You’ve promised gold bricks to your beloved for agreeing to marry you. After the marriage you’re planning a dinner in a Brandon restaurant that serves margarine.
But before doing so, your parents who live in Watrous, Sask., are claiming support from you. And you have to collect your $4-a-day wage for working in Saskatchewan’s timberlands.
All of the above, and much more, are indeed the subject of legislation in this country. I want to share some of the interesting laws I found in the course of writing this column in the past year.
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In Saskatchewan, if you enter into a contract or agreement “in consideration of marriage,” the agreement and payments made under it can be challenged by your creditors, unless the agreement is accompanied by sworn statements from the two saying the agreement was not entered into to defeat creditors. And the contract must be registered.
If the contract promises payment in gold bricks, under Manitoba’s Gold Clauses Act, your beloved can demand that you make the payment in “any coin or currency” instead of gold.
Maybe you can avoid all of these difficulties by adopting your beloved rather than marrying her. Alberta has specific legislation on this called the Adult Adoption Act. The law is silent on who can adopt whom. It merely sets out the process.
If you decide on a nice dinner in Brandon, check to see if the restaurant serves margarine. Manitoba’s Margarine Act requires that either the menu proclaim “margarine served here” or if there is no menu there be a sign in a “conspicuous place” with capital letters one and a half inches high proclaiming “margarine served here.”
About your parents’ claim for support: In Saskatchewan, if you don’t look after your dependent parents, they can take you to court. A court can order you to pay “a weekly sum of money, not exceeding $20” for their upkeep. Hopefully they don’t spend it all in one place.
How to collect your pay for working in Saskatchewan’s woods? The province’s Woodmen’s Lien Act allows anyone who works in the woods to claim a lien on logs and timber if they are not paid in a timely fashion. But you’ve agreed with your employer to waive your right to claim a lien.
The law provides that such a waiver is not binding unless you are a manager, officer, foreman or are paid more than “$3 a day.”
And whatever you do, don’t challenge your employer to a duel. Canada’s Criminal Code makes it an indictable or serious offence to “provoke another person to fight a duel,” to attempt “to provoke a person to challenge another person to fight a duel” or to accept a challenge to duel.
Keep track of all the legal holidays in this country in planning your marriage. In addition to ones we’re familiar with, like Christmas and New Years, we have legislation recognizing many other occasions. April 6 is “tartan day” in Saskatchewan, Nova Scotia and Ontario “to commemorate the Scots who came to Canada, many in duress.”
By federal law, every April 28 is Workers Mourning Day. However, the act provides that it is not a legal holiday and “shall not be required to be kept or observed as such.”
Every Jan. 11 is Sir John A. Macdonald Day and Nov. 20 is Sir Wilfrid Laurier Day. Unlike the Workers Mourning Day Act, there are no directions as to the celebration of these dates.
Happy holidays to all.
Don Purich is a former practising lawyer who is now involved in publishing, teaching and writing about legal issues. His columns are intended as general advice only. Individuals are encouraged to seek other opinions and/or personal counsel when dealing with legal matters.
