Citing Case Law and Legislation

The 9th edition of the Canadian Guide to Uniform Legal Citation (better known as the McGill Guide) was published earlier this summer. The most important change was no longer requiring a parallel citation in addition to a neutral citation. While the guide tends to be the default for Canadian citation, several courts have slightly different citation requirements:

• The Alberta Queen’s Bench adopted the 7th edition of the McGill Guide with some minor changes as detailed in its Notice to the Profession, November 12, 2013.
• British Columbia’s Court of Appeal has also adopted the 7th edition of the McGill Guide with a number of changes as detailed in its Practice Directive dated May 30, 2013.
• Ontario’s Supreme Court of Justice outlined its requirements in a July 1, 2014 Practice Direction.
• Ontario’s Court of Appeal has issued a Reference Guide for Citation Practices at the Court of Appeal for Ontario​.
• The Saskatchewan Court of Appeal, Court of Queen’s Bench and Provincial Court require citations conform to the Citation Guide for the Courts of Saskatchewan.

— Susannah Tredwell