133 3036 266 - 3435 6706 19481 131 3458 348 - 3937 7174 1949 129 3546 603 - 4278 - 1950 126 3501 820 - 4447 8059 1951 It 120 3420 983 - 4523 - 1952 118 3502 1130 - 4750 - 1953tt 116 3626 1205 - 4947 - 1954 113 3866 1271 400 5650 11033 1955 104 4258 1296 510 6168 11340 1956 104 4730 1587 632 7053 11419 *Includes sustaining members who are already listed as honorary, life, active or junior members. **Bureau of Statistics and Association figures . In July 1947, according to these figures, some 51 0/0 of all lawyers in Canada were members of the Association. See Survey of Incomes in the Legal Profession in Canada, 1946, 1947, 1948. D.B.S. Reference Papers, 1950, No. 9. t1948 was the year in which all members of the Law Society of British Columbia became automatically members of the Canadian Bar Asso- ciation . #1953 was the year when the by-laws of the Association were amended to provide for student associates . The first significant fact appearing from the table is that during the last ten years membership in the Association, exclusive of student associates, has increased 86%. In the same period, as it

1957] The Canadian Bar Association 175 happens, there has been a corresponding increase of 70% in the total number of lawyers (including Quebec notaries) in Canada. The oft-repeated claim that the last ten years have seen "more than a doubling" of membership in the Association (if student associ- ates are counted) may be true statistically, but it is nevertheless misleading. The inclusion of students in membership statistics may also distort the picture for the reason that; as will be mentioned later, student members are carried at a loss by other members of the Association. In fact, the Association in 1956 represented only 56 % of all the lawyers in Canada, as opposed to 51 % some ten years ago, so that, taking into consideration the corresponding increase in Canadian lawyers, the Association's increase in strength has been actually only 5% in ten years. Even this small increase is a misleading gauge of the increase in "strength", since all British Columbia lawyers became members of the Association in 1948, the bar of following suit in 1954, and it is ques- tionable whether a member who has been compelled to join is always as "strong" a member as one who has joined voluntarily. A second interesting fact disclosed by the table is that there has been a six-fold increase in junior members during. the ten-year period under review. This rapid increase is largely due to the fact that considerably more law students have been graduating since the war and entering the legal profession, many of them war vet- erans. It is to be expected that student associate members (and the numbers shown in the table appear to be only a beginning) will continue upon graduation as junior members. This is a healthy development, but, again, it will put a heavy financial strain on the Association, since junior members, like student associates, do not bear their full share of operating expenses. Prophecy is at best a dangerous pursuit; yet, as this whole article is in a sense an inveighing against equanimity among mem- bers of the Association, some attempt to forecast the future is es- sential. What membership in the Association, then, may be ex- pected, in, say, another ten years? It is suggested that, as a cau- tious minimum, even without any new procedures for increasing membership, by 1965 student associate members will reach a total of 1,200; junior members, of 2,400; and active members, of 7,800 - an overall total of 11,400 members throughout Canada, mem-

7 See Report of, the Committee on Legal Research (1956), 34 Can. Bar Rev. 999, at p. 1013 : "Even to keep pace with the predicted increase in the number of law students, and eventually of practitioners, poses a difficult enough problem of expansion [of law libraries], for it is estimated that the student population alone may double within ten years".

176 THE CANADIAN BAR REVIEW (VOL . XXXV bers of the legal profession or students-at-law. Or, to put the esti- mate another way, if all Canadian lawyers should number 18,000 in 1965 (a not exaggerated figure, since already in 1956 there were 11,419), then a minimum of 56% may be expected to be members of the Canadian Bar Association-about 10,000 active and junior members. This estimate, it is emphasized, is probably conserva- tive; but, conservative or not, it leads directly to the conclusion that forthright organizational change is inevitable and that delay can only be harmful to the aims and objects of the Association. A question remains on this matter of membership, and it is a serious question. What might be expected by way of increased membership if the Canadian Bar Association reached its real po tential as the spokesman of a national society of Canadian lawyers? Finances Membership in any association is inextricably interwoven with finances, since an association's principal source of revenue is mem- bership dues. For example, if one category of members, which pays only relatively small fees, expands rapidly in numbers, then a serious financial strain may be placed on the association, which must continue to supply the services promised all its members. Similarly, increased membership, particularly at the junior level, though it may increase the association's "strength", paradoxically may do so only at the cost of being unable to service its members satisfactorily.' The general trend during the last decade in the revenue and expenditure of the Canadian Bar Association is shown in a table reproduced in an appendix to this article. Even a casual glance at the figures there will show more vividly than any membership statistics that Colonel Hutchison's remark, "the Canadian Bar Association has gone ahead so fast during the past twenty-five years we have hardly had time to stop and consider where we are heading", is, if anything, an understatement . If there is any in- accuracy in it, it is to be found in the fact that the real acceleration in the affairs of the Association has occurred in the last ten years rather than twenty-five.' $ For example, of 885 new members added to the Association in 1955- 1956, 122 were student associates (for whom the membership fee is only $3.00) and 291 junior members (in whose case the fee is $5.00) . In other words, the Association received only $1,821 for supplying an additional 413 persons with ten issues of the Canadian Bar Review, the annual Pro- ceedings and notices, as well as the added administrative facilities required for this sizable increase in membership . ' The financial statistics for 1956 are not reported in the appendix because at the time of writing the audited statements were not available.

1957] The Canadian Bar Association 177 Immediately after the war the Association had an unbalanced budget. Wise. leadership since then has brought it (at least at this writing) to a position of sound financial strength. As the minutes of annual meetings clearly show, each succeeding executive took the long-range view from the financial standpoint. Treasurers did not fail to initiate proper fiscal policy. As a result, credits have been built up in the form of a Contingency Reserve Fund (a general account for use by the Association), which, on December 31st, 1956, stood at $77,388. In addition, from annual meeting surpluses since 1948 the Association has wisely set aside an Annual Meeting Reserve Fund (not referred to in the appendix), which at December 31st, 1956, amounted to $22,550. These figures may come as a surprise to those who remember the frequent official statements to the effect that the revenues of the Association must be increased still further." Revenues and expenditures may seem on examination to belie these statements. But it- is necessary to understand, not only what a continuing in- crease in membership will bring, but also to know what the exe- cutive plans for the Association in the way of increased services. The almost inevitable trend to more and more junior members and student associates bears directly on the problem of costs. The financial statement of the Association indicates, for example, that, even after allowance has been made for the receipts of the Canad- ian Bar Review (from its advertising, sales of individual copies, subscriptions and investments), the Review accounts for more than 30% of all disbursements. Or, putting the situation in a different way, the 7,511 subscriptions to the Review in 1955 (including copies going to members, subscribers other than members, and the free list) cost the Association $3.67 each," divided between production and distribution. And expenditures on the Review are not the only ones to be considered. Junior members and student associates, like other members, are entitled as of right to the Proceedings, to notices of meetings and to the Association's recently established newsletter.

