Editing Canadian English (section)

=== Law ===
Lawyers in all parts of Canada, except Quebec, which has its own [[Civil law (legal system)|civil law]] system, are called "[[barrister]]s and [[solicitor]]s" because any lawyer licensed in any of the common law provinces and territories must pass bar exams for, and is permitted to engage in, both types of legal practice in contrast to other common-law jurisdictions such as England, Wales and Ireland where the two are traditionally separated (i.e., Canada has a [[fused profession|fused legal profession]]). The words ''lawyer'' and ''counsel'' (not ''counsellor'') predominate in everyday contexts; the word ''attorney'' refers to any personal representative. Canadian lawyers generally do not refer to themselves as "attorneys", a term that is common in the United States.

The equivalent of an American ''[[district attorney]]'', meaning the barrister representing the state in criminal proceedings, is called a ''[[crown attorney]]'' (in [[Ontario]]), ''crown counsel'' (in British Columbia), ''crown prosecutor'' or ''the crown'', on account of Canada's status as a [[constitutional monarchy]] in which [[the Crown]] is the locus of state power.

The words ''advocate'' and ''[[civil law notary|notary]]''&nbsp;– two distinct professions in Quebec civil law&nbsp;– are used to refer to that province's approximate equivalents of barrister and solicitor, respectively. It is not uncommon for English-speaking advocates in Quebec to refer to themselves in English as "barrister(s) and solicitor(s)", as most advocates chiefly perform what would traditionally be known as "solicitor's work", while only a minority of advocates actually appear in court. In Canada's [[common law]] provinces and territories, the word ''notary'' means strictly a [[notary public]].

Within the Canadian legal community itself, the word ''[[solicitor]]'' is often used to refer to any Canadian lawyer in general (much like the way the word ''attorney'' is used in the United States to refer to any American lawyer in general). Despite the conceptual distinction between ''barrister'' and ''solicitor'', Canadian court documents would contain a phrase such as "''John Smith, ''solicitor'' for the Plaintiff''" even though "John Smith" may well himself be the barrister who argues the case in court. In a letter introducing him/herself to an opposing lawyer, a Canadian lawyer normally writes something like "''I am the ''solicitor" for Mr. Tom Jones."

The word ''litigator'' is also used by lawyers to refer to a fellow lawyer who specializes in lawsuits even though the more traditional word ''barrister'' is still employed to denote the same specialization.

Judges of Canada's superior courts, which exist at the provincial and territorial levels, are traditionally addressed as "My Lord" or "My Lady". This varies by jurisdiction, and some superior court judges prefer the titles "Mister Justice" or "Madam Justice" to "Lordship".

[[Master (judiciary)|Masters]] are addressed as ''"Mr. Master"'' or simply ''"Sir."'' In British Columbia, masters are addressed as ''"Your Honour."''

Judges of provincial or inferior courts are traditionally referred to in person as ''"Your Honour"''. Judges of the [[Supreme Court of Canada]] and of the federal-level courts prefer the use of ''"Mister/Madam (Chief) Justice"''. [[Justice of The Peace#Canada|Justices of The Peace]] are addressed as ''"Your Worship"''. ''"Your Honour"'' is also the correct form of address for a [[Lieutenant-Governor (Canada)|Lieutenant Governor]].

A serious crime is called an [[indictable offence]], while a less-serious crime is called a [[summary offence|summary conviction offence]]. The older words [[felony]] and [[misdemeanour]], which are still used in the United States, are not used in Canada's current ''[[Criminal Code (Canada)|Criminal Code]]'' (R.S.C. 1985, c. C-46) or by today's Canadian legal system. As noted throughout the ''Criminal Code'', a person accused of a crime is called ''the accused'' and not ''the defendant'', a term used instead in civil lawsuits.

In Canada, ''[[visible minority]]'' refers to a non-aboriginal person or group visibly not one of the majority race in a given population. The term comes from the ''[[Employment equity (Canada)|Canadian Employment Equity Act]]'', which defines such people as "persons, other than [[Aboriginal peoples of Canada|Aboriginal people]], who are non-[[Caucasian race|Caucasian]] in race or non-white in colour."<ref>{{cite web |url-status=dead |url=http://www12.statcan.ca/english/census06/reference/reportsandguides/visible-minorities.cfm |title=Visible Minority Population and Population Group Reference Guide, 2006 Census |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081211044318/http://www12.statcan.ca/english/census06/reference/reportsandguides/visible-minorities.cfm |archive-date=11 December 2008 |website=StatsCan}}</ref> The term is used as a demographic category by [[Statistics Canada]]. The qualifier "visible" is used to distinguish such minorities from the "invisible" minorities determined by [[languages of Canada|language]] (English vs. French) and certain distinctions in [[religion in Canada|religion]] ([[Catholicism in Canada|Catholics]] vs. [[Orange Order in Canada|Protestants]]).<ref>{{Cite web
| url          = http://www12.statcan.ca/census-recensement/2006/ref/rp-guides/lang-eng.cfm
| title        = 2006 Census : Languages Reference Guide
| website      = Statistics Canada
| access-date  = 11 March 2018
| archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20160826153103/http://www12.statcan.ca/census-recensement/2006/ref/rp-guides/lang-eng.cfm
| archive-date = 26 August 2016
| url-status     = dead
}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Government of Canada |date=2021-09-17 |title=Visible minority of person |url=https://www23.statcan.gc.ca/imdb/p3Var.pl?Function=DEC&Id=45152 |access-date=2023-09-19 |website=Statistics Canada }}</ref>

A [[Counties of British Columbia|county in British Columbia]] means only a regional jurisdiction of the courts and justice system and is not otherwise connected to governance as with counties in other provinces and in the United States. The rough equivalent to "county" as used elsewhere is a "[[Regional District]]".