Legal Research

The Humpty Dumpty Ruling

By Omar Ha-Redeye

There was an amusing Federal Court of Canada decision last week covered today by The Star. In Mackay v. Canada (Attorney General), Justice Harrington ruled that a thesaurus is an educational textbook or supply not subject to the $1,500 limit on personal property for inmates.

Here are the best parts:

[1]               ?Don?t make a federal case out of it!? means ?don?t make a mountain out of a molehill? or don?t make a ?big deal? of a small matter.

…

[20]           According to Lewis Caroll, ?[w]hen I use a word,? Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, ?it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.? ?The question is,? said Alice, ?whether you can make words mean so many different things.? ?The question is,? said Humpty Dumpty, ?which is to be master ? that?s all.? In this Court, Humpty Dumpty falls. In my opinion, the decision was unreasonable. A thesaurus does not lose its educational textbook or supply status and become a mere book because it is not required reading in a course offered by or approved by the institution, or because a copy is available in the library.

Simon Fodden has written more on Mr. Dumpty’s encounter with Alice in what he calls, “a case of ontology meets hermeneutics.”

Full post as published by Slaw.ca on September 04, 2010 (boomark / email).