Canadian Legal Research Manual

Historic publishing practices continue to influence how we access laws today. 

One of the most important concepts to understand is the difference between source law and consolidated law. 

• Source law refers to legislation as originally enacted.
• Consolidated law refers to legislation that has been updated to incorporate amendments into its text through a process called "consolidation" or "revision".

Consolidation is an important process because laws are constantly changing. They can be amended or repealed at any time, and a researcher is usually interested in viewing the most up to date version of the law—the current, consolidated version. 

►See Finding the Current Version of a Statute and Finding Current Regulations.

Historically, consolidation was conducted in print. Consolidated laws are now generally made available on government websites; however, not all research tasks require current law. You may need to look for a law as it was originally enacted, or at historical versions of a statute between the date it was enacted and the present date.

Depending on the dates, you may be able to conduct this research on the government websites or you may need to consult the pre-internet publications described below.

The federal government publishes both consolidated and source laws online on Justice Laws going back to 2001 (see Current Sources).

There are two important publications for researching federal legislation — the Statutes of Canada and the Revised Statutes of Canada.

1. Statutes of Canada (SC)

SC volumes include the annual statutes (source law) passed in a given calendar year. Volumes are divided into two parts:

• Part I: Public General Acts (acts which apply to all of Canada).
• Part II: Local and Private Acts (a local act is restricted to a limited area; a private act is restricted to a limited number of individuals or bodies. These are not consolidated in the Revised Statutes of Canada).

Each volume also includes a Table of Proclamations and Orders in Council for the publication year, as well as the Table of Public Statutes, which is a cumulative, alphabetical listing of all federal statutes with their amendments. 

While source laws are now published online, they continue to be published with reference to an annual Statutes of Canada volume (year) and chapter number.

2. Revised Statutes of Canada (RSC)

The last print consolidation of federal acts is the Revised Statutes of Canada 1985, which consolidates all public statutes that were in force as of 12 December 1988. 

The publication includes a table showing the history and disposal of the acts in the previous revision (1970) and the acts in the sessional volumes published in the years between the two revisions. The revision only repeals those acts specifically mentioned in the table. Certain acts are not consolidated.

The Revised Statutes of Canada 1985 includes the following:

• Main volumes: Contains all consolidated public statutes in force to 31 December 1984.
• Supplemental volumes: Contain statutes from 1985-88 (due to the fact that the RSC 1985 statutes were not proclaimed in force until 12 December 1988). A fifth supplement, comprising the Income Tax Act and the Income Tax Application Rules, was added later.
• Appendices volume: Contains a table of repealed acts, as well as a collection of constitutional documents. The latter includes the Canada Act 1982, the Constitutional Acts 1867 to 1982, as well as the acts bringing each province into Confederation.

Shelved alongside these volumes are the following supplemental materials:

• Table of the History and Disposal of Acts: A separate volume that makes it possible for anyone familiar with an act as it existed before the 1985 revision to determine the new section references for that act in the 1985 revision. 
• Table of Concordance: relates statutory provisions as they existed on 31 December 1984 to the corresponding provisions in the RSC 1985. 
• Index: A subject index to RSC 1985 created by the Canadian Law Information Council. There are separate volumes for the English and French versions of this index. 

3. Legislative Tables

There are some useful legislative tables that were historically published in the annual or revised volumes, but are now made available on Justice Laws. These include:

• Table of Public Statutes and Responsible Ministers: Lists all public statutes from those consolidated in the RSC 1985 and updated to the present year. Includes amendments by provision and commencement information. 
• Table of Private Acts: Lists all federal private acts (other than those dealing with divorce) that have been published since 1867. Includes amendments and repeals for these acts. 

The Ontario government publishes both consolidated and source laws online on e-Laws going back to 2000 (see Current Sources).

There are two important publications for understanding Ontario statutes — the Statutes of Ontario and the Revised Statutes of Ontario.

1. Statutes of Ontario (SO)

Statutes that received Royal Assent during the year are officially published by chapter number in an annual volume of statutes. Each annual volume is divided into:

• Part I: Public Acts
• Part II: Private Acts. These are not consolidated in the Revised Statutes of Ontario.

Annual volumes prior to 2002 also contain a Table of Public Statutes, a Table of Proclamations, a Table of Private Acts, and a Table of Regulations. Current versions of these tables are now only available online via e-Laws. 

2. Revised Statutes of Ontario (RSO)

The last print consolidation of Ontario public acts is the Revised Statutes of Ontario 1990. This consolidation is composed of the following:

• Main volumes: Contain all public statutes in force enacted prior to 1 January 1991.
• Appendices volumes: Contains the History and Disposal of Acts tables (to trace the history of acts from RSO 1980 to 1990) and Constitutional Documents of relevance to Ontario.
• Index volume: Contains separate English and French indexes.

3. Legislative Tables

There are some useful legislative tables that were originally published in the annual and/or revised volumes but are now made available on e-Laws. These include:

• Table of Public Statutes and Ministers Responsible: Lists public statutes that were consolidated in the RSO 1990 as well as statutes enacted on or after 1991. Provides legislative history for each statute. 
• Table of Proclamations: For provisions of an act that come into force by proclamation, this table specifies the date each provision comes into force (or states if a proclamation hasn't been issued yet). 
• Table of Regulations: Lists Ontario's regulations and indicates the enabling statute as well as any legislative history. 
• Table of Private Statutes: Lists private acts passed since 1867.