The Act says certain public documents and letters patent do not have to be on parchment, and it lets the Registrar General cancel and replace defective letters patent or documents in specified cases.
An Act respecting public documents and the correction of defective letters patent Short title This Act may be cited as the Public Documents Act. Public documents of Canada Unless some Act relating thereto expressly so provides, no commission or other public document under the Great Seal or under the Privy Seal of the Governor General, no letters patent of Canada and no public writ, deed or other document thereof, or any portion of any such document, is required to be on parchment, but, when written or printed wholly or in part on paper, is as valid in all respects as if written or printed on parchment. Saving Nothing in this Act shall be construed as declaring that it was necessary to the validity of any document described in subsection (1) signed, sealed or executed before June 22, 1869 that the document or any part thereof should be on parchment. Defective letters patent or documents If letters patent under the Great Seal, other than letters patent that grant or concede lands, or documents under the Privy Seal of the Governor General or person administering the Government of Canada, have been issued to or in the name of the wrong person, or contain any clerical error or misnomer or wrong description of any material fact, the Registrar General of Canada, when authorized by the Governor in Council, may direct that the defective letters patent or documents be cancelled, that a minute of the cancellation be entered in the margin of the registry of the original letters patent or other documents and that correct letters patent under the Great Seal or documents under the Privy Seal be issued in their place. Effect Correct letters patent or documents issued under subsection (1) relate back to the date of those cancelled.