Federal And Provincial Statutes And Regulations PDF

Federal and Provincial Statutes and Regulations PLG 155(1) September 10, 2024 Review From Last Week 1.What is the difference between statutory law and common law? 2.What is the relationship between primary and secondary sources of law? 3.Why are some matters heard in the federal court system? 4...

Federal and Provincial Statutes and Regulations PLG 155(1) September 10, 2024 Review From Last Week 1.What is the difference between statutory law and common law? 2.What is the relationship between primary and secondary sources of law? 3.Why are some matters heard in the federal court system? 4.What is stare decisis? 5.What is a precedent? Today’s Agenda Part I: Footnote demo Part II: Introduction to statutes and regulations Part III: Annual and consolidated statutes Part IV: Citing statutes and regulations Today’s Objectives By the end of today’s class, you will be able to: Know how to use footnotes Explain the differences between statutes and regulations Understand how statutes and regulations are made and amended Begin to use proper McGill Guide citation for statutes and regulations Note: next week’s class will focus on finding and  PART I: FOOTNOTE DEMONSTRATION Footnote Demo Footnotes are written in superscripted numbers (i.e. ) next to the information 3 you are referencing in the body of your work The superscripted number will be reproduced at the bottom of the page in a smaller size, where you will insert your citation Footnote Demo Generally, you should place the superscripted number at the end of the sentence after the punctuation Example: The sky is blue.3 The exception is if you are referring to a specific word, phrase, or quotation – in this case, put the superscripted number right after the word, phrase, or quotation Example: The Court defined the concept of “sky blueness” in its last few decisions. 3  PART II: INTRODUCTION TO STATUTES & REGULATIONS Statutes and Regulations Breakdown Assignment (15%) The assignment instructions can be found in the “Assignment Instructions” tab on Blackboard You must submit the assignment by September 24 at 11:59 pm through the “Assignment Submission” tab on Blackboard 25% late penalty per day will apply What is a Statute? A statute is a written law created by the federal or provincial legislature It is also known as legislation, an act of the legislature, or simply an act What is a Statute? Statutes can: Permit something to be done (permissive) Require something to be done (imperative) Prohibit something from being done (prohibitive) Set out approved methods of doing Permissive Provision - Example Public education and information programs 18 (1) The Chief Electoral Officer may implement public education and information programs to make the electoral process better known to the public, particularly to those persons and groups most likely to experience difficulties in exercising their democratic rights. [taken from the Canada Elections Act, SC 2000, c 9] Imperative Provision - Example Appointment and term of office 13 (1) There shall be a Chief Electoral Officer who shall be appointed by resolution of the House of Commons to hold office during good behaviour for a term of 10 years. He or she may be removed for cause by the Governor General on address of the Senate and House of Commons. [taken from the Canada Elections Act, SC 2000, c 9] Prohibitive Provision - Example Prohibitions 43 No person shall (a) knowingly obstruct an election officer in the exercise of his or her powers or the performance of his or her duties; (b) without authority, use identification simulating that used by an election officer or intended to replace that prescribed by the Chief Electoral Officer for that purpose; or (c) having been removed or replaced as an election officer, fail to return any election documents or election materials in his or her possession to the returning Offence/Penalty Provision - Example Obstruction, etc., of electoral process 480 (1) Every person is guilty of an offence who, with the intention of delaying or obstructing the electoral process, contravenes this Act, otherwise than by committing an offence under subsection (2) or section 480.1, 481, 482 or 482.1 or contravening a provision referred to in any of sections 484 to 499. Public meetings (2) Every person is guilty of an offence who, at any time between the issue of a writ and the day after polling day at the election, acts, incites others to act or conspires to act in a disorderly manner with the intention of preventing the transaction of the business of a public meeting called for the purposes of the election.  