Here we present general information about the documentation style outlined by the Canadian Guide to Uniform Legal Citation (McGill Guide). This is the most common citation format for most legal material in Canada. Please note that the information below does not cover all source types or unique sources. For further details on this citation style please refer to the Canadian Guide to Uniform Legal Citation (available in-print at Bata Library).
Footnotes, Endnotes, and Bibliography
Use footnotes or endnotes to indicate when an argument or quote has been taken from a source. Provide the full citation in the first footnote referring to a source. Multiple notes are separated by a semi-colon. Footnotes should be on the same page as the body of text to which they refer, in a smaller font, and separated from the text by a horizontal line.
Notes are required at the first reference to the source, at every subsequent quote, and at every subsequent reference to a particular passage. Use "ibid" to refer to previous sources used directly after one another, and "supra" to refer to previous sources used within the work. For example, footnotes 2 and 4 below both refer to the case in source 1 at different paragraphs.
1Tran v Armstrong, 2015 ABQB 343 at para 23 [Tran].
2Ibid at para 15.
3Criminal Code, RSC 1985, c C-46, s 91(3); Fisher v Fisher, 2008 ONCA 11 at paras 52-59 [Fisher].
4Tran, supra note 1 at para 10.
5Atkinson, Paul & Daniel Atkinson, The Canadian Justice System: An Overview, 5th Edition (Toronto: LexisNexis, 2020) at 25.
Populate a bibliography of your sources at the end of your work. This includes all sources used to generate the work, even if they are not directly quoted. Arrange the bibliography alphabetically. Where there is an author, list their last name first. If there are multiple authors, only reverse the name of the first author. Omit all pinpoint reference in your bibliography.
Bibliography Example
Atkinson Paul & Daniel Atkinson, The Candian Justice System; An Overview, 5th Edition (Toronto: LexisNexis, 2020).
Criminal Code, RSC 1985, c C-46
Fisher v Fisher, 2008 ONCA 1.
Tran v Armstrong, 2015 ABQB 343.
Legislation/Statutes
FORMAT: Title of Statute, Statute jurisdiction | year, chapter, other indexing elements, (session or supplement), pinpoint.
Examples:
Criminal Code, RSC 1985, c C-46
Smoke-Free Ontario Act, 2017, SO 2017, c 26, Sch 3.
Note:
- Title: if applicable, provide the official short title (usually found in the first section of the statue) ex. use Criminal Code, instead of Criminal Code of Canada
- Statute Jurisdiction: Revised Statutes and Re-enacted statutes are abbreviated to RS (ex. RSO = Revised Statutes of Ontario & RSC = Revised Statutes of Canada). If there is no revision, omit this (ex. SO = Statutes of Ontario).
- Other indexing elements & session or supplement = some legislation requires further information to be able to locate them, include this after the chapter.
- Pinpoint: this refers to the specific place in the statute you are citing. Refer to these as "section(s)" or "paragraph(s)" within the body of the text, or as "s", "ss" within the citation.
- For example:
- They were charged under section 91(3) of the Criminal Code, RSC 1985, c C-46.
- They were charged as per the Criminal Code, RSC 1985, c C-46, s 91(3).
Jurisprudence/Cases
Depending on the case information available, you will use either the: neutral citation, CanLII citation, or other source citation (includes parallel citation). The following notes apply to all citation types:
- Case Title: this refers to case title and should be italicized.
- main citation information: this includes the year + court or reporter* + the number
- *some cases refer to a specific publication by the reporter; for example, the Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) publishes the Supreme Court Reports (SCR).
- pinpoint = paragraph(s) location in the case, denoted by "at para(s)"
- parallel citation = other way this case might be found
- short form = short name of the case, only use this when there are multiple mentions of the case in your work
- Note: only use the pinpoint, parallel citation, and shortform where applicable
#1 Neutral: The neutral citation is only a case identifier and does not indicate where a case can be found. Use this citation style if the following information is available:
FORMAT: Case title, Year of decision | court | ordinal number | pinpoint | [short form].
Example: Fisher v Fisher, 2008 ONCA 11 at paras 52-59 [Fisher].
#2 CanLII: Use the CanLII citation in cases where the issuing court has not assigned a neutral citation, and the decision is available on CanLII.
FORMAT: Case title, year of decision | CanLII | CanLII number | (Court) | pinpoint | [short form].
Example: Dickson v Royal Bank of Canada, 1975 CanLII 148 (SCC) at 836 [Dickson].
#3 Other Sources (include parallel citation): Use this style when the case has neither a neutral nor CanLII citation.
FORMAT: Case title, year of decision (if not part of main citation), main citation | pinpoint, parallel citation (jurisdiction and court) | [short form].
Example: Cleary v Boscowitz (1901), 8 BCR 225 at para 2, 1901 Carswell BC 69 (BSCS) [Clearly].
Legal Journals
FORMAT: author(s), "title of article" (year) volume:issue 9if available), journal/law review name (abbreviated) first page number.
Example: Marie-Claude Premon, "La fiscalite locale au Quebec: de la cohabitation au refuge fiscal" (2001) 46:3 McGill LJ 713.
Books
FORMAT: author(s), title, edition (if applicable) (City of Publication: Publisher, year) pinpoint (if applicable).
Examples:
RJ Delisle, Evidence: Principles and Problems (Toronto: Carswell, 1984) at 129.
Atkinson, Paul & Daniel Atkinson, The Canadian Justice System: An Overview, 5th Edition (Toronto: LexisNexis, 2020) at 25.
Note:
- Use initial(s) or first name (as it appears in the book), then last name
- Use an ampersand (&) to connect two authors
- Do not use superscripts for edition (i.e. 2nd should be 2nd)