Entries Labeled: Featured (108)

Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples Definition of Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples by Rand Dyck and Christopher Cochrane (in their book Canadian Politics: Critical Approaches) in the context of political science in Canada: The Royal Commission appointed in the wake of the defeat of […]

Delegated Regulations of the Aeronautics Act The following subordinate legislation were released under the authority of the Aeronautics Act. Statutory Instruments, including regulations, are concerned with highly specific legislative detail while enabling statutes, like the Aeronautics Act, […]

Constitutional Amending Formulas Note: see also the information about regional vetoes. There are five amending processes laid out in Part V of the Constitution Act, 1982. The amending formulas (procedure for amending the Constitution) set out in Part V of the Constitution Act, 1982, are […]

Introduction The introduction of supply bills in the Parliament, once passed into legislation, become appropriation acts. An Appropriation Act begins as a Bill. The type of bills we deal with are called Supply Bills (money bills). Once a Bill has been tabled in Parliament and been granted […]

Concept of Auditor General Definition of Auditor General by Rand Dyck and Christopher Cochrane (in their book Canadian Politics: Critical Approaches) in the context of political science in Canada: The official of Parliament whose staff audits the expenditures of government departments and […]

Canadian Bar Associations Canadian Bar Association: Provinces and territories with branches of the Canadian Bar Association are listed below. The Canadian Bar Association is a professional one, and membership is voluntary. For more information regarding its mission and goals, click here. […]

The government exercises its borrowing authority when there is a shortfall between its expenditures, as authorized by Parliament in the main and supplementary estimates and in interim supply, and its revenues, whose projected levels are also approved by Parliament. The government borrows […]

Electoral History of British Columbia: The Importance of Being English When it was founded in 1849, the colony of Vancouver Island had virtually no independent settlers; it was still just a fur trading post inhabited by employees of the Hudson’s Bay Company. Under the circumstances, the […]

Concept of Budget Definition of Budget by Rand Dyck and Christopher Cochrane (in their book Canadian Politics: Critical Approaches) in the context of political science in Canada: The annual financial statement of the government usually issued in the early spring by the minister of finance […]

Between general elections, when a seat in the House of Commons becomes officially vacant, the Speaker must inform the Chief Electoral Officer without delay with a Speaker’s warrant for the issue of a writ for the election of a new member. Between the 11th and the 180th day after the Chief […]

Cabinet Confidences in Canada An essential feature of parliamentary government is that the Prime Minister and the Cabinet are responsible to, or must answer to, the House of Commons for their actions and must enjoy the support and the confidence of a majority of the Members of that Chamber […]

Research of Case Law: Structure of the court system As in the United States, Canada has two parallel systems. In addition to the National Federal Court system, each province and territory has its own court system. (Canada also has a military court system and a special tax court described […]

Concept of Chief Electoral Officer Definition of Chief Electoral Officer by Rand Dyck and Christopher Cochrane (in their book Canadian Politics: Critical Approaches) in the context of political science in Canada: The independent and impartial official who is in charge of the operation of the […]

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. […]

Committee of the Whole House in Canada A Committee of the Whole is the entire membership of the House of Commons sitting as a committee.[1] Each time the House resolves itself into a Committee of the Whole to deliberate on a specific matter, a new committee is created. Once that committee […]

Compiled by Eric B. Appleby Compensation to Lawyer, general In the case of Cawood v. Mirza (1981), 13 Sask.R. 428 (Dist. Ct.), the court referred to the relevant factors in determining a fair and reasonable fee. At para. 7 the court stated: [7] The Canadian Bar Association Code of […]

Confederation History in Canada The provision in the Act of Union whereby the two parts of the united province were to have equal representation in the Legislative Assembly was the rock on which the union split. It brought about in the government of united Canada a dualism or quasi-federalism […]

Duty to a client in relation to Conflicts of Interest Compiled by Eric B. Appleby: General principle For centuries it has been a well settled rule that no one can be an attorney for both sides even with the consent of the parties. In Masons’ Case (1672), 89 E.R. 55, an attorney was […]

Constitution Act of 1867 (Formerly known as the British North America Act, 1867) Main Issues The base document of the Canadian Constitution. United Upper Canada (Ontario), Lower Canada (Quebec), Nova Scotia and New Brunswick creating the Dominion of Canada. Created a U.K. style […]

There were 2 Constitution Amendment Proclamations in 1993: Constitution Amendment Proclamation, 1993 (New Brunswick Act) By His Excellency the Right Honourable Ramon John Hnatyshyn, Governor General and Commander-in-Chief of Canada To All to Whom these Presents shall come, A […]

Constitution of Canada Major Elements Documents The two main documents that form the trunk of the Canadian constitution are the Constitution Act of 1867 (see the entry) and the Constitution Act of 1982 (see the entry). These acts are rooted in English common law that evolved from the 12th […]

Definition of Contempt Contempt meaning or descrpition: any act that obstructs or hinders the court in the administration of justice, or that shows disrespect for the court; there must be an element of deliberation for an act to amount to contempt (Source of this concept of Contempt: […]

An election may be contested (i.e., challenged) if there are allegations that irregularities affected the outcome of the election in a particular riding or if there are grounds to believe a candidate was not eligible to seek election.[1] Prior to Confederation, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick […]

Command and Control Regulation in Canada The following is a definition of Command and Control Regulation : Regulations which specify, usually in detail, the regulatory requirements and a set of penalties for non-compliance. It is generally oriented toward input and behavioural requirements […]

Model Policy for Access to Court Records In September 2005, the Canadian Judicial Council (the “CJC”)’s Judges Technology Advisory Committee posted its Model Policy for Access to Court Records in CanadaFootnote 4 (the “Model Policy”). This document was the result of a public consultation […]

