1. Introduction

A. Constitutional Structure

Canada is a federal country made up of ten provinces and three territories, the latter being subject to federal suzerainty but largely under local administration. All jurisdictions, except Quebec, follow a common-law tradition.

The currency is the Canadian dollar (CAD).

B. Legal Systems

I. Common Law

Although contemporary trust law in common-law Canada generally follows Commonwealth doctrinal tradition, it has been influenced by American law. Unjust enrichment decisions, the remedial constructive trust and fiduciary obligations law, as well as legislation in the area of trustee investment law (the modern portfolio theory), owe their inspiration to American ideas.

The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, part of the Constitution of Canada, applies only to persons, not to property. Consequently, it has not been applied in the field of trust law in common-law Canada or to the operation of the Quebec fiducie.

Ii. Quebec

French immigrants from Normandy in the 17th century brought to Quebec their language, religion and law, based on the Coutume de Paris, which contained no trust law. In 1888, legislation recognising a trust as a mode of property-holding was introduced into the former civil code. Quebec, as a civil-law jurisdiction, has no doctrine of estates. In 1994, a new codification was enacted – the Civil Code of Québec (Code) – when the Quebec legislature adopted different thinking with a fiducie based on the 19th-century concept of a patrimoine d’affectation (property dedicated to a mode of user, but owned by no one). Quebec is unique among civil-law jurisdictions in possessing a complete trust concept.