canlii canlii is a non-profit organization managed by the federation of law societies of canada. it provides an archive of primary sources of canadian law, including canadian case law (legal cases).
the easiest and most precise way to find a legal case in canlii is to use the case citation, typing this in on the 2nd search line on the search page.
for example, if you have this information - r. v. oakes, [1986] 1 scr 103, and simply type in r. v. oakes, you will retrieve numerous hits. if you type in 1986 1 scr 103, you will only retrieve one hit.
in this example, the case r. v. oakes was published in 1986, in volume one of the supreme court reports, on page 103.
