What is the test for construing a will?

In construing a will recourse should not be had to rules of law or canons of construction if the testator’s intention can be ascertained from the words of the will. In Hauck v. Schmaltz, 1935 CanLII 26 (SCC), [1935] S.C.R. 478, at 481; [1935] D.L.R. 691, Lamont, J., stated this proposition as follows: “For the purpose of ascertaining the intention of the testator the will is to be read in the first place without reference to or regard to the consequences of any rule of law or canon of construction. The words are to be given their usual and ordinary meaning, the particular passage concerned being taken together with whatever is relevant in the rest of the will to explain it.”