They have since become available and from them it appears that in 1956 the revenues o£ the Association barely equalled the expenditures . 1° For example, Report of the Honorary Secretary, 1956 (to appear in the 1956 Proceedings) ; Report of the Honorary Treasurer (1955), 38 Pro- ceedings of the Canadian Bar Association, p. 164 ; Report of the Hono- rary Treasurer (1954), 37 Proceedings, p. 176 ; Report of the Honorary Treasurer (1952),35 Proceedings, p. 146. 11 The argument that the first copy of a periodical represents the real expense, and subsequent copies cost much less, though often used, is naive and dangerous . It is understood that printing costs for 1957 have been further increased by 5 %.

178 THE CANADIAN BAR REVIEW [VOL . XXXV Each copy of the Proceedings (or year book) cost $1 .02 to publish in 1955. For a fee of $3.00, then, every student associate receives in kind, in the form of the Review and Proceedings, $4.69. For a fee of $5.00 every junior member, though he is a practising lawyer, gets the same return. In addition, there is the general overhead to consider, a large amount that at present is being met entirely by the active and sustaining members. These statistics indicate, not that the principle of lower fees for certain categories of members is wrong (for the Association should assist and encourage law stud- ents and younger lawyers), but that as these categories of mem- bers increase in numbers it becomes more difficult for the Asso- ciation to meet its expenses. This disadvantage the officers of the Association have properly weighed. A second reason advanced to support the prediction that rev- enues will have to be increased is the expectation that the activi- ties of the Association will increase, and greater activity means more money spent. The fact that some of the expectations have not materialized in the past is, perhaps, a ground of self-congratu- lation only because the failure meant a saving of money. Examine the budget for the years since 1952 and compare some of the items with the actual expenditures : Budget Actually Year Item Estimate Spent 1956 Committee and Section expenses . . . $11,400 $ 5,112 Grants to Provincial Vice-Presidents 2,000 242 1955 Committee and Section expenses . . . 8,850 5,310 Grants to Provincial Vice-Presidents 2,000 356 1954 Committee and Section expenses . . . 7,500 1,881 Grants to Provincial Vice-Presidents 2,000 229 1953 Committee and Section expenses . . . 7,500 3,142 Grants to Provincial Vice-Presidents 2,000 94 1952 Committee and Section expenses . . . 2,025 1,180 If expenditure of funds is any criterion, this comparison leads only to one conclusion : that the efforts of five Executive Committees in succession to encourage activities in the various provinces by mak- ing available increased funds to provincial vice-presidents and to sections and committees have in part failed. Apparently this tan- gible evidence of good will was insufficient to set in full motion the working agencies of the Association. Again the question is suggested : Why?

1957] The Canadian Bar Association 179 Some ,Non-statistical Considerations I have already observed that, barring some unforeseen eventuality, membership will continue to increase and, in doing so, will place a severe strain on the Association's financial structure. I have also noted that budgets continue to exceed expenditures, which can only indicate that, though the leaders behind the reins may be willing, the work horses are weak. Weakness, however, is a matter of degree and the progress made during the last decade cannot be ignored. The Association's secre- tariat, for example, has been raised from the almost non-existent immediately after the war to a high level of efficiency, bearing in mind of course that the secretary-treasurers have always been part- time. Since 1946, apart from various standing and special com- mittees, three sections have been added to the then existing eight." In 1947 the special committee that operated in collaboration with the Department of Veterans Affairs to provide legal aid to veterans and members of the armed forces wound up its work. In 1948 the Association committed itself to the expenditure of a substantial sum of money to set in motion the Survey of the Legal Profession in Canada." The year 1949 saw the completion of the campaign by the Special Fund-raising Committee for the Restoration of the Inns of Court." The Public Relations Committee, established in 1950, has since been extremely active in promoting, for example, programmes for lawyers on legal ethics and in producing messages to the public emphasizing the r61e of the profession in civilized society. The Special Committee on Legal Problems on International Organization for Maintenance of Peace (the name of the commit- tee was later changed to the Special Committee on Codification of International Law, and then to the Special Committee on Inter- national Law) first reported in 1948 and was quite active in its early years. In 1949 a committee was set up to act jointly with a committee of the Canadian Medical Association to see how mu- tual problems in the field of medico legal' jurisprudence might be approached, and this committee, or local ofdshoots, has been spo- radically active in the larger centers of population. To these and

is Civil Liberties (from a special committee) in 1947; Labour Relations in 1948 ; and Maritime and Air Law (at first called "Maritime Law") in 1951 . 11 See, Hackett, Survey of the Legal Profession in Canada (1948), 26 Can. Bar Rev. 972, and McTague, ditto (1949), -27 Can. Bar Rev. 951 . The Association instituted the Survey with an initial grant of $5,000. 14 $13,489.$1 was raised by voluntary donations from Canadian law- yers. For the final report of the committee, see (1949), 32 Proceedings of the Canadian Bar Association 200.

180 THE CANADIAN BAR REVIEW [VOL. XXXV other Association contributions before and since must be added that one continuing, important contribution, the organ of the As- sociation, the Canadian Bar Review. These, then, have been some of the accomplishments." In con- trast, there exist many gaps in the Association's programme of activities : a few impossible to fill now perhaps; others that deserve immediate remedial attention. By discussing some of them it may be possible to discern the direction in which improvement lies. Only after that-when the needs are evident-can fiscal policy be discussed intelligently and financial needs met.

The organ of the Association The first and probably most difficult gap to fill is the present lack of an Association "journal". The term is used advisedly, for it suggests a magazine of a more topical nature than does the word "review". The Canadian Bar Review was born from a merger of the Canadian Law Times and the Canada Law Journal, the second of which had been owned and edited by Henry O'Brien, K.C., for half a century. In the foreword by Sir James Aikins, the then president of the Association, to the first issue of the new Canadian Bar Review, for January 1923, these words appear : The willingness of the only two Canadian law magazines to cease and to become merged in one to be published under the authority of the Association made manifest its opportunity to establish the Review, the appearing of which is `in due time'. Mr. O'Brien expressed the belief that it would supply the needs of the profession . . . . Will the Review meet them? It undoubtedly will if it has the whole-hearted support of the members of the Canadian Bar, not only as ready sub- scribers but as interested readers, and constructive contributors to its pages. One of those needs is a means of communication between the members of the Bar throughout Canada-by which broader sym- pathy among them may be created, greater enthusiasm for the pro- fession, a truer conception of its privileges and duties and a conscious- ness of the power and influence it can exercise for the well-being of Canada, by unity of spirit and concerted action not only in the -per- formance of the usual professional work and in the administration of justice but in the public service and political life of our country." And the first Editorial Board of the Review added to this in a "Salutatory" the following: . . . Again, let it be said that while we conceive it to be our duty to

is No direct account has been taken in this article of one of the Asso- ciation's objects : to "foster . . . cordial intercourse among the members of the Canadian Bar" . Many believe that the annual meetings of the Asso- ciation accomplish this object, and tend to discount other objects. 16 (1923), 1 Can. Bar Rev. 1, at p. 2.

