In Canada, bankruptcy is a Federal legal process which releases you from most debts. The process is administered by a Licensed Insolvency Trustee under the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act. 

Once you have filed bankruptcy, your creditors will not be able to take legal steps to recover their debts from you.  Your bankruptcy stops creditors from suing you, seizing  your unsecured assets, garnishing your wages, or harassing you.  Your creditors must deal directly with your Trustee in Bankruptcy. 

Your bankruptcy starts when you make an Assignment by signing your filing documentation. 

During your bankruptcy you will have certain Duties to perform. 

Your bankruptcy ends for you when you are Discharged which means you are released from your debts. 

The Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act is designed to allow a debtor who has filed bankruptcy to be integrated back into the community, free from the crushing burden of debts. 

The bankruptcy process focuses three important steps: 

✔   releasing you from the burden of insurmountable debt. 

✔   educating you on money management skills, and the uses and abuses of
      credit. 

✔   obtaining funds from your non-exempt assets, if any, to pay to your creditors. 

Your complete bankruptcy process ends for the creditors when your Trustee has completed all the processes in you file and is Discharged, long after your discharge.