Merchant Seamen Compensation Act

Marginal note:Definitions

• 2 (1) In this Act,

  accident

  accident

  accident includes a wilful and an intentional act, not being the act of a seaman, and a fortuitous event occasioned by a physical or natural cause; (accident)

  Board

  Commission

  Board means the Merchant Seamen Compensation Board established by section 3; (Commission)

  compensation

  indemnité

  compensation includes medical and hospital expenses and any other benefits, expenses or allowances authorized by this Act; (indemnité)

  dependants

  personnes à charge

  dependants means members of the family of a seaman who were wholly or partly dependent on his earnings at the time of his death, or who but for the incapacity of a seaman due to an accident would have been so dependent; (personnes à charge)

  employer

  employeur

  employer includes every person having any seaman in his service under a contract of hiring or apprenticeship, written or oral, express or implied; (employeur)

  invalid

  invalide

  invalid means physically or mentally incapable of earning; (invalide)

  medical aid

  assistance médicale

  medical aid means the medical, surgical and dental aid, the hospital and skilled nursing services and the artificial member or members and apparatus and repair mentioned in subsection 46(1); (assistance médicale)

  Minister

  ministre

  Minister means the Minister of Labour; (ministre)

  seaman

  marin

  seaman means every person, except pilots, apprenticed pilots and fishermen, employed or engaged on

  • (a) a ship registered in Canada, or

  • (b) a ship chartered by demise to a person resident in Canada or having his principal place of business in Canada,

  when the ship is engaged in trading on a foreign voyage or on a home-trade voyage as those voyages are defined in the Canada Shipping Act, and, if so ordered by the Governor in Council, includes a seaman engaged in Canada and employed on a ship that is registered outside Canada and operated by a person resident in Canada or having his principal place of business in Canada when that ship is so engaged; (marin)

  ship

  navire

  ship means any ship or vessel as defined in the Canada Shipping Act; (navire)

  survivor

  survivant

  survivor means a person who, at the time of the death of a seaman, was

  • (a) the seaman’s spouse, if there is no person described in paragraph (b), or

  • (b) a person who was cohabiting with the seaman in a conjugal relationship for a period of at least one year immediately before the seaman’s death. (survivant)

• Marginal note:Deemed accident

  (2) A seaman who suffers a disability arising out of and in the course of his employment as a seaman, otherwise than as a result of an accident, shall be deemed for the purposes of this Act to have suffered the disability as a result of an accident and, except for the purpose of computing compensation, the accident shall be deemed to have taken place on the day the disability first became known to his employer.