After completion of this lesson you will be able gto locate legal information.
There are 6 topics within this lesson:
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Making and Passing LawsLegislation is introduced into the Parliament as a bill. A bill is a proposal to create a new law or change an existing law; A bill can be introduced in the House of Commons (C-bills) or the Senate (S-bills); most are introduced in the House.
Public bills are introduced by cabinet ministers. Numbers assigned begin with a “C” and they usually deal with public policy matters that affect the entire province or country such as taxes, health, social programs, or the environment.
Private bills are normally introduced by the member whose riding the bill concerns. These bills usually affect a particular individual, institution or corporation.
Prior to third and final reading the bill is referred to a committee where members examine the fine points of the legislation.
You can access bills by using a Title search for "bills" in the library catalogue.
You can also access bills online through the Parliament of Canada.
Canada became a country by an act of the Parliament of Great Britain with the British North America Act of 1867 (the BNA Act, now known as the Constitution Act, 1867). The BNA Act provided for confederation, but it did not codify a new set of constitutional rules for Canada or even include a clause for amending or changing the Act. For this reason, until 1982 any amendments to the BNA Act had to be enacted by the Parliament in England.
The Constitution Act of 1982 “patriated” or brought home from Great Britain Canada’s constitution as created by the BNA Act. The Constitution Act declares the Constitution of Canada to be the supreme law of Canada and includes some 30 acts and orders that are part of it. It reaffirms Canada’s dual legal system by stating provinces have exclusive jurisdiction over property and civil rights. It also includes Aboriginal rights, those related to the historical occupancy and use of the land by Aboriginal peoples, treaty rights, agreements between the Crown and particular groups of Aboriginal people.
The Constitution sets out the basic principles of democratic government in Canada when it defines the powers of the three branches of government: the executive, the legislative and the judicial.
The executive power in Canada is vested in the Queen. In our democratic society, this is only a constitutional convention, as the real executive power rests with the Cabinet. The Cabinet, at the federal level, consists of the Prime Minister and Ministers who are answerable to Parliament for government activities.
The legislative branch is Parliament, which consists of the House of Commons, the Senate and the Monarch or her representative, the Governor General.
Our Constitution also provides for a judiciary, the judges who preside over cases before the courts. The role of the judiciary is to interpret and apply the law and the Constitution, and to give impartial judgments in all cases, whether they involve public law, such as a criminal case, or private (civil) law, such as a dispute over a contract.
When the Constitution was patriated in 1982, the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms became a fundamental part of it. The Charter takes precedence over other legislation because it is “entrenched” in the Constitution, the supreme law of Canada. It applies to the provincial legislatures as well as to Parliament. This means that when an individual who believes that Parliament or a legislature has violated guaranteed rights asks the courts for help, the courts may declare the law invalid as far as it conflicts with the Charter. In addition, courts may provide other appropriate remedies to individuals whose rights have been violated or infringed.
The Charter protects fundamental freedoms, democratic rights, the right to move from one province or territory to another in Canada, legal, equality and language rights, and Aboriginal rights.
The Charter does not embody all our rights as Canadians; it only guarantees basic minimum rights. We all have other rights derived from federal, provincial, territorial, international and common law. Similarly, Parliament or a provincial or territorial legislature can always add to our rights.
When the Provinces of Canada were confederated in 1867, the first Prime Minister, Sir John A. Macdonald was adamant that Canada would not suffer the disparate criminal law system inherited from England for long (at that time, each province had its own criminal law). Macdonald believed strongly in the need for a single, uniform regime of criminal law for the entire country. In fact, the Canadian constitution which he helped write, gave the federal government the explicit authority to codify the criminal law. An initial set of nine statutes was passed by the federal House of Commons in 1869 to at least consolidate the law for coinage offences, forgery, offences against the person, larceny, malicious injuries to property, perjury and procedure.
A complete Criminal Code was finally achieved in July, 1892 and copied much of the English 1878 bill. It has since been revised numerous times, to accommodate the needs of changing times, such as amendments for gun control, the elimination of the death penalty and of abortion offenses and the creation of drunk-driving offences. In 1955, a major reform was carried out and the Code was reduced from 1100 sections to 753. Peculiarly, while the Code is a federal law, the administration of the criminal law justice system is left to the provinces. It is the latter that hires and supervises the work of public prosecutors and court officials.
You can access regulations through the Department of Justice Canada.
Case Law decisions can be located:
Canadian Encyclopedic Digest
Canadian Abridgment (2nd edition)
The power of the Canadian Abridgement is in it's ability to provide subject access to Case Law.
Civil CodeThe tradition of civil law is based on Roman law, which has been associated with a “civil code.” Quebec’s Civil Code, first enacted in 1866 just before Confederation and amended periodically, was recently thoroughly revised. Like all civil codes, such as the Code Napoléon in France, it contains a comprehensive statement of rules, many of which are framed as broad, general principles, to deal with any dispute that may arise. Unlike common-law courts, courts in a civil-law system first look to the Code, and then refer to previous decisions for consistency.
The Quebec Act of 1774 made Canada a “bijural” country, one with two types of law. The Quebec Act stated that common law was to be applied outside Quebec in matters of private law, while similar matters in Quebec were to be dealt with under Civil Code law. For public law, on the other hand, the common law was to be used in and outside Quebec.
Common Law After the Battle of Quebec in 1759, Canada fell almost exclusively under English law. Except for Quebec, where the civil law is based on the French Code Napoléon, Canada’s criminal and civil law has its basis in English common and statutory law.
The common law, which developed in Great Britain after the Norman Conquest, was based on the decisions of judges in the royal courts. It evolved into a system of rules based on “precedent.” Whenever a judge makes a decision that is to be legally enforced, this decision becomes a precedent: a rule that will guide judges in making subsequent decisions in similar cases. The common law is unique because it cannot be found in any code or body of legislation, but exists only in past decisions. At the same time, common law is flexible and adaptable to changing circumstances.
LawSource - you can access this database through the library catalogue.
CanLII - Canadian Legal Information Institute
Federal Legislation -
Laws - Justice Canada
Bills - Parliament Site
Ontario Legislation -
Laws: e-Laws
Bills: Legislative Assembly
Other Provincial Statutes & Regulations - via CanLII
The Canadian Abridgment, second edition - Summeries of Canadian cases. Call number: DOC CA7 CM C11 (7th floor)