Concept of Delegated Legislation A definition of Delegated Legislation may be the following: Legislation made not by Parliament but by persons or bodies on whom Parliament has conferred power to legislate on specified subjects (The Oxford Companion to Law by David M. Walker, 1982, p. 347). […]

Delegated Legislation Legal Opinions In relation to Operation and effect of statutes Compiled by Eric B. Appleby (2007): Overview The law of the land includes, in addition to the common law and statute law, a great deal of subordinate or delegated legislation. Subordinate or delegated […]

The Dominion Elections Background The right to vote expanded gradually until the First World War and then the electorate doubled when women gained the franchise. By 1920, nearly all adults had the right to vote, although many individuals were still disenfranchised by administrative […]

The Lawyer’s Duty to the Client Compiled by Eric B. Appleby Overview In the text Legal Ethics by Mark M. Orkin, the author states at page 73 that until the beginning of the 19th century a lawyer “was justified in going to virtually any lengths on behalf of a client”. Today a lawyer’s […]

The lawyer’s Duty to the Courts: Overview Compiled by Eric B. Appleby: The lawyer is an officer of the courts. A lawyer when acting for a client has “a prior and perpetual retainer on behalf of truth and justice; and there is no Crown or other licence which in any case, or for any party or […]

Election Administration and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms Elections Canada ushered in the era of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms with Jean-Marc Hamel as Chief Electoral Officer, who began the process of responding to the Charter’s rapidly burgeoning impact on the Canada […]

Electoral Boundaries in Canada While section 51 of the Constitution Act, 1867 sets out the formula for the allocation of seats in the […]

Boundary Redistribution For the democratic process to be truly representative, a system for maintaining the fair and balanced distribution of constituency boundaries is essential. The Fathers of Confederation addressed this requirement in the Constitution Act, 1867, by adopting the basic […]

Reforming Electoral Finance Before 1974, only the finances of candidates were regulated under electoral legislation, leaving all others free to promote the party or candidate of their choice to whatever extent they saw fit. In the opinion of the 1966 Committee on Election Expenses (Barbeau), […]

A dissolution of Parliament terminates all business in the Senate and in the House of Commons and is followed by a general election. Unless Parliament is dissolved earlier, the date of a general election is set in accordance with the provisions of the Canada Elections Act which stipulates […]

Canadian Legal Encyclopedias Legal encyclopedias are a useful starting point for research since they provide a quick and current overview of the law. Encyclopedias organize and summarize the law by subject, and provide references to relevant primary sources. Canadian Encyclopedic Digest In […]

Definition of Executive Power by Rand Dyck and Christopher Cochrane (in their book Canadian Politics: Critical Approaches) in the context of political science in Canada: The power of the executive branch of government to administer public policies and enforce laws. The Executive In […]

List of Federal Electoral Districts Newfoundland and Labrador Avalon Bonavista–Burin–Trinity Coast of Bays–Central–Notre Dame Labrador Long Range Mountains St. John’s East St. John’s South–Mount Pearl Prince Edward Island Cardigan Charlottetown […]

Background No doubt the most significant influence on electoral law in the post-war years was the adoption of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which came into effect on April 17, 1982. Sections 2 to 5 of the Charter set out fundamental freedoms and democratic rights. Under […]

Evolution of the Federal Electoral System In 1867 the main milestone was: In the first general election after Confederation in 1867, only a small minority of the population, composed largely of male British subjects with real property of a certain value, can vote in a country that has […]

Legislation Online Resources Statutes and Regulations:Statutes and Regulations Senate and House Bills, Progress of Legislation and Coming into Force Information. Gazettes:Canada Gazette. Hansard:House of Commons Debates (searchable from 39th Parl.). Orders in Council:Orders […]

Classically understood as the “right to be left alone,” privacy in today’s high-tech world has taken on a multitude of dimensions. To experts in this area, privacy is equated with the right to enjoy private space, to conduct private communications, to be free from surveillance and to have the […]

Canadian Federal Regulation As discussed in this legal Encyclopedia, regulations are made under the authority of a statute, for the purpose of specifying the detailed implementation of the provisions of the statute. The statute becomes known, in relation to its regulations, as the enabling […]

Canadian Federal Regulations Research of Federal Regulations Federal regulations are governed by the Statutory Instruments Act, R.S.C. 1985, c. S-22. This act requires that regulations be published in the Canada Gazette, Part II, within 23 days of registration unless the regulations are […]

Division of Power in a Federal System In order to understand how to research statutes and regulations, it may be helpful to learn a bit about Canada’s political system, and how power is shared in a federal state: A federal state is one that brings together a number of different political […]

Forms of Bills in the Legislative Process The enactment of a statute by Parliament is the final step in a long process that starts with the proposal, preparation and drafting of a bill. The drafting of a bill is a vital stage in this process—one which challenges the decision makers and […]

The Governor-General Canadian Parliament Structure of parliament: The Governor-General The Constitution Act of 1867 essentially made Canada an independent nation, but stated the executive government of and over Canada is declared to continue to be vested in the Queen. Today, Queen Elizabeth […]

Fathers of Confederation Title given to the parliamentarians of the United Province of Canada (Quebec and Ontario), Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland that attended at least one of the three constitutional conferences held to hammer out the federal constitution […]

History of Public Protest in Canada Irina Ceric wrote in the International Encylopedia of Revolution and Protest on the history of law and protest in Canada: Moments of protest and rebellion have always challenged systems of power and authority, but particularly since the rise of the […]

Historical Perspective of supply proceedings The supply procedures established in 1867 remained basically unchanged for the first hundred years following Confederation. Deriving from a long‑standing rule of the British House of Commons,[106] the business of supply was considered in a […]