Sittings of the commissioners. List to be prepared. What it and other documents as are required in the conduct of such proceedings, as to them appear expedient for the better attainment of the purposes of justice. R.S., c. 99, s. 24. 23. The sittings of the commissioners shall be held at the place of the sittings of the county court in each county court division of the Province, and the time and place of such sittings, together with a list of claims to be heard before them, shall be advertised by the commissioners, for a period of three months, in some newspaper in the Province, and they shall give such other notice of the time and place of such sitting as will best tend to inform persons interested in the same. R.S., c. 99, s. 25. 24. A list of all lands to which this Part applies, or is believed to apply, shall, from time to time, as is necessary, be prepared by the Surveyor General of Dominion lands; and such list shall specify the name or names of the person or pershall specify. sons in possession, together with the number of the section, part of section, range and number of township of which the land consists or forms part, or some other adequate description thereof, and of the township or place in which the same lies. To be posted up. Certificate of compliance. Fee. Preliminary proceedings. Affidavit. Notice. Copy. 2. Copies of such list shall be put up in some conspicuous place in the office of each of the county courts of the Province, and in the office of the registrar of each registration and land titles district in the Province, during at least three months before the claim comes to be heard before the commissioners. 3. No claims shall be heard by the commissioners unless a certificate of compliance with the provisions of this section from the clerk of such court and from such registrar, is produced to the commissioners. 4. For each such certificate the clerk of the county court and such registrar may each demand and receive the sum of fifty cents. R.S., c. 99, s. 26. 25. The commissioners shall not receive or proceed upon any claim until the person, or some one of the persons, by whom or on whose behalf the claim is made, has made and produced before the commissioners an affidavit or affirmation in writing, signed by him, that to the best of his knowledge and belief the claim is well founded, that he is not aware of any adverse claims, and that there is no other person in possession; or if he is aware of any adverse claim, or that there is any other person in possession, that he has, at least one month before the making of such affidavit or affirmation, caused to be served upon the person making, having, or supposed to have such adverse claim, or who is in possession as aforesaid, a notice in writing of his claim and of his intention to bring the claim before the commissioners at the time appointed by them for hearing the claims of the respective parties. 2. A copy of such notice shall be affixed to the affidavit or affirmation. R.S., c. 99, s. 27. preferred. 26. The claimant or the heir, devisee or assignee of any How claim claimant, may bring any such adverse or conflicting claim may be before the commissioners, either personally or by agent or attorney, and produce before the commissioners all such documents, proofs and evidence as he has to advance in support of such claim. 2. Such evidence may be given viva voce before the commissioners, or by written affidavits or affirmations, sworn or affirmed before any one entitled to administer an oath or affirmation in the place where the same is sworn or affirmed. Evidence may be viva voce or written. to be evidence. 3. All certificates of the Hudson's Bay Company, or of Certain any chief factor of the Hudson's Bay Company, or of the documents clerk of the executive council of the Province, or copies certified by them respectively of documents in their custody, shall be received in evidence before the commissioners. R.S., c. 99, s. 28. proceedings. 27. The commissioners may defer, delay or adjourn the Adjournproceedings on any claim brought before them, and may give ment of such further or enlarged time for the production of evidence, or for any other purpose relative to such claim, and for the decision thereon, as they deem expedient for the attainment of the ends of justice. R.S., c. 99, s. 29. how arrived 28. The commissioners shall be guided in their pro- Decision, ceedings and report by the justice and equity of the case, without regard to legal forms or to the strict letter of the law, or legal rules of evidence. at. 2. The commissioners shall report their decision to the Effect of Minister, who may, if he thinks fit, thereupon cause letters decision. patent to issue, granting the lands in question to the person who has been reported by the commissioners to be entitled to the lands; or otherwise, in his discretion, may submit the decision for the consideration and approval of the Governor in Council. R.S., c. 99, s. 30. summoned. 29. The commissioners may summon before them, by Witnesses summons under the hand of any one of them, the claimant may be or claimants, or any person interested in the case, or any other person whom they deem it expedient to examine as a witness, or whom they have reason to believe to be in possession of any document by the production of which the ends of justice may be better attained; and may require such claimant or person or such witness, to submit to such oral examina- And tion upon oath, or to answer on oath and to sign his answers to required interrogatories or cross interrogatories in writing, or to produce to give evidence. such books, papers or documents in his possession, as to the commissioners appears requisite. R.S., c. 99, s. 31. 30. The commissioners may cause such interrogatories or Interrogacross interrogatories as they deem requisite to be served upon tories. and answered by any such claimant, person or witness, or any witness whose deposition is produced in evidence before Commissions to examine witnesses abroad. Attendance may be enforced. When letters patent may issue. Re-hearing. Right to any other procedure not affected. them; and may cause commissions to be issued for the examination of any witness not resident in Manitoba, and for requiring such witness to produce such books, papers or other documents as he has in his possession; and may, in their discretion delay the proceedings in the case until such evidence and answers have been adduced and given, and returned with the commission. R.S., c. 99, s. 32. 31. The commissioners shall have the same power to enforce the attendance of witnesses, and to compel them to give evidence, as is vested in any court of law in civil cases; but no person or witness shall be compelled to answer any question that he would not be compelled to answer in a court of law in a civil case. R.S., c. 99, s. 33. 32. No letters patent shall issue on any decision and report of the commissioners until after the expiration of three months from the time when such report was transmitted to and marked as received by the Minister. R.S., c. 99, s. 34. 