New Citizen’s Arrest and Self-defence Act is
in effect as of Monday, March 11, 2013. It
introduces a new concept to the law in Canada:
arrest within a reasonable time.
It also aims to simplify the self-defence sections, which have given
rise to some of the most mind-bending legal reasoning in Canadian law.
Prior to
these amendments, the law of self-defence was a tangled bramble bush of special
considerations, such as whether the accused provoked the attack, or reasonably
believed his or her life was in danger, and whether the use of force was no
more than necessary. This language has
been greatly simplified to consider whether the accused’s actions were
“reasonable in the circumstances.”
The words
defining self-defence might be simpler, but the interpretation and application
of those words might prove to be just as difficult as the previous bramble
bush. Time will tell.
Until now,
any private citizen had the power to arrest someone caught in the act of
committing a crime in relation to the private citizen’s property, but there was
no power to do so after the fact.
In recent
years some cases attracted a lot of attention because of this law. In 2009, a Toronto storeowner pursued a
shoplifter, chasing him down the street to arrest him, and was himself charged
with assault and forcible confinement. Although
we have yet to see how the courts will interpret “arrest within a reasonable
time,” likely that storeowner would not have been charged under the new law.
We could
expect that a “reasonable time” will be longer in more remote locations, where
the police response time might be expected to be longer.
Which law
applies to cases that are already before the courts is a matter for the lawyers
to work out.
Ann Pollak is a criminal defence
lawyer in Burnaby who represents clients in Peace Country and Yukon. www.northerndefencelaw.com
© Ann
Pollak 2013
