Canadian Law MCP Server

The Justice Laws alternative for the AI age.

Query 956 Canadian federal Acts -- from PIPEDA and the Criminal Code to the Competition Act, Bank Act, Copyright Act, and more -- directly from Claude, Cursor, or any MCP-compatible client.

If you're building legal tech, compliance tools, or doing Canadian legal research, this is your verified reference database.

Built by Ansvar Systems -- Stockholm, Sweden

---

Why This Exists

Canadian federal law research means navigating laws-lois.justice.gc.ca, downloading HTML pages across a bilingual site, and manually cross-referencing between Acts and sections. Whether you're:

• A lawyer validating citations in a brief or contract
• A compliance officer checking PIPEDA obligations or CASL requirements
• A legal tech developer building tools on Canadian law
• A researcher tracing legislative provisions across 956 federal Acts

...you shouldn't need dozens of browser tabs and manual cross-referencing. Ask Claude. Get the exact provision. With context.

This MCP server makes Canadian law searchable, cross-referenceable, and AI-readable.

---

Quick Start

Use Remotely (No Install Needed)

Connect directly to the hosted version -- zero dependencies, nothing to install.

Endpoint: https://mcp.ansvar.eu/law-ca/mcp

Client	How to Connect
Claude.ai	Settings > Connectors > Add Integration > paste URL
Claude Code	claude mcp add canadian-law --transport http https://mcp.ansvar.eu/law-ca/mcp
Claude Desktop	Add to config (see below)
GitHub Copilot	Add to VS Code settings (see below)

Claude Desktop -- add to claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "canadian-law": {
      "type": "url",
      "url": "https://mcp.ansvar.eu/law-ca/mcp"
    }
  }
}

GitHub Copilot -- add to VS Code settings.json:

{
  "github.copilot.chat.mcp.servers": {
    "canadian-law": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://mcp.ansvar.eu/law-ca/mcp"
    }
  }
}

Use Locally (npm)

npx @ansvar/canadian-law-mcp

Claude Desktop -- add to claude_desktop_config.json:

macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "canadian-law": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@ansvar/canadian-law-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Cursor / VS Code:

{
  "mcp.servers": {
    "canadian-law": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@ansvar/canadian-law-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

---

Example Queries

Once connected, just ask naturally:

• "What does PIPEDA Section 7 say about consent exceptions?"
• "Is CASL still in force?"
• "Find provisions about personal information in Canadian law"
• "What EU laws does PIPEDA align with?"
• "What does Criminal Code s.342.1 say about unauthorized computer use?"
• "Search for data breach notification requirements across Canadian statutes"
• "Validate the citation 's. 5 PIPEDA'"
• "Build a legal stance on competition law enforcement in Canada"

---

What's Included

Category	Count	Details
Federal Acts	956 statutes	Complete A-Z from Justice Laws Website
Provisions	53,954 sections	Full-text searchable with FTS5
Legal Definitions	12,393 definitions	Extracted from all Acts
Database Size	~82 MB	Optimized SQLite, portable
Weekly Freshness Checks	Automated	Drift detection against Justice Laws

Largest Acts by Provision Count

Act	Provisions
Criminal Code	1,644
Bank Act	1,376
Insurance Companies Act	1,211
Canada Elections Act	1,102
Income Tax Act	760
Excise Tax Act	683
National Defence Act	666

Largest Acts by Definition Count

Act	Definitions
Income Tax Act	1,621
Excise Tax Act	500
Criminal Code	309
Global Minimum Tax Act	247
Bank Act	239

Verified data only -- every citation is validated against official sources (Department of Justice Canada). Zero LLM-generated content.

---

Why This Works

Verbatim Source Text (No LLM Processing):

• All statute text is ingested from the Justice Laws Website (Department of Justice Canada)
• Provisions are returned unchanged from SQLite FTS5 database rows
• Zero LLM summarization or paraphrasing -- the database contains statute text, not AI interpretations

Smart Context Management:

• Search returns ranked provisions with BM25 scoring (safe for context)
• Provision retrieval gives exact text by Act identifier + section number
• Cross-references help navigate without loading everything at once

Technical Architecture:

Justice Laws HTML --> Parse --> SQLite --> FTS5 snippet() --> MCP response
                       ^                        ^
                Provision parser         Verbatim database query

