157; Quong Wing v. The King, 6 W.W.R. 270, 49 S.C.R. 440, 23 Can. Cr. Cas. 113; R. v. McLeod, 6 Can. Cr. Cas. 94 (N.W.T.); Canadian Pacific Ry. v. Notre Dame de Bonsecours [1899], A.C. 367.

As to Sunday observance laws, see the Lord's Day Act, R.S.C. 1906, ch. 153, and pre-Confederation provincial statutes; Re Sunday Legislation, 35 S.C.R. 581; Attorney-General for Ont. v. Hamilton Street Railway [1903], A.C. 524. Ouimet v. Bazin, 46 S.C.R. 502, 20 Can. Cr. Cas. 458, reversing 20 Que. K.B. 416 and 14 Can. Cr. Cas. 136 (sub nom. R. v. Ouimet); Audette v. Daniel, 21 Can. Cr. Cas. 403, 14 Que. P.R. 432; R. v. Walden, 19 B.C.R. 539, 22 Can. Cr. Cas. 405; Tremblay v. City of Quebec, 38 Que. S.C. 82, 16 Can. Cr. Cas. 482.

"Indictable offences" and "offences "]-Every Act (of the Parliament of Canada) shall be read and construed as if any offence for which the offender may be,

(a) prosecuted by indictment, howsoever such offence may be therein described or referred to, were described or referred to as an indictable offence; and,

(b) punishable on summary conviction, were described or referred to as an offence; and,

all provisions of the Criminal Code relating to indictable offences, or offences, as the case may be, shall apply to every such offence. Interpretation Act, R.S.C., 1906, ch. 1, sec. 28.

Provincial laws of evidence]-The provincial laws of evidence are made applicable to criminal prosecutions by the Canada Evidence Act, R.S.C. 1906, ch. 145 in so far as that Act itself or some other federal statute does not make provision.

INTERPRETATION.

Definitions.

2. In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires,

(1) any Act,' or any other Act,' includes any Act passed or to be passed by the Parliament of Canada, or any Act passed by the legislature of the late province of Canada, or passed or to be passed by the legislature of any province of Canada, or passed by the legislature of any province now a part of Canada before it was included therein;

Origin of sec. 2]—Sec. 3, Code of 1892, 63-64 Vict., ch. 46, sec. 3; 1 Edw. VII, ch. 41, sec. 11; 6 Edw. VII. ch. 4, sec. 4; 6-7 Edw. VII, ch. 8; 6-7 Edw. VII, ch. 9; 7-8 Edw. VII. ch. 10, sec. 4; 3-4 Geo. V, ch. 13, sec. 3.

Same words elsewhere in Code]-Where the same words occur in different sections of the Code they should be given the same meaning unless a contrary intention appears. Romer, 23 Can. Cr. Cas. 237

R. v.

Interpretation under prior Code]-Where a judicial interpretation had been placed upon a section of the Code prior to the re-enactment in R.S.C. 1906, ch. 146, without material change, Parliament presumably recognizes and adopts such interpretation. See sec. 7 of the Act respecting the Revised Statutes of Canada, 1906. It would not be safe to draw the conclusion that, because Parliament placed in the revision the section under a different title, it was its intention that the section should receive an interpretation other than that previously adopted by the Courts. R. v. Shing, 17 Can. Cr. Cas. 463, 20 Man. L.R. 214.

Interpretation of penal statutes generally]—Beal, on Cardinal Rules of Legal Interpretation, 443, says: A penal statute is to be interpreted, like any other instrument, according to the fair common sense meaning of the language used.

Penal statutes should be construed strictly so that no cases shall be held to be reached by them but such as are within both the spirit and letter of such laws.

If there are two possible interpretations of a penal clause in a statute, one which would mitigate and the other which would aggravate the penalty, we ought to adopt that which will impose the smaller sum. If there is a reasonable interpretation which will avoid the penalty in any particular case, it must be adopted.

If the words are merely equally capable of an interpretation that would, and one that would not, inflict the penalty, the latter must prevail. R. v. Eaves, 21 Can. Cr. Cas. 23 at 32; London County Council v. Aylesbury Dairy Co. [18981, 1 Q.B. 106; Blackpool v. Johnson [1902], 1 K.B. 646.

The Court must see that the thing charged as an offence under a statute is within the plain meaning of the words used: Dyke v. Elliott (1872), L.R. 4 P.C. 184, at p. 191; R. v. Cohen (1915), 24 Can. Cr. Cas. 238 at 241, 33 O.L.R. 340.

(2) Attorney General' means the Attorney General or Solicitor General of any province in Canada in which any proceedings are taken under this Act, and, with respect to the Northwest Territories and the Yukon Territory, the Attorney General of Canada;

Attorney-General]—An acting Attorney-General is in a very different position to that of a deputy or agent of the Attorney-General. He is the Attorney-General for the time being, and clothed by statute (in British Columbia) with all the powers and authority of the office. R. v. Faulkner, 19 Can. Cr. Cas. 47, 16 B.C.R. 229, per Macdonald, C.J.A.

