Interpretation Act (R.S.C., 1985, c. I-21)

Her Majesty

Marginal note:Her Majesty not bound or affected unless stated

17 No enactment is binding on Her Majesty or affects Her Majesty or Her Majesty’s rights or prerogatives in any manner, except as mentioned or referred to in the enactment.

Proclamations

Marginal note:Proclamation

• 18 (1) Where an enactment authorizes the issue of a proclamation, the proclamation shall be understood to be a proclamation of the Governor in Council.

• Marginal note:Proclamation to be issued on advice

  (2) Where the Governor General is authorized to issue a proclamation, the proclamation shall be understood to be a proclamation issued under an order of the Governor in Council, but it is not necessary to mention in the proclamation that it is issued under such an order.

• Marginal note:Effective day of proclamations

  (3) A proclamation that is issued under an order of the Governor in Council may purport to have been issued on the day of the order or on any subsequent day and, if so, takes effect on that day.

• (4) [Repealed, 1992, c. 1, s. 88]

Oaths

Marginal note:Administration of oaths

• 19 (1) Where, by an enactment or by a rule of the Senate or House of Commons, evidence under oath is authorized or required to be taken, or an oath is authorized or directed to be made, taken or administered, the oath may be administered, and a certificate of its having been made, taken or administered may be given by

  • (a) any person authorized by the enactment or rule to take the evidence; or

  • (b) a judge of any court, a notary public, a justice of the peace or a commissioner for taking affidavits, having authority or jurisdiction within the place where the oath is administered.

• Marginal note:Where justice of peace empowered

  (2) Where power is conferred on a justice of the peace to administer an oath or solemn affirmation or to take an affidavit or declaration, the power may be exercised by a notary public or a commissioner for taking oaths.

Reports to Parliament

Marginal note:Reports to Parliament

20 Where an Act requires a report or other document to be laid before Parliament and, in compliance with the Act, a particular report or document has been laid before Parliament at a session thereof, nothing in the Act shall be construed as requiring the same report or document to be laid before Parliament at any subsequent session.

Corporations

Marginal note:Powers vested in corporations

• 21 (1) Words establishing a corporation shall be construed

  • (a) as vesting in the corporation power to sue and be sued, to contract and be contracted with by its corporate name, to have a common seal and to alter or change it at pleasure, to have perpetual succession, to acquire and hold personal property for the purposes for which the corporation is established and to alienate that property at pleasure;

  • (b) in the case of a corporation having a name consisting of an English and a French form or a combined English and French form, as vesting in the corporation power to use either the English or the French form of its name or both forms and to show on its seal both the English and French forms of its name or have two seals, one showing the English and the other showing the French form of its name;

  • (c) as vesting in a majority of the members of the corporation the power to bind the others by their acts; and

  • (d) as exempting from personal liability for its debts, obligations or acts individual members of the corporation who do not contravene the provisions of the enactment establishing the corporation.

• Marginal note:Corporate name

  (2) Where an enactment establishes a corporation and in each of the English and French versions of the enactment the name of the corporation is in the form only of the language of that version, the name of the corporation shall consist of the form of its name in each of the versions of the enactment.

• Marginal note:Banking business

  (3) No corporation is deemed to be authorized to carry on the business of banking unless that power is expressly conferred on it by the enactment establishing the corporation.

Majority and Quorum

Marginal note:Majorities

• 22 (1) Where an enactment requires or authorizes more than two persons to do an act or thing, a majority of them may do it.

• Marginal note:Quorum of board, court, commission, etc.

  (2) Where an enactment establishes a board, court, commission or other body consisting of three or more members, in this section called an “association”,

  • (a) at a meeting of the association, a number of members of the association equal to,

    • (i) if the number of members provided for by the enactment is a fixed number, at least one-half of the number of members, and

    • (ii) if the number of members provided for by the enactment is not a fixed number but is within a range having a maximum or minimum, at least one-half of the number of members in office if that number is within the range,

    constitutes a quorum;

  • (b) an act or thing done by a majority of the members of the association present at a meeting, if the members present constitute a quorum, is deemed to have been done by the association; and

  • (c) a vacancy in the membership of the association does not invalidate the constitution of the association or impair the right of the members in office to act, if the number of members in office is not less than a quorum.

Appointment, Retirement and Powers of Officers

Marginal note:Public officers hold office during pleasure

• 23 (1) Every public officer appointed by or under the authority of an enactment or otherwise is deemed to have been appointed to hold office during pleasure only, unless it is otherwise expressed in the enactment, commission or instrument of appointment.