33. If, before the expiration of such three months, the commissioners, or a quorum or majority of them, find reason to believe that such decision and report were obtained by surprise or erroneously made in any respect, and that justice requires that the issuing of the letters patent should be stayed, the commissioners, or a majority of them, although it is not then the regular period of their sitting, may report accordingly to the Minister, and the issuing of the letters patent shall thereupon be stayed until the commissioners again report upon the case; and the commissioners may re-hear the case, or admit any new claim, and may receive or insist upon any new evidence, as to them appears expedient to enable them to do justice in the case; and they may thereafter decide and report thereon as if no prior report had been made, and with like effect. R.S., c. 99, s. 35. 34. Nothing in this Part contained shall limit the right of the Minister to investigate, or cause to be otherwise investigated than as herein before mentioned, such adverse or conflicting claims as aforesaid, and to cause letters patent to issue therefor to the person appearing to him to be entitled thereto. R.S., c. 99, s. 36. THE ALBERTA ACT(1) 4-5 EDWARD VII, CHAPTER 3 An Act to establish and provide for the Government of the Province of Alberta [Assented to 20th July, 1905.] WHEREAS in and by the British North America Act, 1871, Preamble. being chapter 28 of the Acts of the Parliament of the United Kingdom passed in the session thereof held in the 34th and 35th years of the reign of Her late Majesty Queen Victoria, it is enacted that the Parliament of Canada may from time to time establish new provinces in any territories forming for the time being part of the Dominion of Canada, but not included in any province thereof, and may, at the time of such establishment, make provision for the constitution and administration of any such province, and for the passing of laws for the peace, order and good government of such province, and for its representation in the said Parliament of Canada; And whereas it is expedient to establish as a province the territory hereinafter described, and to make provision for the government thereof and the representation thereof in the Parliament of Canada: Therefore His Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate and House of Commons of Canada, enacts as follows: 1. This Act may be cited as the Alberta Act. (2) 2. The territory comprised within the following boundaries, that is to say,-commencing at the intersection of the international boundary dividing Canada from the United States of America by the fourth meridian in the system of Dominion land surveys; thence westerly along the said international boundary to the eastern boundary of the province of British Columbia; thence northerly along the said eastern boundary of the province of British Columbia to the northeast corner of the said province; thence easterly along the parallel of the sixtieth degree of north latitude to the fourth meridian in the (1) This is the Constitutional Act of Alberta. Alberta like Manitoba and Saskatchewan was carved out of Rupert's Land and the Northwest Territories. The provisions in this Act are similar to those in the Orders in Council. Alberta, through this Act is made subject to the provisions of the B.NA. Act, 1867, which applies to it as if it had been one of the original provinces. For "The North-West Territories Act," chapter 50 of the Revised Statutes of Canada, 1886, as amended up to the first day of September, 1905, the date of the coming into force of the Alberta Act, see Revised Statutes of Alberta, 1922, Vol. IV, p. 2849. (2) This Act has not been consolidated or repealed by the Statute Revisions of 1906, 1927 or 1952. Short title. Province of formed; its B.N.A. Acts to apply. system of Dominion lands surveys as the same may be hereafter defined in accordance with the said system; thence southerly along the said fourth meridian to the point of commencement, is hereby established as a province of the Dominion of Canada, to be called and known as the province of Alberta.(3) 3. The provisions of the British North America Acts, 1867 to 1886, 1867 to 1886, shall apply to the province of Alberta in the same way and to the like extent as they apply to the provinces heretofore comprised in the Dominion, as if the said province of Alberta had been one of the provinces originally united, except in so far as varied by this Act and except such provisions as are in terms made, or by reasonable intendment, may be held to be specially applicable to or only to affect one or more and not the whole of the said provinces. Representation in the Senate. Representa- Readjustment after next quinquennial census. 4. The said province shall be represented in the Senate of Canada by four members: Provided that such representation may, after the completion of the next decennial census, be from time to time increased to six by the Parliament of Canada.(4) 5. The said province and the province of Saskatchewan shall, until the termination of the Parliament of Canada existing at the time of the first readjustment hereinafter provided for, continue to be represented in the House of Commons as provided by chapter 60 of the statutes of 1903, each of the electoral districts defined in that part of the schedule to the said Act which relates to the Northwest Territories, whether such district is wholly in one of the said provinces, or partly in one and partly in the other of them, being represented by one member.(5) 6. Upon the completion of the next quinquennial census for the said province, the representation thereof shall forthwith be readjusted by the Parliament of Canada in such manner that there shall be assigned to the said province such a number of members as will bear the same proportion to the number of its population ascertained at such quinquennial census as the number sixty-five bears to the number of the population of Quebec as ascertained at the then last decennial census; and in the computation of the number of members for the said province a fractional part not exceeding one-half of the whole number requisite for entitling the province to a member shall be disregarded, and a fractional part exceeding one-half of that (3) See Alberta-British Columbia Boundary Act, 1932, c. 5 (Canada) and also The Alberta British Columbia Boundary Act, c. 6 of the statutes of 1931, of Alberta, and the Alberta-Saskatchewan Boundary Act, c. 96 of the statutes of 1939 of Alberta. See also the Alberta-British Columbia Boundary Act, 1955, c. 24 of the Statutes of Canada, 1955. (4) Alberta, like the three other western provinces, has now six senators. See ante, s. 1 of the B.N.A. Act, 1915. [5-6 Geo. V, c. 45.] (5) According to The Representation Act, (R.S.C. 1952, c. 334) the representation of Alberta is fixed at seventeen. |