(3) banker' includes any director of any incorporated bank or banking company;

(4) 'bank-note' includes all negotiable instruments issued by or on behalf of any person, body corporate, or company carrying on the business of banking in any part of the world, or issued by the authority of the Parliament of Canada, or any governor or other authority lawfully authorized thereto in any of His Majesty's dominions, or by the authority of any foreign prince, or state or government, and intended to be used as equivalent to money, either immediately upon their issue or at some time subsequent thereto, and all bank bills and bank post bills;

(5) cattle' includes any horse, mule, ass, swine, sheep or goat, as well as any neat cattle or animal of the bovine species, and by whatever technical or familiar name known, and shall apply to one animal as well as to many;

(6) chief constable' includes the chief of police, city marshal or other head of the police force of any city, town, incorporated village or other municipality, district or place, and in the province of Quebec, the high constable of the district, and means any constable of a municipality, district or place which has no chief constable or deputy chief constable;

(7) court of appeal' includes,

(a) in the province of Ontario, the Court of Appeal for Ontario,

(b) in the province of Quebec, the Court of King's Bench, appeal side,

(c) in the provinces of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, the Supreme Court in banc,

(cl) in the province of British Columbia, the Court of Appeal,

(d) in the province of Prince Edward Island, the Supreme
Court,

(e) in the province of Manitoba, the Court of Appeal,
(f) in the provinces of Saskatchewan and Alberta, the

Supreme Court of the Northwest Territories in banc,
until the same is abolished, and thereafter such court

as is by the legislature of the said provinces respectively substituted therefor;

(g) in the Yukon Territory, the Supreme Court of Canada;

(8) copper coin' includes any coin of bronze or mixed metal and every other kind of coin other than gold or silver;

(9) deputy chief constable' includes deputy chief of police, deputy or assistant marshal or other deputy head of the police force of any city, town, incorporated village, or other municipality, district or place, and, in the province of Quebec, the deputy high constable of the district;

(10) district, county or place,' includes any division of any province of Canada for purposes relative to the administration of justice in the matter to which the context relates;

"District" or "county"]-As to summary conviction matters, see also sec. 705.

(11) document of title to goods' includes any bill of lading, India warrant, dock warrant, warehouse-keeper's certificate, warrant or order for the delivery or transfer of any goods or valuable thing, bought and sold note, or any other document used in the ordinary course of business as proof of the possession or control of goods, authorizing or purporting to authorize, either by endorsement or by delivery, the possessor of such document to transfer or receive any goods thereby represented or therein mentioned or referred to;

"Document "1-See secs. 73, 705 (c).

(12) 'document of title to lands' includes any deed, map, paper or parchment, written or printed, or partly written and partly printed, being or containing evidence of the title, or any part of the title, to any real property, or to any interest in any real property, or any notarial or registrar's copy thereof, or any duplicate instrument, memorial, certificate or document authorized or required by any law in force in any part of Canada respecting registration of titles, and relating to such title;

(13) 'every one,' 'person,' 'owner,' and other expressions of the same kind include His Majesty and all other public bodies, bodies corporate, societies, companies, and inhabitants of counties, parishes, municipalities or other districts in relation to such acts and things as they are capable of doing and owning respectively;

“Everyone"; “person.”]—“ Everyone" is an expression of the same kind as person," and therefore includes bodies corporate unless the context requires otherwise. Union Colliery Co. v. R. (1900), 4 Can. Cr. Cas. 400, 31 Can. S.C.R. 81. The expression everyone" is, whether in a legal or popular sense, a wider term than the word "person," and in the case of Pharmaceutical Society v. London and Provincial Supply Association, 5 App. Cas. 857, Lord Selborne says: There can be no question that the word "person may, and I should be disposed myself to say primâ facie does, in a public statute include a person in law; that is, a corporation as well as a natural person. That if a statute provides that no person shall do a particular act except on a particular condition, it is primâ facie, natural and reasonable (unless there be something in the context, or in the manifest object of the statute, or in the nature of the subject-matter, to exclude that construction) to understand the legislature as intending such persons, as, by the use of proper means, may be able to fulfil the condition; and not those who, though called person" in law, have no capacity to do so at any time, by any means, or under any circumstances, whatsoever."

(14) explosive substance' includes any materials for making an explosive substance; also any apparatus, machine, implement or materials, used or intended to be used, or adapted for causing or aiding in causing, any explosion in or with any explosive substance; and also any part of any such apparatus, machine or implement;

(15) 'form' means a form in Part XXV. of this Act, and 'section' means a section of this Act;

(16) indictment' and 'count' respectively include information and presentment as well as indictment, and also any plea, replication or other pleading, any formal charge under sec. 873A, and any record;

"Count "1-By sec. 951 every "count" shall be divisible. This includes an information on a summary trial. R. v. Coolen, 36 N.S.R. 510, 8 Can. Cr. Cas. 157.

9