The Federal Law-making Process At the federal level, Canada has a bicameral legislature (two chambers: the House of Commons and the Senate make up the federal Parliament) A bill is introduced either in the House of Commons (denoted by the letter C-) or in the Senate (denoted by the letter S-) The bill will pass through three readings in the chamber where it is introduced If passed at the second reading, the bill moves to the committee stage where it is studied extensively and reported on (amendments might be suggested)  The Federal Law-making Process (ctn’d) The bill is sent back for its third reading, where members debate and vote on it once again If the bill passes the third reading by simple majority (51%), it is sent to the other chamber and the same process is repeated If the bill passes in both chambers, it will receive Royal Assent from the Governor General  The Ontario Law-making Process A bill is introduced to the Ontario Legislative Assembly and it undergoes three readings If passed at the second reading stage, the bill will move to the committee and report stage The Chair of the relevant committee will report back to the House and the bill will proceed to the third reading If it passes the third reading, the bill will receive Royal Assent by the Lieutenant  Royal Assent and Coming Into Force Royal Assent is a process where the Queen’s representative in Canada authorizes the creation of a new law This is the Governor General (federal) and Lieutenant Governor (provincial) Once a statute receives Royal Assent, it becomes law The statute is not necessarily in force, however, just because it has received Royal Assent Sometimes there are reasons why lawmakers do not want a statute to come into force right away  Royal Assent and Coming Into Force A statute can come into force in several ways: (1) Upon Royal Assent – the statute might provide that all of its sections will come into force when it receives Royal Assent (2) On a specified date – some (or all) parts of the statute will come into force on a specified future date (3) Upon proclamation – some (or all) parts of the statute will be proclaimed in force by the Governor In Council (federal) or Lieutenant Governor (provincial) on a date that will be Royal Assent and Coming Into Force - Examples Upon Royal Assent: Nikola Tesla Day Act, 2021, SO 2021, c 29 (link here) Specific Date: Elections Modernization Act, SC 2018, c 31 (link here) By Proclamation: Protecting a Sustainable Public Sector for Future Generations Act, 2019, SO 2019, c 12 (link here) What is a Regulation? A regulation is a rule made under the authority of an enabling statute A regulation must have statutory authorization to be made Regulations are also called subordinate or delegated legislation They are created and amended by the government more quickly and easily than statutes What is a Regulation? The enabling statute indicates who has the authority to make regulations and for what purpose There will be a section in the enabling statute authorizing a person/entity to make regulations Who can make regulations? Specific department and ministry officials There are different ministries at the federal and provincial level responsible for different areas (i.e. health, justice, finance) Governor In Council (federal regulations) Making Federal and Provincial Regulations do not need to be introduced Regulations before the legislature and voted on, so they can be created and amended more quickly than statutes A federal regulation comes into force on the day specified in the regulation or on the date it is registered An Ontario regulation comes into force on the day it is filed unless the regulation or Statute vs. Regulation Statutes and regulations work together with the statute providing the general roadmap A statute goes through a lengthy approval process and it will lay out the legislative scheme Regulations follow a different approval process and are often quite specific Example: Courts of Justice Act and the Rules of Civil Procedure and Rules of the Small What is a Bylaw? A province can delegate to a municipality the right to legislate on a defined range of matters These include: the health, safety and well- being of persons; the protection of persons and property; animals; structures, including fences and signs; and business licensing The city or municipality legislates by passing bylaws PART III: ANNUAL AND CONSOLIDATED STATUTES Annual and Consolidated Statutes There is an important distinction between these two terms for a legal researcher Annual statutes are statutes passed in a given year These versions of the statutes will appear as they were originally passed (no amendments included) Think of an annual statute like a snapshot of what the statute looked like when it first became law Consolidated versions of statutes incorporate all amendments that have been made to the statute up to a certain currency date You may need to look at both types of statutes depending on your research question Revised Statutes and Regulations Large-scale revisions of statutes occurred historically to consolidate (bring together) all amendments that had been made to statutes over a certain period These revisions were published in print volumes At the federal level, the last revision was 1985 In Ontario, the last revision was 1990 This is important because these historical revisions influence how we cite statutes and regulations Question: Why do you think we