Tips Tuesday: How Do You Cite the Saskatchewan Rules of Court?

This may sound like a very niche question, but it was one where the answer was not immediately obvious. (The short answer, as it turns out, is “Saskatchewan, The Queen’s Bench Rules” or “Saskatchewan, The Court of Appeal Rules”.)

While the McGill Guide explains how to cite rules of court, it does not include the Saskatchewan rules in its examples. McGill suggests including the indexing information, but the Saskatchewan rules are not regulations (unlike the court rules in other jurisdictions.)

According to the extremely helpful Ann Marie Melvie, the librarian at the Court of Appeal for Saskatchewan:

Courts in Saskatchewan have their own rule-making power. Rules are gazetted, but they are not considered regulations under The Legislation Act, SS 2019, c L-10.2. See the definition of “regulation” in s. 1-2 of that Act. So, for example, in s. 22 of The Court of Appeal Act, 2000, SS 2000, c C-42.1, the judges of the Court of Appeal, or a majority of them, have the power to make rules. Section 23 of the same Act requires such rules to be gazetted in The Saskatchewan Gazette, but they are neither defined as nor referred to as “regulations”. Section 1 of the rules passed by the Court of Appeal indicate how they are to be cited: “These rules may be cited as The Court of Appeal Rules.”

The Queen’s Bench Rules follow a similar pattern. Ann Marie Melvie says:

Our QB rules are different from other jurisdictions because they aren’t a regulation, so we just cite them as the rules. Here, we just refer to them as The Queen’s Bench Rules, but following McGill’s guidance, you could cite them as: Saskatchewan, The Queen’s Bench Rules. Note that section 1-1 of the Rules states that they may be cited as The Queen’s Bench Rules.