1957] The Canadian Bar Association 18 1

make the practical value of the Review our first concern, yet we shall not neglect to till in some measure those delectable fields thât lie on the higher slopes of Jurisprudence. To neglect these would be to for- get that the law is one of the learned professions.17 Whether there was some underlying difference of opinion among those connected with the founding of the Review, or whether in practice it proved difficult or impossible to fulfil the functions of a "journal", the fact is that from the beginning the Canadian Bar Review was more "review" than "journal" . In recent years the activities of the Association and the profession generally have been reported more fully, perhaps because there has been more to re- port, but nevertheless there still remains this vacuum in the activi- ties of the Association. Non-commercial publications of any kind -perhaps legal ones particularly-are born with difficulty and kept alive only by pat- ient and painstaking feeding. All depends on the contributors and the editors. If the "constructive contributors" fail to volunteer con- tributions, topical or otherwise, the editor publishes his periodical as best he can."' He draws upon the layman as well as the law- yer, the academician as well as the practitioner-foreign or Cana- dian. An analysis of the material appearing in the Canadian Bar Review during the 1954-1955 year, for example, shows that of the twenty scholarly articles published, only ten were from Canada, and of the ten Canadian contributors, three were Canadians of recent adoption.19 Whatever may be thought of the type of material published in the Review, or its origin, the quality is impressive ; it follows that the present high standard cannot be maintained if the material published directly on the Association's affairs is anything less than excellent. That editorial policy would welcome contributions of a kind other than what for want of a better word I call "academic" is clear from the following : At the centre of the whole Review operation is the editorial prob- lem of attempting to make a single legal periodical at one and the same time serve a group so diversified as the Canadian legal profession, and

17 Ibid. 6, at p. 9. 19 The difficulties of obtaining contributions to the Canadian Bar Re- view and the lack of legal scholarship in Canada have been repeatedly stressed in the reports of the editor and others. See, for example (1946), 29 Proceedings of the Canadian Bar Association 51 ; (1947), 30 ibid. 131 ; (1948), 31 ibid. 152 ; (1949), 32 ibid. 206 ; (1950), 33 ibid. 194 ; (1951), 34 ibid. 165 ; (1952), 35 ibid. 70 ; (1953), 36 ibid. 55 ; (1954), 37 ibid. 57 ; (1955), 38 ibid. 57. See also the Report of the Committee on Legal Re- search (1956), 34 Can. Bar Rev. 999. 19 Report of the Editor (1955), 38 Proceedings of the Canadian Bar Association 57, at p. 61.

182 THE CANADIAN BAR REVIEW [VOL. XXXV

perhaps it is a problem that of its nature is incapable of any final solution . It is illustrated by the story of the lawyer who stopped me last summer on the main street of a smaller city to say that, although he had enjoyed one of our recent articles, we were still far too pre-occupied with what he called `the striped pants of Bay Street' . Among the Review's readers are practising lawyers, teachers of law, law students, employees of governments and corporations, publicists, most of them in Canada, but many abroad . The practising lawyer lives in places ranging in size from the one-lawyer town to the metro- polis ; sometimes he takes what comes to him in the way of practice and sometimes he specializes in corporation law, taxation law, insur- ance law, labour law, maritime law, the law of industrial property. Some of us are old and some of us are young; some of us are of a broad culture, and some barely literate . Some of us expect when we read a legal periodical to be broadened in our understanding, and some want only a ready answer to the question on our desks at the moment. I could say to you that members of the learned profession of the law ought to be interested in subjects outside their daily experience, and that they would be better lawyers if they were, but the fact is that most of us are not. All I do ask is your sympathetic understanding of the problem and your help in surmounting it so far as may be. There is I assure you no conspiracy among the editors to exclude any particular type of material from the Review .2° And, again, on the "masthead" page of every issue of the Cana- dian Bar Review will be found these words, "The Canadian Bar Review is the organ of the Canadian Bar Association and its pages are open to free and fair discussion of all matters of interest to the legal profession". But why the editors will not accept any kind of material merely for the sake of publishing something is also clear: At the same time the Review must do all it can to tell lawyers what is going on in their profession and to help them in their day-to-day practice. Although some may disagree, I see nothing inconsistent between this aim and the aim of encouraging scholarship . Man may not live by bread alone, but certainly he cannot live without it. What would be inconsistent is to convert the Review into a mere notice board or newspaper for the tired practitioner, and I would add, in answer to the occasional critic, that its only function, surely, is not to point out short cuts to larger incomes .21 It is only natural that attention should have been turned to the possibility of producing two separate publications : a review and something in the nature of a journal." On the other hand, others 2° Report of the Editor (1953), 36 Proceedings of the Canadian Bar Association 55, at p. 56 (italics added) . 21 Report of the Editor (1950), 33 Proceedings of the Canadian Bar Association 194. 22 An Association newsletter was recently instituted. In 1955-1956 seven issues of the "Monthly Newsletter" (sic) were distributed . It has

1957] The Canadian Bar Association 183 have thought that the two functions, of supplying what may be considered the "needs of the profession" and of tilling the "higher slopes of Jurisprudence", can be combined in one publication." But may not a single periodical publishing both types of mater- ial be wrong in principle? After all, the Review, and through it the Association, has achieved a reputation for its scholarly stand- ards. To go too far towards a compromise between the two func- tions may seriously impair the Review's prestige and in the long run discourage its scholarly contributors. And, yet, there remains this important vacuum to fill, which will require more than a few synopses of annual and council meetings: Members of the Asso- ciation have the right to news. of current events ; to read how-to- do-it articles of practical value to the profession ; to be informed of the decisions of their executive ;` to know in detail of the ad- dresses and activities of sections and committees at annual meet- ings;" to be advised of the fate of Association resolutions at the various levels of government ; to be told the names of their col- leagues elected to high office in the Association ; 26 to read about presidential tours ; and, even, to Know promptly when a former president dies.2'

