FINDING INFORMATION:
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (FAQ)
Federal Statutes and Regulations
All primary links regarding federal statutes and regulations are contained on our Laws of Canada page.
Statutes
To find a specific statute, you can use our Laws search or consult our alphabetical
listing of statutes. You may also wish to consult the Table of Private Acts, a historical index showing all private Acts of Canada, other than those dealing with divorces, that have been enacted since 1867
and that appear in the Statutes of Canada from 1867 to December 31, 1997. If you are searching for historical information on specific statutes, we suggest you consult the Table
of Public Statutes, which contains useful details such as the dates of enactment and the responsible ministers as well as a detailed listing of amendments, including repealed sections.
Regulations
Most regulations on our site are referenced according to their enabling statute. If you know the name of the enabling statute, you should consult the alphabetical listing of statutes
and select the regulations link located besides the different available formats to access the statute's underlying regulations. It is often the case that users know the name of the regulation they wish to access, but not the enabling statute. In such
cases, we suggest using the search page and specify the name of the regulation or its SOR (statutory orders and regulations) identifier (e.g. SOR/95-245). Our collection also includes regulations
which do not have enabling statutes and are considered Other than statutory authority.
Statutes and Regulations in Printed Form
If you are searching for a bound print version of federal legislation, these publications can be obtained from:
Canadian Government Publishing (PWGSC)
Ottawa ON K1A 0S9
Tel.: (819) 956-4802
Fax: (819) 994-1498
Internet: : http://publications.gc.ca/control/publicHomePage?lang=English
Provincial Statutes and Regulations
The Department of Justice does not maintain provincial statutes on its website. However, other websites such as Legis.ca, do maintain such listings.
Government Bills
The Department of Justice does not publish proposed legislation on its website, although our News page does include news releases and backgrounders which explain in some detail proposed legislation originating from
the Department itself.
All federal government bills are published and maintained on the Government Bills page, which resides on the Parliamentary Internet Site.
Recent Legislation
The consolidated statutes and regulations published on our website are updated
quarterly. If you are seeking access to recent legislation which has not
yet been incorporated in our electronic collection of federal statutes
and regulations, we suggest you visit the Canada
Gazette, which is quick to publish legislation that has recently received
Royal Assent.
Court Decisions
With the exception of the Canadian Charter of Rights Decisions, the Department
does not publish court decisions. The Supreme
Court of Canada provides free access to all of its decisions since
January 1993, and the Office
of the Commissioner for Federal Judicial Affairs provides access to
Federal Court decisions.
Constitutional Documents
The complete collection of constitutional documents is currently online. The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms is also available as a separate
document.
Canadian Justice System
Several publications on our site explain the general premises of the Canadian justice system. These include:
Child Support Guidelines
The Federal Child Support Guidelines
came into effect on May 1, 1997 (SOR/97-175), and are currently available
on the Child Support site.
Immigrating to Canada
Although we provide access for reference purposes to the Immigration
Act and its Regulations,
the Department of Justice is not directly involved in matters regarding
immigrating to Canada. You should contact Citizenship
and Immigration Canada or consult its online
resources.
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