2. An Ontario company has had a “BP”-like spill in which chemicals from one of its

plants have spilled into a river. What is the law which governs this type of offence and are there any limitations on the company’s liability?

Prepared for 2010 Fall PBSC Training Sessions – Sample Research Methodology Dated Nov. 2010

We need to look for:1.Secondary sources on this subject which will

provide us with information on the subject and which will point to the statutes and case law which apply in this kind of situation.

2. We need to find the actual legislation and case law once we have found references to them in the secondary sources.

What is a good secondary source?

A good place to start is with the Canadian Encyclopedic Digest.

Choose the Table of Contents available on the left hand side of Westlaw Canada.

Click on the “plus sign” in front of the subject heading to drill down into the subheadings.

The C.E.D. tells us that there could be multiple statutes—federal and provincial—that could come into play with this type of spill.

If we click on the “plus sign” again next to “Federal,” we can see the Federal statutes which might be relevant.

If the C.E.D. doesn’t provide enough information to determine whether these federal statutes apply to a spill in a river situated within a province, we will have to find the statutes themselves and read them.

Even if the C.E.D. does provide the information, it’s good practice to read all the primary sources (case law and statutes/regulations) mentioned by any secondary source.

In addition to looking at federal statutes, we also need to look at the information on Ontario statutes since they are likely to apply in this particular case.

I know which statutes I should be consulting.

Question: How do I find the Ontario Environmental Protection Act?

Four Ways:

1.Westlaw Canada 2.LexisNexis3.CanLII4.e-Laws

LexisNexis

Question: What about limitations on liability?

Once again, it’s a good idea to start with a secondary source like the Canadian Encyclopedic Digest.

The C.E.D. provides us with information on limitations on liability both under the common law and under the various environmental statutes which might govern this situation.

Once we come to a blue link, we can click on it to read the relevant section of the C.E.D.

The footnotes will lead to relevant case law. Clicking on the blue citations will lead to the cases themselves.

What about other secondary sources?

LexisNexis Quicklaw

Question: What about articles?

The Index to Canadian Legal Literature is the most comprehensive periodicals index in Canada.

If you are not provided with a link to the document, you will have to look for it through a library catalogue or through some other source to find the journal which contains the article you want.

Finally – don’t forget the library catalogue for books on Ontario environmental law!