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ACTS
OF THE
PARLIAMENT
OF THE
DOMINION OF CANADA
PASSED IN THE SESSION HELD IN THE
SIXTY-FIRST YEAR OF THE REIGN OF HER
MAJESTY
QUEEN VICTORIA
BEING THE
THIRD SESSION OF THE EIGHTH
PARLIAMENT
Begun and holden at Ottawa, on the Third day of
February, and closed by Prorogation on the Thirteenth day of June, 1898
HIS EXCELLENCY
THE RIGHT HONOURABLE SIR JOHN CAMPBELL HAMILTON-GORDON, EARL OF ABERDEEN
GOVERNOR GENERAL
VOL. I
PUBLIC GENERAL ACTS
OTTAWA
PRINTED BY SAMUEL EDWARD DAWSON
LAW PRINTER TO THE QUEEN'S MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTY
ANNO DOMINI, 1898
An Act to provide for the
Government of the Yukon District.
[Assented to 13th
June 1898.]
Her Majesty, by and with the
advice and consent of the Senate and House of Commons of Canada, enacts as
follows :—
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1. This Act may be cited as The Yukon Territory Act.
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Short title.
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2. The Yukon Judicial District, as constituted by the
proclamation of the Governor in Council bearing date the sixteenth day of
August, one thousand eight hundred and ninety-seven, and contained in the
schedule to this Act, is hereby constituted and declared to be a separate
territory under the name of the Yukon Territory, and the same shall no
longer form part of the North-west Territories.
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The Yukon Territory defined and constituted.
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3. The Governor in Council may, by instrument under the Great
Seal, appoint for the Yukon Territory a chief executive officer to be
styled and known as the Commissioner of the Yukon Territory.
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Commissioner.
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4. The Commissioner shall administer the government of the
territory under instructions from time to time given him by the Governor
in Council or the Minister of the Interior.
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Administration of government.
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5. The Governor in Council by warrant under his privy seal may
constitute and appoint such and so many persons from time to time not
exceeding in the whole six persons, as may be deemed desirable to be a
Council to aid the Commissioner in the administration of the territory,
and such persons so appointed to the Council shall before entering upon
the duties of their offices take and subscribe before the Commissioner
such oaths of allegiance and office as the Governor in Council may
prescribe.
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Council.
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The majority of the Council including the Commissioner shall form a
quorum.
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Each judge of the court shall be ex officio a member of the
Council, but the total number of members of the Council, including the
judges, shall not exceed six.
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Quorum.
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6. The Commissioner in Council shall have the same powers to
make ordinances for the government of the territory as are at the date of
this Act possessed by the Lieutenant Governor of the North-west
Territories, acting by and with the advice and consent of the Legislative
Assembly thereof to make ordinances for the government of the North-west
Territories, except as such powers may be limited by order of the Governor
in Council.
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Powers to make ordinances.
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7. A copy of every such ordinance made by the Commissioner in
Council shall be dispatched by mail to the Governor in Council within ten
days after the passing thereof, and shall be laid before both Houses of
Parliament as soon as conveniently may be thereafter, and any such
ordinance may be disallowed by the Governor in Council at any time within
two years after its passage.
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Disallowance by Governor in Council.
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8. Subject to the provisions of this Act, the Governor in
Council may make ordinances for the peace, order and good government of
the territory and of Her Majesty's subjects and others therein, but no
ordinance made by the Governor in Council or the Commissioner in Council
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Governor in Council may make certain
ordinances.
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impose any tax or any duty of customs or any excise or any
penalty exceeding one hundred dollars, or
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alter or repeal the punishment provided in any Act of the
Parliament of Canada in force in the territory for any offence, or
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appropriate any public money, lands or property of Canada without
authority of Parliament :
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Restrictions as to such ordinances.
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Provided that this section shall not apply to any law extending or
applying or declared applicable to the territory by any Act of the
Parliament of Canada.
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Proviso.
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9. Subject to the provisions of this Act, the laws relating to
civil and criminal matters and the ordinances as the same exist in the
North-west Territories at the time of the passing of this Act, shall be
and remain in force in the said Yukon Territory in so far as the same are
applicable thereto until amended or repealed by the Parliament of Canada
or by any ordinance of the Governor in Council or the Commissioner in
Council made under the provisions of this Act.
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Existing laws to remain in force until
altered by the proper legislative authority.
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10. There is hereby constituted and appointed a superior court
of record in and for the said territory, which shall be called the
Territorial Court.
