The conservative leader Pierre Poilievre is asking the Federal Government to amend the Criminal Code so that the use of force is presumed reasonable against a person who illegally enters a house and raises a threat to those inside.
“After 10 years of liberals, the system treats victims as criminals and criminals as victims,” Pailievre said during a press conference outside a house in Brampton, Ontario.
According to the current law, Canadians are not guilty of a crime if they believe for reasonable reasons that the force (or the threat of force) is being used against them or another person.
Your defense act must also be with the purpose of defending or protecting itself and being reasonable in circumstances.
The leader of the Canada Conservative Party, Pierre Poilievre, speaking of Brampton, Ontario, on Friday announced the proposed principle of ‘Stand on Guard’. The proposed amendment would clarify the provisions of the Criminal Code regarding the use of force and self -defense when someone enters a home illegally and threatens people inside.
When determining if the act of defense is “reasonable”, the courts consider nine factors, including the nature of the threat, the physical capabilities of the parties in the incident, the history of the parties in the incident and if some part used or threatened with weapons.
The conservative leader said that Canadians who defend their homes “do not have time to think about nine conditions” and that it is wrong for the law to apply “a complicated and indecipherable legal doctrine when I was only doing the right thing.”
Pailievre also said that the federal government can implement its principle of “stand on guard” or otherwise a conservative parliamentarian will promote the idea in the bill of a private member.
‘Your house is your castle’
Pailievre said that “his home is his castle,” a reference to a legal principle called the Castle doctrine, which says that owners have the right to protect themselves from an intruder.
The press release of the conservatives highlighted Cameron Gardiner, a man from Collingwood, Ontario, who shot and killed two masked men who attacked him and kept him at the tip of the gun to a chaotic domestic invasion in 2019.
The crown accused Gardiner of involuntary homicide, but then withdrew the charges in 2021.
“This was another case of the two -level justice system of liberals: where monsters receive sympathy and second endless opportunities, while Canadians who defend their families are treated as criminals,” said the press release of the conservatives in reference to Gardiner.
The criminal defense lawyer, Tonya Kent, describes what would be “reasonable” and what could be considered excessive force when it comes to defending an aggressor. She says there is the right to self -defense in Canada: it must simply be proportional.
A more recent case in Lindsay, Ontario, has caused a generalized reaction and debate on Canada’s self -defense laws. Jeremy David McDonald, 44, has been accused of aggravated assault and assault with a gun after a man supposedly broke into his house wielding a crossbow.
There was a fight after theft. Police said the alleged intruder, Michael Kyle Bean, 41, was so seriously injured that he had to be transferred by plane to a Toronto hospital, located about 100 kilometers away.
Legal experts They have clarified that self -defense is legal in Canadaand some have expressed concern about the wrong information about the case in Ontario.