been well received in spite of its mimeographed form and its few pages of scanty, volunteered information . The Newsletter, might prove to be the precursor of an official journal of the Association, published from the head office, although the report of the Honorary Secretary to the annual meeting in 1956 said: "The present cost is in the nature of $100 to $150 per issue and it is felt that no greater expense is justified on the basis of the material which has been received to date". 21 This possibility was presumably in the minds of those who at the meeting of Council held during the 1956 annual meeting voted for a re- solution stating in part : "provided that the Editor shall, on the direction of the Executive, publish the President's Address as delivered at the An- nual Meeting and shall -publish, subject to his editing as to language, such proceedings of Executive, Council or Annual Meetings as the Exe- cutive shall direct" . 24 At present the executive reports to the members only once a year, through the report of the Honorary Secretary presented at each annual meeting. 25 Occasionally these are set out in the Canadian Bar Review. It is impossible, however, to cover all addresses and all the activities fully in the usual type of report published in the Review. The annual meeting is in fact reported fully only in the Proceedings, which usually appears eight months after the meeting. 25 At present only members of Council receive a list of the officers, and they are sent it approximately two months after the annual meeting. Occasionally the names of provincial officers are circulated through the medium of the Newsletter. 27 The death of John T. Hackett, Q.C., LL.D., president of the As- sociation in 1947-1948, who died shortly after the 1956 annual meeting, has not yet been reported officially to members. Doubtless the Mid- Winter Council Meeting in March 1957 will pass a formal resolution of appreciation and sympathy, and the report of the Honorary Secretary at Banff in September will carry the information .

184 THE CANADIAN BAR REVIEW [VOL. XXXV From all this certain conclusions can be drawn. We have learned, for example, that as the number of members increases editorial policy will have to become more flexible ; that a "house organ" in every sense of that term is needed if the interest of many in the Association is to be maintained; that scholarly contribu- tions must continue to be encouraged and published, but that legal research is not yet sufficient in Canada to fill readily ten issues a year of a publication of the high standard of the Review; and that a "review" and a "journal" do not mix. It may now be possible to suggest a new basis for the Association's publications. Without for the moment discussing the implications for the finances of the Association or the status of the editor of the Cana- dian Bar Review, which will be returned to later, I think the evi dence indicates that two publications are necessary if the Cana- dian Bar Association is to maintain and increase its stature as the representative of the lawyers and notaries of Canada. The Cana- dian Bar Review should be continued at its present high, scholarly level, but, it is proposed, as a quarterly ; and a journal, published as a beginning at least once every two months, should be establish- ed under the direction of the Association's executive and the im- mediate supervision of the Association's senior administrative official. The doubts that immediately spring to mind about the capacity of the Association to provide this dual service-from the point of view of staff and finances-and about the effect on the status of an editor, relieved under this suggestion of preparing each year the present ten issues of the Review, will be discussed as the article proceeds.

Administration The second serious and pressing problem facing the Canadian Bar Association concerns its administration . At no time in its history has the organization had a paid official with the slightest vestige of executive authority (apart from the editor of the Cana- dian Bar Review). In addition, the office of Secretary-Treasurer has, since the inception of the Association, been occupied by practising lawyers working only on a part-time basis. This posi- tion and that of Assistant Secretary are purely administrative and, under the by-laws, it would be improper for the incumbents to exercise any leadership in Association affairs."' Two questions of

By-law Number Two (ii) (g) reads. "The Secretary-Treasurer shall take the Minutes of all Meetings of the Association and also all Minutes of Meetings of the Council ; he shall attend to all correspondence, and shall send out all notices required by these By-laws or as directed by the

1957] The Canadian Bar Association 185 major importance require immediate consideration : the neces- sity of appointing a paid, full-time senior official 21 and the re- sponsibility to be entrusted that person. The evidence accumulated to date clearly indicates the need for such an appointment. The growth of the Association alone, with its resulting administrative and financial problems, warrants this conclusion. In addition, there is the psychological factor in- herent in any part-time position that inhibits the full exercise of talents, particularly in the case of a lawyer who remains primarily responsible to his own law office. I imagine that there will be little argument over the advantages to the Association were a full-time official appointed at the next annual meeting. A new concept ofthe post he is to occupy is, however, required, that of the executive as well as the administrator. The American Bar Association has already appointed an official with these dual powers." A change in policy of this character would possibly be the most important single advance the Association could make at this time. If it is made, other improvements would almost certain- ly follow : if not made, any other improvements that are attempted might well fail. In addition to responsibility for normal administrative func- tions, the new official would be the one continuing link in the chain of long-term planning. He would initiate policy programmes for study and approval by the Association, the Council and the . Executive Committee, and he would carry out the broad policies approved by them. As I conceive the post, his duties would in- clude the following : (a) to initiate policy programmes for consideration by the appropriate authority ; (b) to administer the duly approved policies; (c) to act as executive assistant to the president;" (d) to act as secretary at all meetings of the Association, the Council and the Executive Committee ;

Council, and generally perform all duties assigned to him by the Council. He shall be the custodian of the Seal of the Association and shall certify documents issued by the Association when certification is required. He shall keep proper books showing the payment of membership fees and any other monies that may be received, and also showing all disburse- ments." as As suggested in Hutchison, The Immediate Future of the Associa- tion (1956), 34 Can. Bar Rev. 887, at p. 891. 10 The title of the senior paid official of the American Bar Association is "Secretary and Executive Director". 11 See, The Immediate Future of the Association (1956), 34 Can. Bar Rev., 887, at p. 891. .

186 THE CANADIAN BAR REVIEW [VOL . XXXV

(e) to oversee the publishing of the Association's journal; 32 (f) to correlate administratively the work of the provincial sections and, upon request, to assist provincial sections in their programmes, including the distribution of their published mater- lal;33 (g) to represent the Association, with other senior officials, in all matters requiring attendance upon government officials; (h) to address, upon request, local bar societies. These examples will serve to illustrate the new approach that, it is suggested, should now be taken to the conduct of the affairs of the Canadian Bar Association. The underlying principle is continuity of executive management under changing boards of directors. Only with such continuity can objectives be attained.

A permanent headquarters Another aspect of management and organization must now be considered : the problem of the Association's headquarters . Until 1951 the national office of the Canadian Bar Association was a desk in the law office of the lawyer who happened to be the Secretary- Treasurer part-time and pro-tem." Since then the Association has rented office quarters in Ottawa . The editorial office of the Canadian Bar Review, also rented, is in . I am not of course implying that leased office accommodation or a two-city office structure was a mistake in the conditions of the last few years, financially or otherwise, but there comes a time, as in the other affairs of the Association, when a change is advisable. The time has now come when the status and efficiency of the Cana- dian Bar Association would be greatly improved by the acquisi- tion of permanent headquarters accommodation." 33 The publication of a new journal should not be undertaken lightly . Critics who may like to stress the difficulties should recognize, however, that the present Newsletter, with its scanty information, is published from volunteered, uncorrelated material ; the proposed journal would publish material actually sought after and edited . 33 Assistance to sections and committees in their study programmes - the suggestion of topics for discussion, for example, and the carrying out of needed research - would be the responsibility of the editor as part of the wider duties it is proposed later to give him (see post page 191) . Even now the sections and committees could make use of such assistance, and their needs are likely to increase rapidly in the future . See the import- ance attached to the work of the sections and committees in Report of the Legal Research Committee (1956), 34 Can. Bar Rev. 999, at p. 1031 . 34 See Report of the Honorary Secretary (1951), 34 Proceedings of the Canadian Bar Association 119. 15 As a matter of interest, some 43,000 American lawyers contributed recently to the building of the American Bar Center in Chicago, which houses under one roof the entire administrative staff of the American Bar Association (about eighty-five people) and nine other organizations concerned with the legal profession and its affairs in the United States .

