This is general information, not legal advice, and reflects Federal Court of Appeal of Canada practice as of September 27, 2026.
What the Court of Appeal's own site actually shows
The Federal Court of Appeal publishes its own Consolidated Practice Direction, most recently updated July 9, 2026. A direct read of it, and of the Court's separate Important Notices page — eight administrative notices, none newer than 2023 and none touching AI — confirms zero mentions of artificial intelligence, generative AI, or any declaration duty: a check of the Court's own current source, not an inference from an outdated page.
The Federal Court's declaration duty stops one level down
The Federal Court of Appeal and the Federal Court are separate courts, sharing an administrator (the Courts Administration Service) and one rulebook (the Federal Courts Rules) — but not one AI policy. The Federal Court's Notice to the Parties and the Profession on AI use, issued December 20, 2023 and updated May 7, 2024, binds Federal Court proceedings only. The Court of Appeal's own Global Review of the Federal Courts Rules, a December 2025 report on that shared rulebook, treats the notice as the Federal Court's own guidance and recommends no AI amendment "at this time" — not an extension to the Court of Appeal.
Two courts, one roof, two postures:
- Federal Court. A signed AI-use declaration required since December 2023; three or four disclosures out of almost 28,000 filings in year one.
- Federal Court of Appeal. No notice, no practice direction, no declaration duty — and it didn't even participate in Canadian Lawyer's national AI-guidance survey, which found nothing else to report for it.
- Federal Courts Rules. The shared rulebook, reviewed by the Court of Appeal's rules committee in December 2025 without an AI provision added.
What still applies without a Court of Appeal rule
A missing court-level policy doesn't erase an Ontario-licensed lawyer's underlying duties. The Law Society of Ontario's generative-AI guidance — verification, confidentiality, supervision — binds counsel before the Court of Appeal exactly as before the Federal Court; see our breakdown of the LSO's generative-AI guidance. A declaration made below, at the Federal Court, doesn't disappear on appeal — it was made under that court's rule, not the Court of Appeal's, since the Court of Appeal has none. See our look at the Federal Court's declaration duty, and our tracker of Ontario's own AI disclosure rules, for the venues that do have one.