Simon's Megalomaniacal Legal Resources

Statutory Interpretation - Modern Principle - 'Context'

. Reference re iGaming Ontario

In Reference re iGaming Ontario (Ont CA, 2025) the Ontario Court of Appeal considered a 'reference' [under CJA 8 'References to Court of Appeal'] regarding whether "legal online gaming and sports betting [would] remain lawful under the Criminal Code if its users were permitted to participate in games and betting involving individuals outside of Canada".

Here the court considers the 'context' element of the statutory interpretation test:

[140] A contextual analysis examines the statute’s structure and scheme, presuming that its provisions form a cohesive, internally consistent framework: Heritage Capital Corp. v. Equitable Trust Co., 2016 SCC 19, [2016] 1 S.C.R. 306, at para. 28.