1957] The Canadian Bar Association 187

Apart from the financial saving that would result from a move to a permanent home, which will be returned to later, the Associa- tion would acquire the physical facilities necessary to render its members the increased services advocated in this-article. One prin- cipal proposal has been the publication of another periodical in addition to the Review, which would require the close correlation of the work of the Review office and the headquarters .office. There are still other advantages to a permanent 'home. Colonel Hutchi- son's address contained this recommendation : "We should be able at our Association's headquarters to concentrate our secre- tariat and archives, our public relations activities, the Bar Review in both its editorial and business functions, a research centre and a proper law library"." It is perhaps questionable whether a re- search center and law library can be established immediately, since they will require funds and considerable advance planning, but nevertheless it is not too early to think about the problem of housing them. In fact, with' the rapidly growing interest in legal research and law reform, the Association should be prepared to offer space and other facilities at its headquarters to researchers and summer students. 37 Finally, a permanent headquarters is a tangible evidence of self-assurance.

The Sections" The third phase of the Association's activities requiring con- sideration is -the sections, now numbering eleven, which seek to educate the profession as well as draw attention to needed reforms in the law. The last decade has seen a remarkable -upsurge-of in- terest in. these elements of the Association. Perhaps this sudden zeal for knowledge (seen at its extreme in the packed audiences attending panel discussions) and for reform of the law is a normal resurgence after a great war, but, however it originated, every possible effort should be made to make the activities- of the sec- tions more effective while interest remains high. Two suggestions have already been made or hinted at, both involving close liaison between the sections and a headquarters office : continuous ad- ministrative assistance from the proposed executive director and assistance in planning and carrying out research programmes by a proposed director of research. 36 (1956), 34 Can. Bar Rev. 887, at p. 895. 37 When, for example, the Association initiated the Survey of the Legal Profession in Canada, free office space could not be offered, although it would probably have been welcomed . 18 Certain-of-the-remarks that follow- apply equally to some committees of the Association .

188 THE CANADIAN BAR REVIEW [VOL . XXXV Most sections now have difficulty in organizing promptly after their officers are elected at an annual meeting. Valuable months are often wasted because a new chairman is unfamiliar with the procedures of the Association, or the names of members interested in the work of the section are not known," or the pre- cise jurisdiction of the section is uncertain. All these problems could be eased by an adequate headquarters staff with the neces- sary authority, one of the staff's functions being to promote sectional activity. The difficulties of sections are partly attributable to the As- sociation's constitution. Under the present by-laws each mem- ber of the Association is automatically a member of every section. This rule was intended to encourage members, particularly new members, to take part in the activities of the Association. That it was proper in the beginnings of the organization, when member- ship was small, there is no question ; but that it is now a cause of gross inefficiency there is also no question. It makes difficult the identification and recruitment of those who are willing to take part in a section's activities. In earlier days a chairman drafted the working members of his section largely from his personal friends and the colleagues he happened to meet at annual meetings and elsewhere ; this procedure is still pretty much the procedure fol- lowed today. Consequently, unless a newcomer to the Association has the initiative to seek out the chairman of the section that interests him (whom, incidentally, he is unlikely to know), he may remain inactive and useless. The proposal is not new, but it seems self-evident that each section should have its own roster of members and, perhaps, its own application form and fee- eligibility for membership in a section being based on membership a in the Association as a whole.4 ss Members of the Association who are not members of Council are not even notified of the names of section and committee chairmen follow- ing an annual meeting, unless these by chance are reported in the Cana- dian Bar Review . See, for example, The Thirty-seventh Annual Meeting of the Canadian Bar Association (1955), 33 Can. Bar Rev. 1035, at p. 1056. 40 This procedure has been followed successfully for years in the American Bar Association. Membership dues in the American Bar Association are $16.00 a year, except in the case of younger lawyers, who pay $4.00 a year for the first two years after their admission to the bar and $8.00 a year for the three following years. The dues in each case in- clude the subscription price of the American Bar Association Journal . There are no additional dues for membership in the Junior Bar Confer- ence, a section of the Association. All members of the Association are eligible for membership in any of the other sixteen sections . Dues for the other sections are as follows: Administrative Law, $5,00 ; Anti-trust Law, $5.00; Bar Activities, $2.00 ; Corporation, Banking and Business Law, $5.00 ; Judicial Administration, $3.00 ; Criminal Law, $2.00 ; Insurance

1957] The Canadian Bar Association 18 9 Membership in sections as such would also have distinct ad- vantages during annual meetings, particularly when resolutions are being voted on in the section. As things now are, members of the Association who have never at any time debated the pro- posal under consideration may attend a section meeting at the last minute and outvote those who have been intimately engaged on the subject for a year or more, thus preventing the resolution from going forward to Council for discussion. In theory a section meeting at present is nothing but a plenary session of the Associa- tion limited to consideration of a defined field-surely an absurd situation. Apart from this argument, which may seem academic to some, a defined membership for sections would greatly ease the adminis- trative problem of preparing and despatching notices, circulars and correspondence. As already pointed out, at the present time every national chairman of a section is theoretically required to keep the full membership of the Association informed of his plans and activities, a provincial chairman the full Association mem- bership in his province. A few words more about fees. As I have mentioned, allotments to cover section expenses have been made by the Association in recent years-although they have not been spent as freely as one might have expected. Financial grants to sections may seem super- ficially like an easy way to encourage section activity, but in fact they are, in the long run, an encouragement to wasteful spending: a larger grant can always be asked for. On the other hand, if a section were spending its own money from its own dues, it would be more likely to show greater responsibility in incurring expendi- tures. I therefore propose that special membership fees for sec- tions be established. The suggestion is not put forward as a means of 'decreasing Association expenses, although this might indeed happen over a period of years. A special membership fee is not of course a panacea to cure all the ills of the sections. Some sections, the ones dealing with the day-to-day problems of the practitioner, are more popular than others. Consequently, it is probable that sizeable grants-in-aid would still have to be provided for those sections (for example, Comparative Law) which, in spite of restricted membership, should be encouraged in the interests of the profession as a whole. Law, $5.00 ; International and Comparative Law, $5.00 ; Labor Relations Law, $6.00 ; Mineral Law, $5.00 ; Municipal Law, $3.00 ; Patent, Trade- Mark and Copyright Law, $5.00 ; Public Utility Law, $3.00 ; Real Prop- erty, Probate and Trust Law, $3.00 ; Taxation, $6.00.