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Territorial Court constituted.
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The said court shall consist of one or more judges, who shall be
appointed by the Governor in Council by letters patent under the Great
Seal.
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Judges.
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(2) Any person may be appointed judge of the court who is or has been a
judge of a superior or a county court of any province of Canada or of the
North-west Territories, or a barrister or advocate of at least ten years'
standing at the bar of any such province or of the North-west Territories.
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Their qualifications.
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(3) A judge of the court shall not hold any other office or emolument
under the Government of Canada, or of any province of Canada or of the
said territory, but this provision shall not prevent a judge from being
eligible for appointment as a member of the Council of the said territory.
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Their disqualifications.
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11. The law governing the residence, tenure of office, oath of
office, rights and privileges of the judge or judges of the court, and the
power, authority and jurisdiction of the court shall be the same, mutatis
mutandis, as the law governing the residence, tenure of office, oath
of office, rights and privileges of the judges, and the power, authority
and jurisdiction of the Supreme Court of the North-west Territories,
except as the same are expressly varied in this Act.
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Law as to judges and jurisdiction of the
court.
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12. Sittings of the court presided over by a judge or judges
shall be held at such times and places as the Governor in Council or the
Commissioner in Council shall appoint.
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Sittings of the court.
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13. The Governor in Council may appoint such officers of the
court as may deemed necessary, and may define and specify the duties and
emoluments of the officers so appointed.
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Officers of the court.
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14. The judge of the Supreme Court of the North-west Territories
assigned to the Yukon Judicial District at the time this Act comes into
force, and the officers of that court for the said district, shall be the
judge and officers of the Territorial Court until otherwise provided, but
the said judge may at his option, at any time within twelve months after
this Act comes into force, resume his office as one of the judges of the
Supreme Court of the North-west Territories, his transfer to that court
being in such case made by Order of the Governor in Council.
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Provisional appointment of judges and
officers.
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15. The procedure in criminal cases in the Territorial Court
shall, subject to the provisions of any Act of the Parliament of Canada,
conform as nearly as possible to the procedure existing in like cases in
the North-west Territories at the time of the passing of this Act.
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Procedure in criminal cases.
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16. While in the said Yukon Territory the Commissioner of the
territory, each member of the Council thereof, every judge of the court,
and every commissioned officer of the North-west Mounted Police, shall ex
officio have, possess and exercise all the powers of a justice of the
peace, or of two justices of the peace, under any laws or ordinances,
civil or criminal, in force in the said territory, and the Governor in
Council may, by commission, appoint such other persons justices of the
peace or police commissioners, having each the authority of two justices
of the peace within the said territory, as may be deemed desirable.
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Justices of the peace.
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17. No person shall be summoned or sworn as a juryman on any
trial in the Territorial Court unless he is a British subject.
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Jurymen to be British subjects.
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18. Every lock-up, guard-room, guard-house or place of
confinement provided for or under the direction of the North-west Mounted
Police Force, or the regular military force, or a municipal body, or by
the Commissioner or Commissioner in Council of the territory, shall be a
penitentiary, jail, and place of confinement for all persons sentenced to
imprisonment in the territory, and the Commissioner of the territory shall
direct in which such penitentiary, jail or place of confinement any person
sentenced to imprisonment shall be imprisoned.
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Penitentiaries, jails and places of
confinement.
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(2) The Governor in Council shall have power to make rules and
regulations respecting the management, discipline and policy of every
penitentiary, jail or place of confinement used as such in the territory.
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Governor in Council to make rules and
regulations as to penitentiaries, etc.
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19. All persons possessing the powers of two justices of the
peace in the territory shall also be coroners in and for the said
territory.
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Coroners.
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20. The Governor in Council may appoint such officers as are
necessary for the due administration of justice in the territory, may fix
the fees or emoluments of such officers and may fix the fees or emoluments
of coroners, justices of the peace, jurors, witnesses and other persons
attending or performing duties in relation to the administration of
criminal justice, and provide the manner in which such fees and emoluments
shall be paid.
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Appointment of necessary officers, fixing of
fees, etc.
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21. In case of the death of the Commissioner the senior member
of the Council shall act as Commissioner until a successor is appointed.
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Provision for case of Commissioner's death.
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SCHEDULE.
ABERDEEN.
[L.S.]
CANADA.
Victoria, by the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Ireland, Queen, Defender of the Faith, &c., &c., &c.
