The fonds reflects Mary Bishop’s interests in the social and political issues surrounding family planning, access to birth control, and population planning, primarily in Canada, as well as in south Asia and globally. She accumulated a large number of subject files to support her research in these areas on topics including human sexuality; abortion; fertility; welfare of children and families; and the influence of organized religion and Eugenics movements on birth control access. The fonds also reflects Bishop’s dedication to voluntary service with local, national, and international organizations focused on family and population planning. A small number of personal records are also included.

Bishop’s records are arranged into three series: population and family planning research; volunteer involvement; and personal files. The fonds consists primarily of newspaper clippings and research notes on topics of interest to Bishop; government and NGO reports and publications on population policy and family planning issues; pamphlets and flyers; and drafts of articles and speeches authored by Bishop. The fonds also includes recordings and transcripts of a series of interviews conducted by Bishop in the late 1970s with individuals relevant to the history of the birth control movement in Canada, including physicians, activists, religious leaders, couples, and individual women. Some organizational records for the various groups Bishop was part of (e.g., agendas, meeting minutes, annual reports, committee reports, correspondence, financial records) are also present in the fonds.

The fonds consists of thirteen series of records pertaining to the activities of Thomas Berger, including two series of files arranged with reference to file classification schemes, related to party politics and to the Sardar Sarovar Projects Independent Review, as well as eleven series of subject files generally arranged alphabetically, related to the Royal Commission on Family and Children’s Law, the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline Inquiry, the Advisory Commission on Indian and Inuit Health Consultation, a proposed United Nations Environmental Programme inquiry on whales and whaling, Japanese Canadians’ redress, the Alaska Native Review Commission, the Canadian Judicial Council and its investigation concerning Berger, the University of British Columbia President’s Ad Hoc Committee on British Columbia Native Indian People and Communities, the Simon Fraser University J. S. Woodsworth Chair committee, speeches given by Berger (arranged by event in subseries of two to seven year periodic groups), and subject files related to aboriginal peoples, the Arctic and the north in general.
There are also files related to his resignation from the Supreme Court of Canada in 1981. The files were used by Berger when he wrote his autobiography <em>One Man’s Justice: A Life in the Law</em>.

The arrangement by the records’ creator of series and file order within series has been respected. Several series contain files housed in multiple folders, indicated by notes where applicable.