190 THE CANADIAN BAR REVIEW (VOL. XXXV Legal Research and Law Reform The recent Report of the Committee on Legal Research," which I have already mentioned two or three times, should be read by everyone interested in the future of the Canadian Bar Association. The prevailing view of the committee was "that the Canadian Bar Association should immediately establish a legal research founda- tion, dedicated to the promotion of legal research and writing in all their forms, co-operating with law schools, law societies and other organizations, and giving permanent expression to the awakening desire in Canada to raise the level of legal research throughout the country"42 The foundation is envisaged as having ultimately "an endowment of its own drawn from various sources, the income from which would be available for research"." This important report describes, in a detail impossible even to summarize here, a lofty ideal for a dedicated legal profession. The question remains whether the principal recommendation of the committee for a legal research foundation is possible of ac- complishment either now or in the foreseeable future. One of the purposes of this article is to study the proposal from this point of view. Obviously the recommendation cannot be put into effect, either fully or in modified form, without substantial, continuing funds, and without adequate accommodation and trained staff. First, as to funds. In addition to its endowment, which the committee concedes might not be large at first, "it will be possible for the foundation to plan a piece of research, find the individual or committee to direct it, and then seek a special grant for the purpose from the business world, from other foundations, or from some donor. Thus it is not necessary to wait for the money before promoting the research. A good project, well conceived and in capable hands, will attract the funds. "4' That such grants will be made is of course possible, but I suggest, in all seriousness, that in view of the difficulties encountered by another "piece of research"-the Survey of the Legal Profession in Canada initi- ated by the Canadian Bar Association in 1948-prospective don- ors will examine with unusual care any similar projects spon- sored by the Association in the future. The foundation is likely to have to earn a reputation before donations from outside sources can be expected. I am not to be taken as assuming that nothing whatever can be done, even at this moment, to further the object the committee had in mind in its principal recommendation, but 41 (1956), 34 Can. Bar Rev. 999 . 42 Ibid., p. 1052. 44 11 Ibid., p. 1055. Ibid.

1957] The Canadian Bar Association 191 I suggest that the unfortunate consequences of the failure of the Survey, described as a "fiasco" by one of Canada's leading law teachers,'b must be faced realistically. Even the brief remark of the committee that "some staff there will have to be, such as a director and secretarial assistants, and we have made provision for the employment of research personnel either permanently or temporarily" 46 indicates a difficulty. Almost certainly, if the found- ation requires financing in its early stages, the Association will have to do it, either directly or indirectly. Secondly, accommodation. If the Association' establishes a permanent headquarters, the financial implications of which are discussed later, adequate space for the initial development of the proposed foundation will be available. Thirdly, trained staff. Even the limited staff envisaged by the committee will put a burden on the Association that at the moment would be difficult for it to bear. Yet, if the work of the committee is not to be stultified completely, some action must be taken by the Association to initiate a programme that has some chance in the next few years of demonstrating to the legal profession the need and value of research. The report itself contains a clue to what might be attempted as an initial step. It contains_ the following interesting remark: "Without such a guiding influence [that is, the proposed foundation] the work of the sections of the Canadian Bar Association and of the law socie- ties will remain uneven and unto-ordinated, and the research re- .47 quired for law reform will be inadequate . . ." Mention has al- ready been made of the useful results, in the way of increased and improved activity, that would come from closer liaison between the headquarters staff and the sections. I' suggest now that within the Association- there should be created the position of research director and that the position should be filled at the outset, until the actual establishment of the legal research foundation, by the person who at the time is editor of the Canadian Bar Review, which under a proposal already made would become a quarterly publication. The functions of the two positions would be parallel, each nourishing the other : first, the organization of research pro- grammes leads to the development of material suitable for a learned periodical ; secondly, the incumbent of the two positions would in his capacity as research director be drawing on much the same sources for his research studies as in his capacity as editor he would be drawing on for his articles. 's Partial Dissent of Dean C. A. Wright, ibid., p. 1059. 41 Ibid., p. 1054. 47 Ibid., p. 1052.

192 THE CANADIAN BAR REVIEW [VOL . XXXV It should be emphasized that the proposal to combine the posts of editor and research director is a temporary expedient, designed to ease the transition to a foundation of the type contemplated by the Legal Research Committee. Not the least of the incumbent's tasks would be to do everything in his power to bring closer the realization of the dream of a legal research foundation. The Problem of Finance None of the suggestions made in the course of this article, or that may develop from this article, should be discussed apart from what they are likely to cost. If one resolutely tackles the problem of costs, however, one often finds that the actuality is less dif- ficult of solution than was at first feared. The most dangerous enemy is the inertia that resists change without inquiry. The problem of raising money may be approached in two ways either by increasing membership fees" in order to put into effect proposals the members have been asked to approve in advance; or (usually the better method) by putting the proposals into effect to the extent possible with existing resources in the hope of con- vincing the members later that increased fees are justified . In either case the point at which increasing fees result in a loss of membership-or a slowing in the rate of growth-harmful to the Association must always be considered.' Although it would be most unfair to judge the value of any association solely by the material benefits it supplies its members, nevertheless that is a criterion of worth commonly applied. Hence, before increasing fees, it is advisable to ask what a mem- ber actually receives in return for his money. In terms of tangible returns, the Association is offering little more than it did ten years ago." Ten issues of the Canadian Bar Review are still published ; the Proceedings eventually come out; the annual meeting may still be enjoyed by those who attend it. These three benefits are about all the Association offers most of its members in a year, and it 48 The fees referred to here are the general membership fees, not the additional fees proposed for section membership or the fees for sustain- ing members (a special category) . 49 It is interesting that the former increases in fees, referred to in the appendix, did not seem to cause any drop in membership . The member- ship continued to increase at much the same rate, though whether it would have increased more rapidly without the increases remains of course unknown . When considering an increase in fees it is well also to bear in mind the increasing income of lawyers during the last decade. The suggestion of a fee of $20.00 or $25 .00 for active members would probably not pro- duce the reaction it would have ten years ago. 50 Except the Association's mimeographed Newsletter .

