Intrinsic Aids to Statutory Interpretation

• Author: Susan Barker, Erica Anderson
• Pages: 73-77

73

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chapter three

Intrinsic Aids to Statutory Interpretation

A. INTRINSIC AIDS TO STATUTORY INTERPRETATION

As noted in Chapter 1, researchers should be aware that indications

of legislative intent may be found in intrinsic aids. ese appear in the

text of the statute or regulation and might include titles, preambles,

marginal notes, headings, punctuation, and schedules.1 Judges wi

look at these intrinsic aids rst for indications of legislative intent

before they consider other extrinsic sources such as legislative hist-

ory or legislative evolution, according to the hierarchy for statutory

interpretation established by Driedger’s modern principle.

In order to ascertain which part of a statute can be considered as

evidence of meaning and which parts are tangential to that meaning,

it is oen a good idea to look at the interpretation Act or equivalent

for the jurisdiction of the statute that you are researching.

In Ontario, for example, section 68 of the Legislation Act2 species

that

68 (1) A preamble to a new Act is part of that Act and may be used to

help explain its purpose.

1 Pierre-André Côté, e Interpretation of Legislation in Canada, 4th ed (Toronto:

Carswe: 2011).

2 Legislation Act, SO 2006, c 21, Schedule F, s 68.