Volume 88 | Issue 7 | obiter-dicta.ca
The Definitive Source for Osgoode News since 1928
Monday, December 01, 2014
concerns about carding
what’s at stake in the new
policy on access?
ê Within an institution founded upon inclusiveness, does the Law Library’s new “restricted-access policy” speak against the values Osgoode purports to hold?
parmbir singh gill › staff writer
C
h a nge is a foot at Osgoode Hall. On
November 17, the Law Library instituted
a “restricted-access policy,” prohibiting
non-Osgoode students and community
members from using the Library’s study spaces for
the remainder of 2014. In an email to the student
body sent on November 13, Chief Law Librarian
Louis Mirando explained the move as necessary to “facilitate [student] work on end-of-term
assignments and studies for the upcoming exams.”
Importantly, the policy is being enforced through
a controversial practice called ‘carding,’ which
requires all patrons to present personal identification to Library staff upon entry, and to submit to
further “querying” if required. While some students have come out in support of the new policy,
many others are raising questions about its content, implementation, and effects.
To foster a critical discussion of both the means
and the ends of restricted access, the Obiter Dicta
is reprinting the following edited letter, sent by an
Osgoode Hall law student and Law Union member
to the Chief Law Librarian on November 22.
Readers interested in voicing their own concerns
and/or organizing a campaign to repeal the policy
may contact the Osgoode Hall Law Union at .
In this Issue ...
editorial
Economic Mobility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
news
Community Interrupted . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
opinion
A Christmas Carol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Dear Louis Mirando,
My name is Parmbir Singh Gill, I’m a first-year JD
student at Osgoode Hall, and I have some questions
about the carding policy instituted by the library
» see carding, page 16
arts & culture
Jurisfoodence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
sports
Toronto Raptors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13