Traditional Research vs. This MCP

Traditional Approach	This MCP Server
Search Justice Laws by Act name	Search by plain language: "personal information consent"
Navigate multi-part statutes manually	Get the exact provision with context
Manual cross-referencing between Acts	build_legal_stance aggregates across sources
"Is this statute still in force?" --> check manually	check_currency tool --> answer in seconds
Find EU alignment --> dig through EUR-Lex	get_eu_basis --> linked EU directives instantly
No API, no integration	MCP protocol --> AI-native

Traditional: Search Justice Laws --> Navigate HTML --> Ctrl+F --> Cross-reference between Acts --> Check EUR-Lex for EU adequacy --> Repeat

This MCP: "What are the consent requirements under PIPEDA and how do they align with GDPR?" --> Done.

---

Available Tools (13)

Core Legal Research Tools (8)

Tool	Description
search_legislation	FTS5 full-text search across 53,954 provisions with BM25 ranking. Supports quoted phrases, boolean operators, prefix wildcards
get_provision	Retrieve specific provision by Act identifier + section (e.g., "PIPEDA" + "7", or "Criminal Code" + "342.1")
check_currency	Check if a statute is in force, amended, or repealed
validate_citation	Validate citation against database -- zero-hallucination check. Supports "Section 5 PIPEDA", "s. 342.1 Criminal Code"
build_legal_stance	Aggregate citations from multiple statutes for a legal topic
format_citation	Format citations per Canadian conventions (full/short/pinpoint)
list_sources	List all available statutes with metadata, coverage scope, and data provenance
about	Server info, capabilities, dataset statistics, and coverage summary

EU/International Law Integration Tools (5)

Tool	Description
get_eu_basis	Get EU directives/regulations that a Canadian statute aligns with (e.g., PIPEDA-GDPR adequacy)
get_canadian_implementations	Find Canadian laws aligning with a specific EU act
search_eu_implementations	Search EU documents with Canadian alignment counts
get_provision_eu_basis	Get EU law references for a specific provision
validate_eu_compliance	Check alignment status of Canadian statutes against EU directives

---

EU Law Integration

Canada is not an EU member state, but certain Canadian laws have significant EU alignment:

• PIPEDA has an EU adequacy decision for commercial-sector personal data transfers under GDPR (Commission Decision 2002/2/EC, upheld under GDPR Article 45)
• CASL aligns with the ePrivacy Directive on commercial electronic messages
• Canada participates in multilateral frameworks (e.g., APEC CBPR, Convention 108+) that share principles with EU data protection

The EU bridge tools allow you to explore these alignment relationships -- checking which Canadian provisions correspond to EU requirements, and vice versa.

Note: EU cross-references reflect alignment and adequacy relationships, not transposition. Canada adopts its own legislative approach, and the EU tools help identify where Canadian and EU law address similar domains.

---

Data Sources & Freshness

All content is sourced from authoritative Canadian legal databases:

• Justice Laws Website -- Official consolidated Acts and regulations, Department of Justice Canada

Data Provenance

Field	Value
Authority	Department of Justice Canada
Retrieval method	HTML scrape from Justice Laws A-Z index
Languages	English and French (bilingual -- both official languages)
License	Open Government Licence - Canada
Coverage	All 956 consolidated federal Acts
Last ingested	2026-02-25

Automated Freshness Checks (Weekly)

A weekly GitHub Actions workflow monitors the Justice Laws Website for changes:

Check	Method
Statute amendments	Drift detection against known provision anchors
New statutes	Comparison against Justice Laws A-Z index
Repealed statutes	Status change detection

Verified data only -- every citation is validated against official sources. Zero LLM-generated content.

---

Security

This project uses multiple layers of automated security scanning:

Scanner	What It Does	Schedule
CodeQL	Static analysis for security vulnerabilities	Weekly + PRs
Semgrep	SAST scanning (OWASP top 10, secrets, TypeScript)	Every push
Gitleaks	Secret detection across git history	Every push
Trivy	CVE scanning on filesystem and npm dependencies	Daily
Socket.dev	Supply chain attack detection	PRs
Dependabot	Automated dependency updates	Weekly

See SECURITY.md for the full policy and vulnerability reporting.

