MPs and Senators study, debate and vote on a variety of issues and most of them wind up impacting most of us.  Ever wondered how they do their research?  As outlined in our entry of March 22, the Parliamentary Information and Research Service (PIRS)  has researchers on staff who “obtain and analyze material, and write…research papers at the request of Senators and Members of the House of Commons.”

Those research papers are freely available from the Library of Parliament webpage and provide you with a well-researched, cited, and readable summary of issues being studied in Parliament.  Why not take advantage of this tax-payer funded service when conducting your own research?

Here are some of the latest reports:

• Social Media: Political Uses and Implications
• Anti-Spam Laws in Western Countries

• The Federal Debt & Rising Interest Rates: Should We be Worried?

Researching older issues?  PIRS has reports on-site from as far back as 1991, though the majority are from 2006 – 2009.  For example:

• There are 8 different reports pertaining to the Official Languages Act, including Section 41 of the Official Languages Act: Scope, Evolution and Implementation Framework (2001)

• Sustainable Forest Management in Canada: Clear Policy – Questionable Practice (19 July 2005)

• Sexual Orientation and Legal Rights: A Chronological Overview (26 September 2005) – compare this document to this one from 2010: Sexual Orientation and Legal Rights (24 February 2010)

The array of topics covered by PIRS is impressive, so if you’re looking for some primary source documents or if you are looking for something from the government’s perspective you may be well-served by the documents you find on their site!

Posted: 05|4|10 at 12:40 pm. Filed under: Online Resource (Free).
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