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Statutory Interpretation - Modern Principle (2). Martin v. Wright Medical Technology Canada Ltd.
In Martin v. Wright Medical Technology Canada Ltd. (Ont CA, 2023) the Court of Appeal considers the 'modern principle' of statutory interpretation:(a) The Governing Principles of Statutory Interpretation
[15] I begin by reviewing the governing principles of statutory interpretation. The task of interpretation requires the court to consider the text of the legislation, the context within which it operates, and the particular purpose for the provisions at issue. In Canada (Minister of Citizenship and Immigration) v. Vavilov, 2019 SCC 65, [2019] 4 S.C.R. 653, at para. 118, the Supreme Court identified a legal expectation that is critical in statutory interpretation: “Those who draft and enact statutes expect that questions about their meaning will be resolved by an analysis that has regard to the text, context and purpose.” This reflects the “modern approach” to interpretation, which “requires that the words of a statute 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’”: 1704604 Ontario Ltd. v. Pointes Protection Association, 2020 SCC 22, [2020] 2 S.C.R. 587, at para. 6, citing Elmer A. Driedger, Construction of Statutes, 2nd ed. (Toronto: Butterworths, 1983), at p. 87, quoted in Rizzo & Rizzo Shoes Ltd. (Re), 1998 CanLII 837 (SCC), [1998] 1 S.C.R. 27, at para. 21. See also Vavilov, at para. 117.
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