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Government of Canada – DTPR AI Register

AI-Assisted Legal Research for Government Lawyers

Research & Development · Education & Learning

What it collects that can identify you

About behaviour
Identifiable data
  • Legal research queries and prompts entered by GC employee users into the system. These are work-related queries tied to the user's authenticated session.

Also collects operational data, which is anonymized data.

Run by
Department of Justice Canada (JUS)
Where
No fixed location
Kept
Not stated by the Helpful Places.
Shared with
Accountable organization, Vendor
Your copy
You cannot see the data it holds about you. What you can do

What it is for

Research & DevelopmentEducation & Learning

This system adds an AI legal research assistant to the Department of Justice Canada's Westlaw Canada subscription, allowing government lawyers to use generative AI to speed up legal tasks such as research and document drafting. It is a pilot project currently under evaluation and is used only by Government of Canada employees. Users are informed that AI is involved in producing results.

What it collects and what happens to it

Data taken in

Operational data
Anonymized data
  • Existing proprietary legal publications and datasets from Westlaw Canada — including case law, statutes, regulations, and secondary legal sources — are used as the knowledge base for the AI assistant.
About behaviour
Identifiable data
  • Legal research queries and prompts entered by GC employee users into the system. These are work-related queries tied to the user's authenticated session.

Processing

Language Models
  • Westlaw CoCounsel integrates generative AI — specifically a large language model — with the content of Westlaw to process legal queries and produce written legal research outputs.
Search & Retrieval
  • The system uses retrieval to surface relevant Westlaw legal content (cases, statutes, secondary sources) in response to user queries, grounding the generative AI outputs in authoritative legal publications.

What it does

Creating (Generative AI)
Human decides
  • The system uses generative AI to produce legal research outputs, drafted text, and synthesized legal content. Outputs are advisory — a government lawyer reviews and decides whether to use the generated content.
Understanding (Semantic AI)
Human decides
  • The system retrieves and surfaces relevant legal content from Westlaw's proprietary publications and datasets in response to a lawyer's query, grounding its generative outputs in existing legal sources.

Outputs

Generated content
Anonymized data
  • The system generates legal research summaries, drafted text, and synthesized responses to legal queries. Outputs are produced for the requesting lawyer and do not inherently identify third parties.
A recommendation or prediction
Anonymized data
  • The system may surface relevant cases, statutes, or legal sources as recommendations to the user based on their research query. These are advisory outputs reviewed by the user before any professional use.

Run by

Department of Justice Canada (JUS)
  • The Department of Justice Canada operates this pilot project, providing Government of Canada employees with access to the AI-assisted legal research tool as part of its Westlaw Canada subscription.

Government of Canada Algorithmic Impact Assessment Registry — Westlaw Edge with CoCounsel (2526-JUS-001)

Built by

Thomson Reuters
  • Thomson Reuters developed Westlaw CoCounsel, the AI-powered legal assistant that integrates generative AI with Westlaw content. The system is built and supplied by Thomson Reuters as the vendor.

Government of Canada Algorithmic Impact Assessment Registry — Westlaw Edge with CoCounsel (2526-JUS-001)

Kept for

Not stated by the Helpful Places.

Shared with

Available to the accountable organization
  • Outputs and query data generated within the system are accessible to the Department of Justice Canada as the deploying organization, consistent with its role administering the Westlaw Canada subscription.
Available to vendor
  • Thomson Reuters, as the vendor of Westlaw CoCounsel, may have access to query and usage data as part of providing and improving the service. The extent of vendor data access is not specified in the register entry.
Not available to me
  • Members of the public cannot access this system. It is restricted to Government of Canada employees as part of the Department of Justice Canada's internal legal research tools.

Stored

Not stated by the Helpful Places.

How to read the colours

Can it identify you?

Anonymized data
Data about people with the link to who is broken. Stripped of identifiers, blurred, aggregated, or noised so this system can’t reasonably tie a record back to an individual.
Pseudonymous data
Each person’s data is tied to a token (hash, ID, template) that lets this system recognise the same person across events, but the token itself doesn’t reveal a name. Reidentification is possible with extra information.
Identifiable data
The data either contains a direct identifier (name, address, account name, recognisable face or voice, plate number) or carries a token this system uses to look up legal identity during processing.

Who completes the loop?

Human decides
This mode suggests; a person decides what to do next. The AI is always advisory — a human is in the loop on every decision. Example: a triage tool ranks cases for a clinician who chooses which to see first.
Human executes
This mode decides; a person carries out the result. Example: an optimizer plans the day’s trash-collection routes, and drivers run them.
Autonomous
This mode decides and acts on its own. No person reviews each decision or carries out the resulting action.

Definitions from the DTPR standard. Amber is about your data, violet about who decides. The fuller the shape and the deeper the colour, the more identifying the data or the less a person is involved.

What you can do

Ask about this system

Questions go to the Helpful Places, not the vendor.

Your rights

  • Right to Be Informed of AI UseUsers are informed that AI is involved in producing results. The AI use is disclosed to users as indicated in the register entry. Contact the Department of Justice Canada for further information.
  • Right to Algorithmic TransparencyAs a pilot project under evaluation, Government of Canada employees using this system are entitled to understand in plain language how the AI assistant processes legal queries and generates outputs. Details about the system's logic may be obtained through the Department of Justice Canada.

Risks and safeguards

No risks or safeguards have been published for this system yet.