Ontario Legislation – Introduction
Approximate duration: 30 minutes
Description: How does a bill progress through the House of Commons? Where are federal laws published? Learn about the process of making and creating federal laws and regulations.
What Do You know?
Before starting this module, test your baseline knowledge with the following questions. You will receive basic feedback on your answers that will be further explained by the content in the module. Good luck! These questions are just for practice: your results will not be recorded by the system.
If you are having technical difficulties with the activities, please select the following link to download a printer-friendly version: Download questions (.doc, 44 kb)
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Consider the following...
1. Why do you think it is important to determine if there is any legislation that applies to the legal problem you are researching?
Type your response in the space provided and then view the sample response.
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2. Ontario Legislation
What is a statute?
(Click all that apply)
A proposed law being considered by a legislative body;
Feedback: Incorrect. A bill is a proposed law that is being considered by a legislative body.
A three-dimensional representation;
Feedback: Incorrect. A statue is three-dimensional representation of a person, but not a statute.
A legislative body that can debate bills and create laws;
Feedback: Incorrect.
A bill, passed by legislature and becomes binding;
Feedback: Correct. Once a bill gets passed by legislature and becomes binding, it is called a statute or act.
3. Sam has discovered that his next door neighbour, Tim, has been videotaping all of Sam's activities through the window of his house and is now considering selling the results to others. Sam does not have any blinds or coverings on his windows, so anyone passing by his house can see inside. You have heard that some provinces have enacted legislation protecting citizens against certain types of breaches of privacy.
What should be one of your initial steps in determining whether any such law exists in Ontario? (Choose one)
Conduct searches in electronic databases
Feedback: Incorrect.
Review secondary source material relevant to this legal context
Feedback: Correct: The best place to start is to review secondary source material discussing privacy law. If you select good sources, they will tell you whether any legislation exists in Ontario. Locating legislation via keyword searches is often ineffective, inefficient, and of little assistance.
4. You are working on a privacy law question for a senior partner who recently heard that Ontario is considering enacting a statute called the Breach of Privacy Act. She wants to know more about the scope of this act.
How should you proceed?
Type your response in the space provided and then view the sample response.
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Learning Objectives
At the end of this module you will be able to:
- Distinguish between the various types of Ontario legislation (bills, statutes, regulations);
- Describe and apply the various steps and strategies for determining and identifying relevant and binding Ontario legislation; and,
- Locate Ontario legislation using both print and electronic resources.
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Last Updated: 2014-09-08