• Marginal note:Effective day of appointments

  (2) Where an appointment is made by instrument under the Great Seal, the instrument may purport to have been issued on or after the day its issue was authorized, and the day on which it so purports to have been issued is deemed to be the day on which the appointment takes effect.

• Marginal note:Appointment or engagement otherwise than under Great Seal

  (3) Where there is authority in an enactment to appoint a person to a position or to engage the services of a person, otherwise than by instrument under the Great Seal, the instrument of appointment or engagement may be expressed to be effective on or after the day on which that person commenced the performance of the duties of the position or commenced the performance of the services, and the day on which it is so expressed to be effective, unless that day is more than sixty days before the day on which the instrument is issued, is deemed to be the day on which the appointment or engagement takes effect.

• Marginal note:Remuneration

  (4) Where a person is appointed to an office, the appointing authority may fix, vary or terminate that person’s remuneration.

• Marginal note:Commencement of appointments or retirements

  (5) Where a person is appointed to an office effective on a specified day, or where the appointment of a person is terminated effective on a specified day, the appointment or termination is deemed to have been effected immediately on the expiration of the previous day.

Marginal note:Implied powers respecting public officers

• 24 (1) Words authorizing the appointment of a public officer to hold office during pleasure include, in the discretion of the authority in whom the power of appointment is vested, the power to

  • (a) terminate the appointment or remove or suspend the public officer;

  • (b) re-appoint or reinstate the public officer; and

  • (c) appoint another person in the stead of, or to act in the stead of, the public officer.

• Marginal note:Power to act for ministers

  (2) Words directing or empowering a minister of the Crown to do an act or thing, regardless of whether the act or thing is administrative, legislative or judicial, or otherwise applying to that minister as the holder of the office, include

  • (a) a minister acting for that minister or, if the office is vacant, a minister designated to act in the office by or under the authority of an order in council;

  • (b) the successors of that minister in the office;

  • (c) his or their deputy; and

  • (d) notwithstanding paragraph (c), a person appointed to serve, in the department or ministry of state over which the minister presides, in a capacity appropriate to the doing of the act or thing, or to the words so applying.

• Marginal note:Restriction as to public servants

  (3) Nothing in paragraph (2)(c) or (d) shall be construed as authorizing the exercise of any authority conferred on a minister to make a regulation as defined in the Statutory Instruments Act.

• Marginal note:Successors to and deputy of public officer

  (4) Words directing or empowering any public officer, other than a minister of the Crown, to do any act or thing, or otherwise applying to the public officer by his name of office, include his successors in the office and his or their deputy.

• Marginal note:Powers of holder of public office

  (5) Where a power is conferred or a duty imposed on the holder of an office, the power may be exercised and the duty shall be performed by the person for the time being charged with the execution of the powers and duties of the office.

Evidence

Marginal note:Documentary evidence

• 25 (1) Where an enactment provides that a document is evidence of a fact without anything in the context to indicate that the document is conclusive evidence, then, in any judicial proceedings, the document is admissible in evidence and the fact is deemed to be established in the absence of any evidence to the contrary.

• Marginal note:Queen’s Printer

  (2) Every copy of an enactment having printed thereon what purports to be the name or title of the Queen’s Printer and Controller of Stationery or the Queen’s Printer is deemed to be a copy purporting to be printed by the Queen’s Printer for Canada.

Computation of Time

Marginal note:Time limits and holidays

26 Where the time limited for the doing of a thing expires or falls on a holiday, the thing may be done on the day next following that is not a holiday.

Marginal note:Clear days

• 27 (1) Where there is a reference to a number of clear days or “at least” a number of days between two events, in calculating that number of days the days on which the events happen are excluded.

• Marginal note:Not clear days

  (2) Where there is a reference to a number of days, not expressed to be clear days, between two events, in calculating that number of days the day on which the first event happens is excluded and the day on which the second event happens is included.

• Marginal note:Beginning and ending of prescribed periods

  (3) Where a time is expressed to begin or end at, on or with a specified day, or to continue to or until a specified day, the time includes that day.

• Marginal note:After specified day

  (4) Where a time is expressed to begin after or to be from a specified day, the time does not include that day.

• Marginal note:Within a time

  (5) Where anything is to be done within a time after, from, of or before a specified day, the time does not include that day.

Marginal note:Calculation of a period of months after or before a specified day

28 Where there is a reference to a period of time consisting of a number of months after or before a specified day, the period is calculated by

• (a) counting forward or backward from the specified day the number of months, without including the month in which that day falls;

• (b) excluding the specified day; and

• (c) including in the last month counted under paragraph (a) the day that has the same calendar number as the specified day or, if that month has no day with that number, the last day of that month.