Oxford LibGuides: Legislation: Canada: federal

Canadian federal legislation online

Lexis+ UK
Navigate to Canadian materials by first clicking on the International link on the homepage. Includes both primary and secondary sources
Alternative names:Lexis ; LexisLibrary ; Lexis Library ; Lexis International

Lexis+ includes extensive primary and secondary legal materials from the UK, EU, USA and many other jurisdictions. It is the only online source for the full text of the All England Law Reports and Halsbury’s Laws. International content can be accessed by following the “International” link on the home page. UK legal news and newspapers are also included.
Westlaw Edge UK
Navigate to Canadian materials by clicking the link to Westlaw International near bottom right of Westlaw UK's home page - then click Canada under Jurisdictions in the International materials home page when it has loaded.
Alternative name: West Law UK ; Westlaw UK

Westlaw is a large database of UK, US and international legal materials including cases, legislation and journal articles.
Coverage:
•UK statutes, statutory instruments and law reports
•England and Wales law reports
•US federal and state legislation and law reports
•Australian federal and state legislation and law reports
•Canadian federal and state legislation and law reports
•Hong Kong SAR law reports and laws
•European Union legislation and law reports
•UK and US law journals and texts
•Common Law Library and over 200 books published by Sweet & Maxwell (Thomson Reuters)
Because of licencing restrictions this database is not available to "Walk-in" users of the library.
LLMC-digital
Alternative names: LLMC ; Law Library Microfilm Consortium’s Online Service ; LLMC Digital

LLMC-digital is a collection of English language legal titles and government documents divided into ten major jurisdictional or subject areas:
US Federal Government; US States and Territories; Canada; United Kingdom; Germany federal; Germany state, kingdoms and free cities; Other Countries (Afghanistan to Zimbabwe); International Law and Organizations; Indigenous Law covering materials from various regions of the United States, Canada and Indonesia; and Special Focus Collections which includes British Empire Studies, Canon Law, Islamic Law, Military Law, Native American Collection, Roman law, etc.

Justice Laws (Canada)
Bilingual website of Dept of Justice Canada has searchable databases of Canadian legislation, including consolidated Acts and regulations (usually current to within 2–4 weeks).
Justice Laws (Canada) Annual Statutes 2001 onwards
Public General Acts (both new and amending legislation) as originally enacted by Parliament.
LegisInfo (Canada)
Free resource. Official website for tracking the progress of federal bills and the legislative history behind legislation.
Consolidated Statutes of Canada (CanLII)
Free resource.
Revised Statutes of Canada 1970 (& 2 suppls) Free resource. Made available by Internet Archive
Revised Statutes of Canada, 1906 Free resource. Made available by Internet Archive.
British North American Legislative Database, 1758-1867
Open Access T"he British North America Legislative Database includes characteristics of all the legislation passed by the pre-Confederation assemblies of eastern British North America."
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This database is hosted by the Atlantic Canada Studies Centre and the Centre for Digital Scholarship, both located at the University of New Brunswick in Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada. Funding for this project was made possible by Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Atlantic Canada Studies held by Elizabeth Mancke (2012-2019).

Available acts:
This content is available for viewing in its entirety. In some cases, it has not had "concepts" tags added and/or been edited.

Cape Breton (1785-1820)
Lower Canada (1792-1838)
New Brunswick (1786-1867)
Newfoundland (1833 -1867)
Nova Scotia (1758-1867) from 1758 to 1825**
Upper Canada (1792-1840)
United Canadas (1841-1867) from 1841 to 1856
**The years 1778-1782 & 1793-1804 were drawn from Uniacke's 1805 "Statutes at Large passed in the several General Assemblies held in His Majesty's Province of Nova Scotia," and in many cases consist of a title without the complete act.

Not completed: Prince Edward Island

Canada Gazette

This is the official newspaper of the Government of Canada.The online PDF format of the Canada Gazette is accepted as the official text for issues after various dates in spring 2003.

Starting dates of Official online issues

Part I	5 April 2003
Part II	9 April 2003
Part III	14 May 2003

Canada Gazette :
Official website. Part III Acts of Parliament For the official text (ie pdf version) of recent legislation. The Dept of Justice website Justice Laws posts recent legislation too but only in html format.
Canada Gazette Part II : Official Regulations
Official website
Canada Gazette Archives 1841-1997
Official website. From Library and Archives Canada.

Canadian legislation in print

We recommend that you use an online source - see links in right hand column.

Our print collection of Canadian legislation (both federal & provinicial) is historic only - most series ending the early 2000s. The volumes are now kept off site.

However should you wish to consult a printed volume, you can order them online via the Hold & Request sytem on SOLO.

Please ask a member of staff for assistance.

Interpretation

Legislative evolution (Canada)
Free resource. By Susan Barker M.I.St.
Digital Services and Reference Librarian
Bora Laskin Law Library
Researching legislative intent: Part 2 (Canada)
Free resource. By Susan Barker M.I.St.
Digital Services and Reference Librarian
Bora Laskin Law Library
Statutory Interpretation in the Supreme Court of Canada
Article by Ruth Sullivan, Ruth, Also published30 (1999). Ottawa Law Review, Vol. 30, No. 2

Citations to Canadian statutes

Cite laws by title (italicized), volume by year (if possible, cite to the latest Revised Statutes of Canada, abbreviated "R.S.C."), chapter ("c."), section ("s."), paragraph ("par."), and subparagraph ("subpar.") referenced: Canada Labour Code, R.S.C. 1985, c. L-2, s. 14.

UBC Research Guides - Law - Legal Citation - Statutes Free resource. An example of guidance given to students in Canada this one by UBC Law Library.

You might find some statutes are abbreviated such as:

Criminal Code (C.C.)
Code of Penal Procedure (C.P.P.)
Code of Civil Procedure (C.C.P.)
Civil Code of Quebec (C.C.Q.)
Civil Code of Lower Canada (C.C.L.C.)