---

Important Disclaimers

Legal Advice

THIS TOOL IS NOT LEGAL ADVICE

Statute text is sourced from the Justice Laws Website (Department of Justice Canada). However:

• This is a research tool, not a substitute for professional legal counsel
• Court case coverage is not included -- do not rely solely on this for case law research
• Verify critical citations against primary sources for court filings
• EU cross-references reflect alignment relationships, not transposition
• Bilingual system -- Acts are available in English and French, but only English-language versions were ingested in this release. Verify French text against the official Justice Laws Website
• Provincial and territorial legislation is not included -- this covers federal Acts only

Before using professionally, read: DISCLAIMER.md | SECURITY.md

Client Confidentiality

Queries go through the Claude API. For privileged or confidential matters, use on-premise deployment.

---

Development

Setup

git clone https://github.com/Ansvar-Systems/canadian-law-mcp
cd canadian-law-mcp
npm install
npm run build
npm test

Running Locally

npm run dev                                       # Start MCP server
npx @anthropic/mcp-inspector node dist/index.js   # Test with MCP Inspector

Data Management

npm run ingest                    # Ingest statutes from Justice Laws
npm run build:db                  # Rebuild SQLite database
npm run drift:detect              # Run drift detection against anchors
npm run check:freshness           # Check for amendments and new Acts
npm run check-updates             # Check for source updates

Performance

• Search Speed: <100ms for most FTS5 queries
• Database Size: ~82 MB (efficient, portable)
• Reliability: 100% ingestion success rate across 956 Acts

---

Related Projects: Complete Compliance Suite

This server is part of Ansvar's Compliance Suite -- MCP servers that work together for end-to-end compliance coverage:

@ansvar/eu-regulations-mcp

Query 49 EU regulations directly from Claude -- GDPR, AI Act, DORA, NIS2, MiFID II, eIDAS, and more. Full regulatory text with article-level search. npx @ansvar/eu-regulations-mcp

@ansvar/us-regulations-mcp

Query US federal and state compliance laws -- HIPAA, CCPA, SOX, GLBA, FERPA, and more. npx @ansvar/us-regulations-mcp

@ansvar/security-controls-mcp

Query 261 security frameworks -- ISO 27001, NIST CSF, SOC 2, CIS Controls, SCF, and more. npx @ansvar/security-controls-mcp

@ansvar/automotive-cybersecurity-mcp

Query UNECE R155/R156 and ISO 21434 -- Automotive cybersecurity compliance. npx @ansvar/automotive-cybersecurity-mcp

70+ national law MCPs covering Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ghana, Iceland, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Netherlands, Nigeria, Norway, Singapore, Slovenia, South Korea, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, UAE, UK, and more.

---

Contributing

Contributions welcome! See CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines.

Priority areas:

• French-language provision ingestion
• EU cross-reference expansion (PIPEDA-GDPR mapping)
• Court case law coverage
• Historical statute versions and amendment tracking
• Provincial privacy law summaries (Quebec Law 25, PIPA Alberta/BC)

---

Roadmap

• Core statute database with FTS5 search
• Full corpus ingestion (956 Acts, 53,954 provisions, 12,393 definitions)
• EU/international law alignment tools
• Vercel Streamable HTTP deployment
• npm package publication
• Drift detection and weekly freshness checks
• French-language provision text
• Court case law expansion
• Historical statute versions (amendment tracking)
• OPC guidance documents
• Provincial privacy law summaries

---

Citation

If you use this MCP server in academic research:

@software{canadian_law_mcp_2026,
  author = {Ansvar Systems AB},
  title = {Canadian Law MCP Server: AI-Powered Legal Research Tool},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://github.com/Ansvar-Systems/canadian-law-mcp},
  note = {956 Canadian federal Acts with 53,954 provisions and 12,393 definitions}
}

---

License

Apache License 2.0. See LICENSE for details.

Data Licenses

• Statutes & Legislation: Department of Justice Canada (Open Government Licence - Canada)
• EU Metadata: EUR-Lex (EU public domain)

---

About Ansvar Systems

We build AI-accelerated compliance and legal research tools for the global market. This MCP server started as our internal reference tool -- turns out everyone building compliance tools has the same research frustrations.

So we're open-sourcing it. Navigating 956 federal Acts shouldn't require a law degree.

ansvar.eu -- Stockholm, Sweden

---

_{Built with care in Stockholm, Sweden}