Canadian Legal System and Finding Primary Materials

1
Canadian Legal System and Finding Primary
Materials

• Daniel Perlin
• Reference Librarian
• Thursday February 26, 2009

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Canadian Legal System

• Common law system in 9 provinces and criminal
  law across Canada Quebec has civil code for
  civil matters
• Constitution and division of powers
• Structure of the Court system
• How legislation is passed through Parliament

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Constitution and the Division of Powers

• Constitution Act 1982 and Charter of Rights and
  Freedoms
• Constitution is supreme law
• Federal system
• Division of Powers
• Federal Powers s. 91
• Provincial Powers s. 92
• Residual power to federal government
• Disallowance s. 90

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Charter of Rights and Freedoms

• Entrenched with the Constitution
• Individual rights under the Charter
• Limiting rights power s. 1
• Aboriginal treaty rights s. 35
• Notwithstanding clause s. 33 override power
  allows provinces and federal government to pass
  laws overriding rights

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The Court Structure
Supreme Court of Canada
Court of Appeal (province)
Federal Court of Appeal
Superior Court of Justice (province)
Federal Court Trial Division
Provincial Court Of Justice
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Court System

• SCC is final court of appeal for all matters
• 9 judges on the SCC 3 from Quebec
• To appeal to the SCC, must be granted leave to
  appeal
• Can hear references important questions of law
  e.g. legislation

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Bills

• What are they?
• public bills
• private member bills
• private bills
• How do bills pass into law?

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How Bills become law
House of Commons
Senate
1st reading
1st reading
2nd reading
2nd reading
Committee stage
Committee stage
3rd reading
3rd reading
ROYAL ASSENT
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Primary Materials

• Introduction to Primary Materials
• Canadian Legislation
• Canadian Case Law

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Introduction to Primary Materials

• What are primary materials?
• When do you use them in the legal research
  process?

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Checklist to researching Primary Materials

• 1. Identify level of government having
  jurisdiction over subject matter
• 2. Identify relevant statutes
• 3. Note up statutes
• 4. Check for regulations
• 5. Identify relevant court cases

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Bills (Continued)

• Where to find bills
• Parliament website (1994-present)
• Legislative Assembly website
• Hansard Debates on Parliament website
  (1994-present)
• In the library
• Canadian Legislative Index in library
• QL (Canada only from 1997-present)

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Canadian Statutes

• What are they?
• Revised statutes vs. other written statutes
• If not sure which statute has what you are
  looking for
• -Index of Consolidated Statutes of Canada (R.S.C.
  1985)
• -Quicklaw

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Canadian Statutes (continued)

• How to find current statutes
• Department of Justice (Federal)
• E-laws (Ontario)
• CANLII
• Canada Gazette Part III
• Searching for history of statutes
• - Table of Public statues
• QL point in time (only back to 1998)
• Parliamentary Debates
• E-laws (Ontario only)

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Canadian statutes (continued)

• Statutes judicially considered
• In print
• QL
• WL

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Regulations

• What are they?
• Where to find them
• Canada Gazette Part II (Federal)
• Provincial Gazettes
• E-laws
• Department of Justice

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Committee Reports

• Committees made up of MPs
• Can propose changes to bills
• Also do studies
• In library law and Scott
• Online at Parliament website (1994-present)

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Canadian case law

• How to find cases by subject
• -Canadian Case Citations (in print)
• -QL Source directory gtgt Topic pull down menu
• -WL in Topic, click on subject you want
• How to note up cases
• QL Quickcite
• Westlaw-ecarswell
• Canadian Case Citations (in print)
• CANLII