1957] The Canadian Bar Association 193 would not be surprising if a good many felt that , yet another in- crease in fees is unjustified at this time. Because this is the reason- ing, the wise procedure would seem to be to delay any general increase until the proposals advanced in this article, or some im- provements like them, are implemented. 'The case for an increase should first be made. An advantage of the proposals is that they can be put into operation at small cost to the Association, radical though some of them may appear at first glance. Both elements of financing are now to be considered : capital and revenue. Involving capital expenditure is the purchase of a permanent headquarters for the Association in Ottawa to provide space for (a) the present administrative staff and additional staff as it is required; (b) the publication of a journal ; (c) the publication of the Review; and (d) at some time in the future a legal research foundation, a library and summer research students. Obviously, to continue indefinitely with rented -quarters is uneconomical . Hence the suggestion is made that some $65,000 be allocated from the Contingency Reserve Fund for the purchase and renovation of an older, residential building in the capital of Canada as a permanent Canadian Bar Association headquarters and as a long-term in- vestment." Such a move would mean a saving of the $4,453 a year now being spent on rent in Ottawa and Montreal for cramp- ed quarters that would be quite inadequate to meet expanding activities. To counterbalance the saving would be the loss of some $1,950 a year from investments (Government of Canada 3% bonds) and expenses of approximately $2,500 a year for taxes, heating, lighting and cleaning. The transaction would involve no loss. In fact, by renting space temporarily unused to another pro- fessional organization the Association would be better off by from $3,000 to $4,000 a year. On the income side, the only immediate expenditures to be met would be for the salaries of the executive director and an editorial .assistant for the journal, and the wages of such addi tional clerical and stenographic assistance as would be required by the increased services to be provided the sections, committees and members. Examine, for instance, how the expenditures and savings involved in the recommendations for the establishment of a journal and the appointment of a research director will tend to balance ai Section 6 of its Act of Incorporation (11-12 Geo. V, c. 79) permits the Association to hold real property . A licence in mortmain would be required from the province of Ontario.

194 THE CANADIAN BAR REVIEW [VOL. XXXV

(a) the publication of six issues of the new journal each year instead of six issues of the Canadian Bar Review-while main- taining the Review as a scholarly quarterly -should entail no additional expense ;" and (b) the new part-time position of the Review's editor as re- search director should involve no added expense, initially at least, because he will be relieved of some of his existing duties. Again, the institution of a fee for section membership might mean some saving in the grants presently made to the sections." And, as sectional activity and interest increase, with a resulting increase in the membership of the sections, the expenses of the sections on a per capita basis should decline. Yet again, the Association annually spends on its Proceedings a sum-amounting in 1955 to 9.60 of its total receipts from membership fees-that is not justified by the value of the Pro ceedings to the members. The Proceedings, or, as it is sometimes called, the Year Book, is a mere record of the annual meetings of the Association and of the Conference of Commissioners on Uni- formity of Legislation in Canada. If it appeared more promptly, it would be more useful, but even prompter publication would not destroy the argument that too much is being spent for too little. A saving could be made-remembering that a year book of some kind is necessary to give the Association and the Conference continuity-if a copy of the administrative reports, including the auditor's annual statement, were sent to all members immediately following the annual meeting, but the Proceedings went only to those members (not including student associates) who requested it in writing. In this way the printing of several thousand more or less useless,copies of the Proceedings would be avoided. Afurther saving could be effected if the proposed journal were instituted.

62 In fact, for any one of several reasons the change might actually reduce expenses temporarily : (1) during the first few years, when the journal is feeling its way, the six issues of the journal might not cost as much to produce as the six issues of the Review they are replacing ; (2) the advertising revenue from the journal might amount to more than the loss of advertising revenue from the Review, since higher rates could be charged in the more "popular" journal ; (3) by operating the Review from Ottawa it might be possible to make more efficient use of staff, including assistant editors ; (4) an immediate saving, though admittedly not a sub- stantial one, in travelling, telephone and telegraph expenses should result from having the editorial offices in the same city as the secretariat and the printers . sa ,e s an indication merely of the possibilities, the statement of Income and Expenditures of Section Funds of the American Bar Association for the year ending June 30th, 1955, shows that from dues alone the sections (apart from the Junior Bar Conference, which has no dues) received a total of $115,110 .50, and from grants from the General Fund, $24,836 .84 .

1957] The Canadian Bar Association 195 When it is, the annual meeting would not have to be reported at length in the Proceedings, because the principal features would already have been covered in the journal and a cross-reference would be enough. This is the practice followed by the American Bar Association, also of necessity, and again that Association's practice is a useful guide. In the preceding pages possible methods of saving a total of some $7,500 have been suggested. But perhaps this is not enough, and some way of increasing revenue should also be found. The beginning of the decade reviewed in this article was a time of crisis in the life of the Canadian Bar Association. Membership had fallen off during the war, the secretariat was ill-equipped and money to promote activities was scarce. To solve the financial problem at least partially (for fees were also raised), a new cate- gory of membership was established in the Association known as "sustaining membership". It was considered that in the Bar of Canada were many lawyers v~ho approved sincerely of the As- sociation's aims but who, for one reason or another, were unable to participate actively in its work. All lawyers who felt able to do so were asked to become sustaining members at a fee- of $25.00, instead of the active membership fee of $10.00 (later 'raised to $15.00), but without additional privileges. The opinion was ,con- firmed by the event and some 572 members-judges, practitioners, trust-company officials and others-became sustaining members of the Association. It is a remarkable record that, ten years later, 282 members continue, without any particular urging, to pay the increased fee. The principle of sustaining membership is wrong if it is used indefinitely to meet annual deficits : either the general membership should bear the load or the Association should reduce its expendi- tures. Sustaining membership is however justified, I suggest, in a crisis such as the Association faced in 1946-1947 or at a time, like the present, when drastic changes are required to meet growing responsibilities . I propose, therefore, that, if the Association is prepared to accept the challenge of change, consideration again be given to a campaign for sustaining members, the fee to be $40.00 or, perhaps, $50.00. The increase in revenue from sustaining memberships, to- gether with the other proposals for lowering expenditures, should result in a net gain to the Association of $15,000 to $20,000 an- nually. With this much could be accomplished.

196 THE CANADIAN BAR REVIEW [VOL . XXXV

A Timefor Change? This article submits that a change in attitude towards the future possibilities of the Canadian Bar Association is justified and re- quired. Enough evidence has been presented here, I hope, to con- vince the membership that the Immediate Past President was right when he asserted that "the time to stop and consider is now". But all statistics, analyses and proposals are useless unless the leadership of the Association becomes imbued with a will to fol- low up consideration with action. On the shoal of inaction many a worthwhile proposal has foundered. May it never be said that lack of time, energy or imagination prevented the Canadian Bar Association from attaining its full stature. Now, indeed, is a time for change.

