Statutory Interpretation in the Post R. v. Jordan World
The modern framework for statutory interpretation is well established. It requires that the words of a provision be read “in their entire context and in their grammatical and ordinary sense harmoniously with the scheme of the Act, the object of the Act, and the intention of Parliament”: Bell ExpressVu Limited Partnership v. Rex , 2002 SCC 42, [2002] 2 S.C.R. 559, at para. 26, quoting E. A. Driedger, Construction of Statutes (2nd ed. 1983), at p. 87. In addition, courts make a number of idealized assumptions about the way legislation is drafted which influence the way the legislation is interpreted. For more see Ruth Sullivan, Sullivan on the Construction of Statutes, 6th Edition. R. v. Jordan , [2016] 1 SCR 631, 2016 SCC 27 (CanLII), was meant to challenge the status quo in the criminal justice system: the legal doctrine that emerged from it was designed to enc...