[16] Black’s Law Dictionary (7th Ed.) (1999) gives as the primary meaning of the word “person”, “a human being” and, as a secondary meaning, “an entity (such as a corporation) that is recognized by law as having the rights and duties of a human being”.
Osborn’s Concise Law Dictionary (7th Ed.), (1983) defines a “person” as:
The object of rights and duties, that is, capable of having rights and of being liable to duties. Persons are of two kinds, natural and artificial. A natural person is a human being; an artificial person is a collection or succession of natural persons forming a corporation.
In the Dictionary of Canadian Law (2nd Ed.) (1995), a “person” is a “natural person” and “includes a body corporate or politic” Blackstone himself made the same distinction between natural and artificial persons and treated them all as persons in the eyes of the law (see para. [11] above).
[17] These definitions taken from dictionaries including dictionaries of legal terms are uniform and clear. A “person” in its ordinary meaning includes a human being or a natural person as well as an artificial person such as a corporation. The primary sense of the word is a natural person; the secondary sense, an artificial person such as a corporation.
[18]
The Interpretation Act (Canada) is consistent with this ordinary meaning. Section 35 of that Act defines a “person”, as follows:
“person” or any word or expression, descriptive of a person includes a corporation.
The use of the verb “includes” extends the definition to include a corporation. The definition does not exclude a human being. In the French text of the Act, the meaning is even clearer:
« personne » Personne physique ou morale; Tune ou l’autre notions sont visées dans des formulations générales, impersonnelles ou comportant des pronoms ou adjectifs indéfinis.
A “personne physique” is a natural person; a “personne morale” is a corporation.
[19] I am, therefore, driven to the conclusion that in its ordinary meaning and in its common or popular sense, the word “person” in a statute includes both natural persons and corporations.
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