moved away from doing these large-scale revisions? Publication of Federal Annual Statutes - Print Annual volumes: acts passed by Parliament in a given year are collected in a series for that year and printed in an annual volume Example: SC 2012 (Statutes of Canada, 2012) contains only statutes passed in 2012. Statutes are given chapter numbers in the volume [Image taken from CBC.ca] according to the order in which they were passed Publication of Ontario Annual Statutes - Print Just as with federal acts, acts passed in Ontario each year are collected in a series for that year and printed in an annual volume The Statutes of Ontario are red books published annually Each statute is assigned a [Image taken from University of Ottawa website] chapter number based on Publication of Federal Revised Statutes - Print The last federal revision was the Revised Statutes of Canada 1985 This process consolidated amendments to laws existing at the time into books Each statute was given its own new chapter number in the RSC You will see that statutes [Image taken from University of Minnesota Law School which appeared in the Revised website] Statutes of Canada 1985 are Publication of Ontario Revised Statutes - Print The last revision in Ontario was the Revised Statutes of Ontario 1990 This process consolidated amendments to Ontario laws existing at the time into books Each statute was given its own chapter number in the RSO You will see that statutes [Image taken from University of Ottawa website] which appeared in the Publication of Statutes - Online The Ontario e-Laws website includes (a) current consolidated statutes; and (b) annual statutes enacted on or after January 1, 2000 The site aims to publish new statutes within two business days The federal Justice Laws website includes: (a) current consolidated statutes; and (b) annual statutes enacted after 2001 The site is generally updated every two weeks Annual statutes published from 1998 to the present can be found in the online version of the Canada Gazette, Part III If you are looking for annual statutes before the dates above, you have to consult print statute books Publication of Regulations - Online Federal regulations: Are required to be published in the Canada Gazette, Part II, within 23 days of registration Federal regulations were last consolidated in print in 1978 in the Consolidated Regulations of Canada Justice Laws maintains current consolidations of regulations Ontario regulations: Are published both online (on the e-Laws website) and in print in the Ontario Gazette Ontario regulations were last revised in print in 1990 in the Revised Regulations of Ontario e-Laws maintains current consolidations of regulations Official vs. Unofficial Sources An official version of a statute or regulation means it can be used for evidentiary purposes (i.e. being included in legal documents submitted to a court) Justice Laws consolidated statutes and regulations = official Justice Laws annual statutes = unofficial E-Laws consolidated statutes and regulations = official E-Laws annual statutes (source law) = official Official vs. Unofficial Sources Legislation available on commercial databases (i.e. Lexis+ or Westlaw) is considered unofficial because these databases are not official government sources Although CanLII is not technically an official source, its website states that: “Given current law, the documents published by CanLII have no official status. However, the documents published on CanLII are routinely used for professional purposes and are accepted by the great majority of courts to assess the state of the law. This said, CanLII publishes the documents for users' convenience only, and provides no guarantees relating to use of the documents it publishes despite the care taken in their preparation.” Amending Statutes Laws are regularly amended for a variety of reasons – what reasons can you think of? Lawmakers use what are called amending acts to amend existing statutes These amending acts follow the same process as if an entirely new law were being introduced as a bill If an amending act is passed and it receives Royal Assent, the amendments will be incorporated into the consolidated version of Amending Statutes - Examples Federal example: An Act to amend the Financial Administration Act (special warrant), SC 2020, c 4 (link here) Ontario example: Connecting People to Home and Community Care Act, 2020, SO 2020, c 13 – Bill 175 (link here) In both of these examples, you will see that the amending acts specifically state which sections of which statutes they are amending Amending Statutes Statutes have legislative histories tagged on at the end of each provision when you view them online These legislative histories tell the reader all the amendment information relating to that particular provision Example: [taken from the Ontario Juries Act, RSO 1990, c J.3] Certification of roll 9 As soon as the jury roll has been completed but not later than the 31st day of December in each year, the Jury Sheriff shall certify the roll