Et tu, Brute? In evaluating the state of Soviet legal science as a whole, we must admit that the journal Sovetskoye gosudarstvo f pravo, though recently its work has improved somewhat, is still not carrying out its function adequately . The journal has a totally inadequate influence on the development of Soviet legal science ; does a poor job in organizing the presentation of the most pressing problems and promoting discussions of these problems and hardly ever criticizes the work of research institutes, law institutes and individual scholars. Moreover, the journal has carried discussions in which scholastic and far-fetched ideas of no vital importance were ad- vanced. The journal has often published dull articles contributing nothing to theory or practice, articles that dogmatically parroted truisms, mostly in a pompous tone. The journal's board of editors must draw serious conclusions from the decisions of the 20th Party Congress and radically improve the work of this publication by improving the quality of the material published and by enlisting in it not only more scholars but more able personnel as well . Soviet lawyers, like all Soviet people, have greeted the historic resolu- tions of the 20th Party Congress with enormous enthusiasm . Soviet legal scholars will doubtless draw the necessary conclusions from the sharp criticism leveled at legal science at the 20th Party Congress and will give the country major new studies worthy of our era and based on a pro- found study and generalization of practical state and legal work in the U.S.S.R. and the people's democracies and on profound understanding of the legacy left by the great Lenin. (The 20th Party Congress and the Objectives of Soviet Legal Science, from Sovetskoye gosudarstvo f pravo (Soviet State and Law), 1956, No. 2, pp. 3 ff. ; English translation : Current Digest of the Soviet Press, June 6th, 1956, pp.11 ff.) Appendix for explanatory notes see page 198 RECEIPTS AND DISBURSEMENTS(a) 1946-1955 Percentage increase 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 in decade (b) RECEIPTS (in dollars) Revenue from all fees . . 18,586 34,116(c) 40,849 43,036 44,211 44,81701 44,870(e) 64,245 67,742(£) 75,188 304% Revenue from all investments(g) ...... 5,006 4,850 4,647 4,876 5,221 5,019 5,076 5,290 5,757. 6,302 25% Revenue from Review advertising . . . 2,485 4,300 1,883 3,530 5,112(h) 11,195 20,021 22,524 23,795 27,383 1,001% Misc. Revenue 19 (Review sales, etc.) .. . 834 1,031 3,466 2,901 3,412 2,931 3,268 3,041 3,203 1,644 100%n TOTAL RECEIPTS ...... 26,914 44,297 50,845 54,343 57,956 63 ;962 73,235 95,100 100,497 110,517 310% A DISBURSEMENTS (in dollars) Â Salaries ...... 8,845 9,422 13,691 15,471 16,593 18,608 21,690 19,715 23,062 23,891 170% Rent ...... 270 280 920 2,1200) 2,120 2,230 2,695 2,445 3,221 3,537 1,210% Equipment and Office Supplies, etc...... 1,922 2,912 1,927 1,600 4,746 1,702 2,699 2,559 4,474 5,273 174% Â Review Printing ...... 6,209 9,657 17,0700) 15,869 16,211 14,700 21,579 21,441 29,657 31,891 413%(k) (8 issues) (11 issues) (11 issues) Annual Proceedings. . . . 1,935 2,040 2,459 3,831 4,300 4,445 5,621 3,914 6,362 7,216 272%(k) y (incl.index) - - - 2,500 5,000 - 5,000 - n Presidential Expenses . , . - - - Â Section and Committee H Expenses ...... - 121 1,068 941 1,638 1,224 1,180 3,236 2,110 5,666 Prize Awards ...... - - - 1,750 - 600 1,275 - 1,125 1,275 - Advertising Commissions 170 183 - - 1,218(h) 4,255 5,520 7,196 7,606 7,153 - Travelling Expenses . . . . 306 620 595 1,974 1,663 1,256 1,106 638 1,347 2,528 - Rebates to B.C. and N.B . Sections ...... - - - 1,600(1) 1,600 1,600 1,600 1,685 1,746 2,333(m) - Postage, Telephone, Telegraph & Review Dist. 1,299 1,584 1,623 1,840 1,846 2,308 2,805 2,981 3,312 4,647 257% Misc. Expense(n) ...... 1,820 2,338 2,395 2,873 1,249 1,578 2,555 2,778 3,319 4,608 153% TOTAL DISBURSEMENTS. . 22,776 29,157 41,748 49,869 53,184 54,506 72,825 73,588 87,341 105,018 361%

ExcESs OF RECEIPTS p. ., ovER DISBURSEMENTS . 4,135 15,140 9,097(0) 4,474 9,456 410 21,512 13,156 5,499 k0 3,772 v

(Explanatory notes to table on page 197) (a) These statistics are based on the audited statements of the Association . Slight inaccuracies may exist in those cases where 00 categories were insufficiently detailed in the accounts to suit present purposes . The inaccuracies are not such, however, as to change the conclusions based on the figures . Receipts and expenditures of the Canadian Bar Review are included with general account receipts and expenditures in order to give an overall picture. No account is taken of receipts and expendi- tures at Association meetings. In comparing financial statistics with membership statistics, readers should note that the former are based on the calendar year, while the latter are tabulated on July 31st of each year . (b) The percentage increase is set out only if it has some significance ; in certain cases percentages would not indicate a-trend from which conclusions could be drawn. In all cases the percentages are approximate . (c) In 1947 a sustaining membership fee, amounting to $25.00, was inaugurated for the first time. The fees for active members were also raised from $5.00 to $10.00. n (d) In 1951 junior membership fees were raised from $3.00 to $5 .00. z a (e) In 1952 active membership fees were again raised, from $10.00 to $15 .00 . C7 (f) In 1953 certain students became eligible to join the Association as student associate members at a fee of $3.00. Trust Fund, however, is not allocated to revenue, the fund having been set up to provide z (g) Interest from the Viscount Bennett rb for scholarships . Interest from the Sir James Aikins "Bar Review" Trust Fund, since it goes towards the expenses of the Review, is included. (h) The significant increase in revenue from advertising in the Review started in 1950. In(i) 1949 office space that had been loaned the Association by solicitors or law schools ceased to be available. tn (j) First significant increase in printing costs. The 1948 volume of the Review contained, however, 1,506 pages as opposed to the 1,193 pages in the 1947 volume . (k) Note that a substantial part of this increase, in the case both of the Review and the Proceedings, is attributable to the increas- ed membership of the Association, necessitating the printing of many more copies. As compared with earlier years of the somewhat larger . decade, annual volumes of the Review are also C (1) Rebate to British Columbia as a result of the compulsory membership introduced in 1948 in that province. O (m) Includes a rebate of $520 to New Brunswick as a result of the compulsory membership introduced in the previous year. (n) In all likelihood some of these figures include the cost of certain office supplies required by the Review. k (o) From this amount $5,000 was reserved for the Survey of the Legal Profession in Canada .