Step 3: Noting up - Legislation

You must note up legislation to make sure it is good law.  Check to see if the statute been interpreted by the courts

Online

Westlaw Canada: Once you have located a statute or section of a click on the KeyCite icon C to view a list of cases that have considered this statute. Or, click on the KeyCite link on the top menu bar and search by statute name and section number. KeyCite includes judicial treatment of Canadian and foreign statutes in Canadian decisions that fall within the following coverage:

  • Selective coverage of reported cases prior to 1977,
  • Comprehensive coverage of reported cases since 1977,
  •  Comprehensive coverage of unreported cases since 1986,

KeyCite Canada also includes judicial consideration of the Rules of Court of the Supreme Court of Canada, the Federal Court, the territories, and each province with the exception of Quebec.

Quicklaw/LexisNexis: Once you have located a statute click on the Quickcite icon @ to note it up or click the "Note up with QuickCITE" link. Coverage is limited to cases January 0 1, 1992 through to present for all jurisdictions except Quebec for which coverage starts on January 01,2005.

CanLII: Once you have located the statute, click on the "Noteup" link but be aware that CanLII references are limited to those cases that are included in the CanLII database.

In Print

 Using the Canada Statute Citations

Search by jurisdiction, then statute title and then section number. You will then be referred to the cases that have considered that section of the statute.

CSS provides citations for older as well as current statutes. References under each section are listed by style of cause and citation only. Because sections of statutes are renumbered with each statute revision, it is important to trace each section back to when it was first enacted to ensure that you do not miss any important interpretations of the section you are researching.

 In the print statutes, look at the historical note at the end of the section; this note will indicate where the section appeared in previous revisions. Continue to follow the historical notes back until the first instance of that section. You can then look at the Canada Statute Citations for the correct section of the statute for each statute revision. Point-in-time versions of Federal (from 1996), British Columbia (from 1997), Alberta (from 2000) and Ontario (from 1995), statutes along with historical notes are available on Quicklaw/LexisNexis. CanLII provides historical versions of statutes, including historical notes, for all jurisdictions going back to the early 2000's.