Statutory Interpretation – is God “a Person”?

Young J in Gill v Registrar-General (1991) 5 BPR 11,587, 11,592-11,593

In R v Davie (1980) 17 CR (3d) 72 , it was held that God was not a person. In that case, Canadian law prohibited evidence of interception of a private communication unless the originator or the person intended by the originator to receive it expressly consented to its admission. The accused in his bugged cell got down on his knees, put his arms into the air and said “O God, let me get away with it just this once”. The majority of the British Columbian Court of Appeal said that the evidence was admissible because it was not a communication to another person. Hutcheon JA said at 81:

In my opinion, the word “person” is used in the statutes of Canada to describe someone to whom rights are granted and upon whom obligations are placed. There is no earthly authority which can grant rights or impose duties upon God … In other words, I accept the proposition of the Crown that the definition of “person” … is “a human being … having rights or duties recognized by law”. (Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles, 3rd Edition (1944), p 1560). I do not accept the proposition that the word “person” … extends beyond the human species.