to be the proper roll prepared as the law directs and shall deliver notice of the certification to a judge of the Superior Court of Justice, but a judge of the court may extend the time for Knowledge Check (1) What is the difference between an annual statute and a consolidated statute? (2) What is a revised statute? (3) What is Royal Assent? (4) What does it mean when a statute is ‘in force’? (5) When would we have to use print PART IV: CITING STATUTES & REGULATIONS Citing Legislation This is outlined in Chapter 2 – Legislation in your McGill Guide Citation is different for statutes and regulations A key thing to keep in mind is that a statute or regulation that was not part of a historical revision will not be cited to that revision For example: a federal law passed in 2018 will not be cited as RSC 1985 because this law was not in existence when the RSC 1985 was created Citing Statutes A statute citation is made up of four components: (1) Statute title (2) Volume title abbreviation (3) Chapter number (4) Section number (pinpoint) Examples: Development Charges Act, SO 1997, c 27, s 2 [statute title] [volume title] [chapter #] [section #] Business Corporations Act, RSO 1990, c B.16, s 2 Citing Statutes – Statute Title Development Charges Act, SO 1997, c 27, s 2 The statute title is always in italics and the short title is used When you are finding the short title in the statute, look for the words “This act may be cited as…” If the statute contains a year (i.e. Payday Loans Act, 2008), include the year in the statute title in italics Citing Statutes – Volume Title Development Charges Act, SO 1997, c 27, s2 SO 1997 = Statutes of Ontario 1997 This statute was passed in 1997 (it was not in the RSO 1990 revision), so it is written according to the year it was passed Do not put periods in SO or RSO Citing Statutes – Chapter Number Development Charges Act, SO 1997, c 27, s 2 c 27 = the 27th statute passed in 1997 The chapter numbers will look different for revised statute citations Example: c A.10, c B-16, or c C.32 Federal revised statutes use a hyphen (i.e. c B- 16); Ontario revised statutes use a period (c A.10) Do not put a period after the letter c Citing Statutes – Section Number Development Charges Act, SO 1997, c 27, s 2 This is referred to as a pinpoint citation When you are referring to a specific section of a statute in your work, you write it at the very end of the statute citation In the example above, the writer is referring to section 2 of that statute You write “s” for one section (s 2), “ss” for multiple sections (ss 4, 15-20) Do not put a period after the letter s Citing Regulations Regulations are usually cited by year and number: the year in which the regulation was made and the chronological number of the regulation within that year The title of the regulation does not always need to be in the citation, but it is good practice to include it Regulations of Canada are identified by SOR, which stands for Statutory Orders and Regulations Citing Federal Regulations The federal regulation titled Canada Student Loans Regulations, which was made under the Canada Student Loans Act, is cited as: SOR/93-392 This tells us that it was the 392nd federal regulation registered in 1993 Citing Consolidated Federal Regulations The last consolidation of federal regulations was in 1978 It is cited as the Consolidated Regulations of Canada, 1978 (CRC) and includes all regulations that were in force on December 31, 1977, each of which has its own chapter number Regulations from this 1978 consolidation are cited as: title, CRC, chapter number, a pinpoint (if needed), and the year Certification of Countries Granting Equal Copyright Citing Ontario Regulations Provincial regulations are identified by an abbreviated name of the province plus the word Reg for regulation The citation for the regulation Driver Licence Examinations, made under Ontario’s Highway Traffic Act, is cited as: O Reg 341/94 This indicates that it was the 341st Ontario Citing Consolidated Ontario Regulations The last consolidation of Ontario regulations took place in 1990 All regulations then in force were incorporated into the Revised Regulations of Ontario (RRO) and assigned a number Regulations from the 1990 revision are cited as RRO 1990, plus the regulation number Example: the citation for the revised Ontario regulation titled Speed Limits, made under Ontario’s Highway Traffic Act, is: Knowledge Check Film Classification Act, 2005, SO 2005, c 17, s 4 Mortgages Act, RSO 1990, c M.40, s 2(3) Pension Act, RSC 1985, c P-6 Language Skills Act, SC 2013, c 36, s 2 1. Is the statute federal or provincial? 2. Is it an annual or a revised statute? 3. What are the chapter and section numbers? Summary Today we: Explained the differences between statutes and regulations Understood how statutes and regulations are made and amended Began to use proper McGill Guide citation for statutes and regulations Next week we will examine how to find statutes and regulations and how to interpret them Thank you for listening!