Search Help

General

The Justice Laws Website has implemented a new search engine which offers improved searching capabilities and options to narrow down search results.

The tips in this section will help you get the best search results possible and help you use the search tool to its fullest potential.

Default Search Behaviour

When entering terms separated by spaces, the results returned will match all the terms in the query. The more terms entered and search fields used, the more precise the results will be.

Search will match exact terms and stemmed variations of the terms. For example for the term shipping, search will match the terms shipping, shipped, and ship.

Note that all searches are case insensitive and accented characters (more common in French) work with or without accents; using the words montreal, Montreal, MONTREAL, montréal or Montréal will return the same results.

The search engine ignores some common words such as "if", "the" and "by". For example, a search for by the time will return hits for only the word time. However, in Advanced Search, if you use the field "this exact phrase", the search engine will include the previously ignored words.

Wildcard Operators * and ?

The * operator lets you search by replacing zero or more characters with a symbol. For example, searching for dep*t will find a match for the words depot, deport, dept, depart, department, etc.

The ? operator lets you replace individual characters in an expression. For example, searching for p?rt will return fragments containing part or port.

Basic Search

Search Fields

There are three search fields available in Basic Search: "Keyword(s)", "Title" and "Search in".

Keyword(s)

– returns hits where a text fragment (i.e., section, schedule or heading) contains all the words specified in the Keyword(s) field, but not necessarily together, or in the same sequence.

Title

– returns hits for documents that contain the specified words in their title. Quotes can be added to return hits that contain an exact sequence. For example, a Title search for the words access to information returns hits that contain the phrase access to personal information, whereas placing quotation marks around the search terms returns only the hits that include the exact phrase.

Search in

– allows for searching within a specific or a group of document types.

Advanced Search

The Advanced Search offers more search options and the ability to search points in time for consolidated Acts and regulations.

Search Fields

all these words

– returns hits where a text fragment (i.e., section, schedule or heading) contains all the words specified, but not necessarily together, or in the same sequence. This search field uses the stemming feature.

this exact phrase

– returns hits for text fragments that contain the exact phrase specified. This search field does not use the stemming feature. Note that quotation marks should not be used.

one or more of these words

– returns hits for text fragments that contain at least one of the specified words. This search field uses the stemming feature.

none of these words

– restricts results to text fragments that do not contain the specified words. This search field uses the stemming feature.

Title

– returns hits for documents that contain the specified words in their title. Quotes can be added to return hits that contain an exact sequence. For example, a Title search for the words access to information returns hits that contain the phrase access to personal information, whereas placing quotation marks around the search terms returns only the hits that include the exact phrase.

Enabling Act

– returns hits for text fragments in regulations enabled by the specified Act

Chapter/Registration #

- returns hits for text fragments in documents where the specified text is contained in the document’s chapter or registration number.

Select Point in time

– returns hits for text fragments that are in force at the specified date. Point-in-time data is generally available from 2003-01-01 onwards for the Acts and 2006-03-22 onwards for the regulations. The Point-in-time data for the Income Tax Act and Income Tax Regulations is available from 2004-08-31 onwards.

Search in

– allows for searching within a specific collection or a group of collections.

Search Results

Depending on the view selected to perform the search, the results will display in Titles Only view or Hits in Context view. Your search results will also be grouped into categories on the right side of the search results screen. These categories enable you to narrow your search further.

Titles Only results view

Titles Only results view displays a list of the titles, Chapter/registration number and section numbers or schedules of the documents which contain a hit for your query.

Clicking a result link (title of document) will display the text fragment with the search terms highlighted. Surrounding provisions that do not contain search hits are represented by “[…]” in the search results text. You can click the Next Result and Previous Result links to navigate through the results separately. Clicking the Back to search results link will take you back to the original results list. While in this view, clicking on the document title link will leave the search application and display the highlighted results in Document View.

Hits in Context results view

Hits in Context results view displays a list of the titles, Chapter/registration number and section numbers or schedules along with the text of the provision with the search terms highlighted. Surrounding provisions that do not contain search hits are represented by “[…]” in the search results text. You can click the Next Results Page and Previous Results Page links to navigate to the next group of hits. While in this view, clicking on the document title link will leave the search application and display the highlighted results in Document View.

Narrowing Your Search Results using Categories

Your search results are grouped into categories which enable you to narrow your search further.

Click any of the links under the category headings to view only the results that belong to the selected category. The numbers beside each link indicate how many results from the original search are included in this category.

The categories available are:

Type

– indicates the type of document (i.e. Acts, regulations, Constitutional documents)

Title

– indicates the title of the document containing the results

Related phrases

– using your search criteria, the search engine suggests a list of possible related phrases. This category is only available in Advanced Search.