To all to whom these presents shall come or whom the same may in anywise
concern,-GREETING :
A PROCLAMATION.
E.L.NEWCOMBE, Deputy of the Minister of Justice, Canada.
Whereas it is in and by the Revised
Statutes, chapter 50, and intituled "An Act respecting the North-west
Territories" in effect enacted, that the Governor in Council may at any
time by Proclamation divide the Territories into judicial districts, and give to
each such district an appropriate name, and in like manner from time to time,
alter the limits and extent of such districts.
AND WHEREAS
by an Order of our Governor in Council, bearing date the 16th day of August
A.D. 1897, the establishment of a judicial district in the said Territories was
authorized, to be known as the Yukon Judicial District, and to be bounded as
hereinafter mentioned:
Now Know Ye, We do hereby and by virtue of the authority vested in Us by the
said Act, and the said Order in Council respectively establish and set apart a
judicial district in the North-west Territories to be named and known as the
"Yukon Judicial District, " the boundaries of such judicial district
to be as follows:–
Beginning at the intersection of the 141st
meridian of west longitude from Greenwich with a point on the coast of the
Arctic Sea, which is approximate north latitude, 69° 39', and named on the
Admiralty charts "Demarcation Point"; thence due south, on said
meridian (which is also the boundary line between Canada and Alaska) for a
distance of about 650 miles, to a point in latitude about 60° 10' north, at
which it will intersect the disputed boundary between Canada and the United
States on the North Pacific coast ; thence in an easterly direction, along the
said undetermined boundary, for a distance of about 55 miles (in a straight
line) to its intersection with the 60th parallel
of north latitude ; thence due east along the parallel of latitude (which is
also the north boundary of British Columbia) for a distance of about 550 miles,
to the Liard River, in approximate longitude 123° 30' west ; thence northerly
along the middle line of said river, for a distance of about 10 miles till
opposite the highest part of the range of mountains which abuts upon the river
near the mouth of Black River; thence to follow the summit of said range in a
north-westerly direction to the southernmost source of the Peel River; thence to
follow northward the summit of the main range of mountains which runs
approximately parallel to Peel River, on the west, as far as the intersection of
the said range with the 136th
meridian ; thereafter to run due north to the arctic Ocean, or to the
westernmost channel of the Mackenzie Delta, and along that channel to the Arctic
Ocean ; thence north-westerly following the windings of the Arctic Coast
(termination of the mainland of the Continent), including Herschel Island, and
all other islands which may be situated within three (3) geographical miles, to
the place of beginning.
Provided, that in respect to that part of the line, between the Liard River
and the southernmost source of the Peel River, the summit to be followed is the
water-shed summit separating streams entering the Liard River below Black River,
or flowing directly into the Mackenzie further north, from streams flowing
westward either to the Yukon or to upper branches of the Liard River.
Provided, that in respect to the part of the boundary described as following
northward the main range of mountains on the west side of Peel River, the line
shall run along the water-shed between streams flowing eastwardly to the Peel
River, and those flowing westwardly to branches of the Yukon, Porcupine etc.,
except where such water-shed shall be more than 20 miles distant from the main
stream of the Peel, when the highest range within that distance shall be the
boundary.
Of all which Our loving subjects and all others whom these presents may
concern, are hereby required to take notice and to govern themselves
accordingly.
In Testimony Whereof, We have caused these Our Letters to be made Patent
and the Great Seal of Canada to be hereunto affixed. Witness, Our Right Trusty
and Right Well-Beloved Cousin and Councillor the Right Honourable Sir JOHN
CAMPBELL HAMILTON-GORDON,
Earl of Aberdeen ; Viscount Formartine, Baron Haddo, Methlic, Tarves and
Kellie, in the Peerage of Scotland ; Viscount Gordon of Aberdeen, County of
Aberdeen, in the Peerage of the United Kingdom ; Baronet of Nova Scotia ;
Knight Grand Cross of Our most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint
George, etc., etc., Governor General of Canada.
At Our Government House, in Our City of Ottawa, in Our said Dominion, this
sixteenth day of August, in the year of Our Lord one thousand eight hundred
and ninety-seven, and in the sixty-first year of Our Reign.
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By Command,
JOSEPH POPE
Under-Secretary of State.
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OTTAWA
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Printed by SAMUEL EDWARD
DAWSON, Law Printer to the Queen's
most Excellent Majesty.
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