Marginal note:Short title

1. This Act may be cited as the Merchant Seamen Compensation Act.

Marginal note:Definitions

• 2. (1) In this Act,

  “accident”

  « accident »

  “accident” includes a wilful and an intentional act, not being the act of a seaman, and a fortuitous event occasioned by a physical or natural cause;

  “Board”

  « Commission »

  “Board” means the Merchant Seamen Compensation Board established by section 3;

  “compensation”

  « indemnité »

  “compensation” includes medical and hospital expenses and any other benefits, expenses or allowances authorized by this Act;

  “dependants”

  « personnes à charge »

  “dependants” means members of the family of a seaman who were wholly or partly dependent on his earnings at the time of his death, or who but for the incapacity of a seaman due to an accident would have been so dependent;

  “employer”

  « employeur »

  “employer” includes every person having any seaman in his service under a contract of hiring or apprenticeship, written or oral, express or implied;

  “foreign voyage”

  « voyage de long cours »

  “foreign voyage” means a voyage extending beyond the area of a home-trade voyage and not being an inland or minor waters voyage;

  “home-trade voyage”

  « voyage de cabotage »

  “home-trade voyage” means a voyage, not being an inland or minor waters voyage, between places within the following areas, namely, Canada, the United States other than Hawaii, St. Pierre and Miquelon, the West Indies, Mexico, Central America and the northeast coast of South America, in the course of which a ship does not go south of the sixth parallel of north latitude;

  “inland voyage”

  « voyage en eaux internes »

    “inland voyage” means a voyage, not being a minor waters voyage, on the inland waters of Canada together with such part of any lake or river forming part of the inland waters of Canada as lies within the United States or on Lake Michigan;

  “invalid”

  « invalide »

  “invalid” means physically or mentally incapable of earning;

  “medical aid”

  « assistance médicale »

  “medical aid” means the medical, surgical and dental aid, the hospital and skilled nursing services and the artificial member or members and apparatus and repair mentioned in subsection 46(1);

  “Minister”

  « ministre »

  “Minister” means the Minister of Labour;

  “minor waters of Canada”

  « eaux secondaires du Canada »

    “minor waters of Canada” means all inland waters of Canada other than Lakes Ontario, Erie, Huron, including Georgian Bay, and Superior and the St. Lawrence River east of a line drawn from Father Point to Point Orient, and includes all bays, inlets and harbours of or on those lakes and Georgian Bay and the sheltered waters on the seacoasts of Canada that the Minister of Transport may specify;

  “minor waters voyage”

  « voyage en eaux secondaires »

    “minor waters voyage” means a voyage within the following limits, namely, the minor waters of Canada together with the part of any lake or river forming part of the minor waters of Canada that lies within the United States;

  “seaman”

  « marin »

   “seaman” means every person, except pilots, apprenticed pilots and fishers, employed or engaged on

  • (a) a ship registered in Canada under the Canada Shipping Act, 2001 , or

  • (b) a ship chartered by demise to a person resident in Canada or having their principal place of business in Canada,

   when the ship is engaged in trading on a foreign voyage or on a home-trade voyage, and, if so ordered by the Governor in Council, includes a seaman engaged in Canada and employed on a ship that is registered outside Canada and operated by a person resident in Canada or having their principal place of business in Canada when that ship is so engaged;

  “ship”

  « navire »

   “ship” means a vessel as defined in section 2 of the Canada Shipping Act, 2001 .

  “survivor”

  « survivant »

  “survivor” means a person who, at the time of the death of a seaman, was

  • (a) the seaman’s spouse, if there is no person described in paragraph (b), or

  • (b) a person who was cohabiting with the seaman in a conjugal relationship for a period of at least one year immediately before the seaman’s death.

• Marginal note:Deemed accident

  (2) A seaman who suffers a disability arising out of and in the course of his employment as a seaman, otherwise than as a result of an accident, shall be deemed for the purposes of this Act to have suffered the disability as a result of an accident and, except for the purpose of computing compensation, the accident shall be deemed to have taken place on the day the disability first became known to his employer.