The New Normal: Commissioning Affidavits in 2020 and Beyond

  • September 16, 2020
  • Farhad Shekib, Ricketts Harris LLP

On August 1, 2020, O. Reg. 431/20: Administering Oath or Declaration Remotely (the “Regulation”) came into force. The Regulation amends section 9 of the Commissioners for Taking Affidavits Act (the “Act”) and sets out the circumstances around which a Commissioner of Affidavits may remotely commission a document in Ontario.

In this context, the term “Commissioner for Taking Affidavits” includes persons appointed as commissioners by the Attorney General pursuant to section 4 of the Act, and persons who are commissioners by virtue of their office further to section 1(1) of the Act and s.1(1) of O. Reg. 386/12, including lawyers and paralegals licensed under the Law Society Act.

The Regulation allows an oath or declaration to be taken by a deponent or declarant without being in the physicalpresence of the person administering it if the following conditions are met: