Citation

Canada Statute Citator

The Canada Statute Citator is a commercial loose-leaf publication designed to provide a complete annotating service for the Revised Statutes of Canada 1985. It is updated each month to provide the full text of each amendment and any new Acts which come into force. Amendments not yet in force are also noted.You should be cautioned that because the information found in the Citator is not published by the officially recognized source, in the rare case that the Citator omits something, or makes a mistake, your information will not be legally accurate.

The advantage of using the Canada Statute Citator is that it provides a description of the amendment, as well as reproducing – in certain circumstances – the amending language itself. The Citator also includes citations of cases interpreting statutes. Statutes are ordered alphabetically. The Citator does not deal with provisions of the Criminal Code or of the Income Tax Act .

First look up the statute under its title . Then find the section number that concerns you (written in bold letters). All amendments that are in force or will come into force on a specific date are listed. Under each section number, the Citator lists the type of change that has been made to the statute (amendment, addition, repealed, etc .), and the chapter number and the year of the statute that made the change.

Green pages at front of binder : Cumulative bulletins are weekly updates that provide the most recent information (including proclamation dates). As they are cumulative, you need only check the most recent issue to determine what changes, if any, have occurred since the most recent edition of the Citator main work.

To discover the status of a “new” statute, consult each volume of Canadian Current Law Legislation published since the Citator was last updated (a date is given on one of the front pages of the first volume). The section entitled “Statutes Factually Considered” lists alphabetically all federal and provincial statutes that have been discussed before the courts or (and this is what is significant to the updating process) have been modified by a legislature. Normally, however, the Citator will be up-to-date.

Citation Of Statutes

Detailed information on citing Canadian statutes is set out in Chapter 3 of the McGill Guide , which should be consulted in all cases. The information below provides a simple introduction to citing federal statutes.

The basic elements in a statute citation are as follows.

• The title of the statute. Statutes can have very long titles, although an alternative short title by which it is permissible to cite the statute is invariably given in the act itself. For the Statutes of Canada , the short title is found in the first section of the act. The title of the statute should be underlined or italicized when citing it: National Archives of Canada Act , S.C. 1987, c.l, s.2.
• Location in the statute books, Jurisdiction, and Year. Next you must indicate the volume in which the statute is found, and the chapter number of the statute. This part of the citation also indicates which legislature passed the act. For example, if the statute was passed by the federal government, then it would be found in a volume of the Statutes of Canada , or S.C.
• The Revised Statutes of Canada are cited thus : Access to Information Act , R.S.C . 1985, c. A- 1.
• Statutes passed after the revised statutes should be cited in a manner that indicates the annual volume of the statutes. For example: National Archives of Canada Act , S.C. 1987 , c. 1.
• Each statute is assigned a chapter number to designate where it can be found within the volume of statutes. You must indicate this chapter number after the volume number and a comma. For example: National Archives of Canada Act , S.C. 1987, c.1 .
• Section numbers: If you are considering the specific provisions of the statute, and want to refer to it in your citation, then indicate the section number after the chapter number. For example: National Archives of Canada Act , S.C. 1987, c.1, s.2 .
• If you are discussing a statute generally, and are not concerned with specific sections, then you do not have to include them in your citation.

Amended or repealed acts

In addition to these basic elements of a statute citation you may sometimes need to include additional information. For example, if it is not apparent to the reader that the section of the act you are referring to has been amended, then you must indicate this fact in your citation. You must cite both the original act and the amending act. However, only if the name of the amending act is different from the original statute must it be included.

Otherwise, it may be omitted. For example: Municipal Taxation Act , R.S.A. 1980, c. M-31, s. 24(1)(b), as am. by School Act , S.A. 1988, c. S-3.1., s. 249(a) . Similarly, some statutes repeal existing acts or parts of existing acts. If you refer to an act that has been repealed, you must give notice of this fact in the citation. To indicate this in your citation, you must mention both acts and the relationship between them. For example: Environmental Contaminants Act , RS.C. 1985, c.E-12, as rep. by Canadian Environmental Protection Act , R.S.C. 1985 (4th Supp), c. 16, s.147.

Citation Of Regulations

Refer to Rules 3.5 and 3.6 of the McGill Guide (4th ed.) for proper citation of regulations.

The elements of an adequate citation to a regulation are:

• the title of the regulation
• the location and number of the regulation

Title

Canadian federal regulations are given titles. The title is underlined or italicized. e.g., Western Grain Stabilization Regulations , C.RC. 1978, c.1607 Location

Before 1972 all federal regulations were technically referred to as “Statutory Orders and Regulations,” and were identified by the year in which they were made and by their number in that year. “Statutory Orders and Regulations” is abbreviated to SOR. e.g., Canadian Bill of Rights Examination Regulation , SOR/74-633

After 1972 , a new class of federal regulations, known as ” Statutory Instruments ,” was created. Statutory instruments are published in the Canada Gazette , where they appear along with SOR’s and are referred to as SI’s, also by year and number. e.g., Potatoes for Chip Manufacture Remission Order ,1979-80, SI/83-64

Regulations published in the 1978 consolidation are cited simply as C.R.C., chapter number: e.g., Broadcasting Licence Fee Regulations , C.RC., c.373

Regulations published in the previous 1955 consolidation are cited: [ Title ], S.O.R Cons./55, page number.

Citation Of Ontario Regulations

• Title: Ontario regulations are not given titles that are different from the title of their enacting statute. They are categorized by that title. Ontario regulations are consolidated every 10 years. e.g., Change of Name Act Regulation , R.R.O. 1990, Reg. 68.
• Location: If the regulation appears in the Revised Regulations of Ontario 1990 , it is cited as follows: R.R.O. 1990, Reg. 475.
• If the regulation has been made since the last consolidation, then you must indicate that it is an Ontario regulation, the number of the regulation, and the year of the regulation. e.g., O. Reg. 124/93.
• If you want to indicate the relevant section number of the regulation that you are considering, do so at the end of the citation. For example: R.R.O. 1990, Reg. 68, s.6; O. Reg. 317/93, s.4.

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This entry was last updated: April 22, 2016