This page describes, in general terms, the categories of sources relied on across Criminal Law in Ontario. It is not a page-by-page footnote list; instead, it explains the types of materials that generally inform the content published here, and points to some of the official resources readers can consult directly.
Legislation
The starting point for most content on this site is the text of the Criminal Code of Canada, the primary federal statute defining criminal offences and criminal procedure in Canada, along with other relevant federal statutes such as the Youth Criminal Justice Act and the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act where relevant. The official, consolidated text of federal legislation is published on the Government of Canada's Justice Laws website, linked from the official resources page.
Case Law
Canadian criminal law is also shaped heavily by reported decisions from courts, including the Supreme Court of Canada, the Ontario Court of Appeal, and the Ontario Superior Court of Justice and Ontario Court of Justice. Where a page describes how a legal principle is generally applied in practice, that description is generally informed by this body of case law, rather than by the text of a statute alone. CanLII, a free public database of Canadian court decisions, is one of the main tools used to review this material.
Court and Government Websites
Procedural information, such as how court appearances are generally scheduled or how a particular court is organized, draws on publicly available materials from Ontario court websites and relevant Government of Ontario and Government of Canada resources. Because procedural detail can change and can vary between courthouses, readers are generally encouraged to confirm current procedure directly with the applicable court.
Legal Aid Ontario
Content describing legal aid eligibility, duty counsel, and certificate coverage draws on publicly available information published by Legal Aid Ontario. Legal Aid Ontario is not affiliated with this website, and eligibility rules and program details should be confirmed directly with Legal Aid Ontario or with duty counsel.
General Legal Reference Resources
Some background material also draws on general, publicly available Canadian legal reference resources aimed at self-represented people and the public, used to cross-check how a concept is commonly explained. These are treated as a starting point for research, not as a final authority, and are always checked against the underlying legislation or case law where possible.
How Citations Appear Within Articles
Rather than attaching a formal footnote to every sentence, most pages on this site refer to source material in plain language within the text itself, for example by naming the Criminal Code section a rule comes from, or noting that a described process reflects general Ontario court practice. Where a page discusses a topic that is unsettled or that has recently changed, it generally says so directly rather than presenting a single answer as fixed.
Limits of This Approach
Summarizing legal sources into plain language necessarily involves some simplification. This site aims to be accurate about general principles while avoiding the kind of detailed, case-specific analysis that only a lawyer reviewing the actual facts of a matter can properly provide. Where a topic is genuinely unsettled, actively being litigated, or varies significantly by circumstance, pages try to flag that explicitly rather than present a single simplified answer as definitive.
For a curated list of official Canadian and Ontario legal resources readers can consult directly, see the official resources page.