What is the role of the courts in Canada?

Discover Canada describes the courts as the institution that resolves legal disputes. The guide writes: Canada is governed by an organized system of laws. These laws are the written rules intended to guide people in our society. They are made by elected representatives. The courts settle disputes and the police enforce the laws. The role the test wants is therefore to interpret and apply laws — settling disputes by reading what the law says and applying it to the facts.

The three roles are deliberately separate. Discover Canada uses one sentence to assign three duties to three institutions:

• Laws are made by elected representatives (Legislative branch — Parliament and the legislatures)
• The courts settle disputes (Judicial branch — interpreting and applying the law)
• The police enforce the laws (Executive function — carrying out the law)

So the courts neither make nor enforce laws — they decide cases, settle disputes between parties, and interpret what the legislature has written. That is the heart of the Judicial branch's role in Canada's three-branch system.

The court structure starts at the top with the Supreme Court of Canada. Discover Canada writes that "the Supreme Court of Canada is our country's highest court," with "nine judges appointed by the Governor General." Below it sit the Federal Court of Canada (for federal-government matters) and the Provincial Courts (appeal and trial courts in each province), with more specialised courts for family, traffic and small claims matters below those. Together they form the system that "settles disputes" by interpreting and applying the law.

The question is testing whether new citizens understand the role of the Judicial branch. Discover Canada's phrase is that "the courts settle disputes" — and settling disputes means interpreting the law and applying it to facts. The right test answer matches that.

The wrong answer choices each pick a different branch's role. Enforcing laws is the police's job — not the courts'. Creating laws is the Legislative branch — Parliament and the provincial legislatures. "Ignoring laws" is the opposite of what the courts do — they apply them. Only interpret and apply matches.