Ryan Comeau
If you hear an intruder break into your home, make sure you’ve studied up on Sections 34 and 35 of the Canada Criminal Code, or you might be criminally charged.
Under the Criminal Code of Canada, you are allowed to use force in self-defence, but the force has to be reasonable under the circumstances. Reasonable to whom? To a jury? To a judge? Or to the armed intruder?
It should be reasonable according to the person facing assault and fearing for their life. This is where Canada’s system fails. Canadians have been charged and jailed for defending too hard against armed intruders, but if those Canadians were to hesitate, they could have risked their loved ones being harmed. Either way, you lose.
Take the case of a man in Milton, Ontario. Two men broke into his home and attacked his mother. He shot one of the intruders, and he died. He was then charged with second-degree murder. Does that make sense?
The Crown withdrew the charge, but his name is forever associated with second-degree murder.
A more extreme case is shown in the case of Dakota Pratt from the Birdtail Sioux First Nation in Manitoba. He woke up in the middle of the night to an intruder cutting into his head with a knife. He fought with the intruder and stabbed him with his own weapon. He was then charged with second-degree murder and sentenced to 5 years in prison.
The most recent case is in Lindsay, Ontario. A man woke up in the middle of the night to find an intruder in his home. The man fought back, and the intruder was injured enough to require airlifting. The man was then charged with aggravated assault and assault with a weapon.
The similarity between these is that they aren’t criminals; they’re the victims of criminals.
No one, when they see an armed intruder in their home, has the time to stop and think: “What’s the reasonable amount of force?” No father will have the time to process how many punches he can throw before it crosses the line towards assault. No mother is weighing legal consequences to see if it’s a big enough threat to warrant protecting her children.
What Canadian laws on self-defence create is hesitation, a split second of second-guessing that no victim should have to face when their safety is at risk. Canadians are forced to hesitate in situations that can cost them their life.
The current precedent for self-defence sends the message to criminals that the law is on their side, that if they enter someone’s home, their lives won’t be risked. Canadians are left powerless, caught between becoming a victim of violence or being labelled a criminal.
Every Canadian should have the right to defend themselves and their families. The law should stand with victims, and there shouldn’t be any second thought on that.
This is why Canada needs better self-defence laws. Laws that guarantee the right to use force against intruders in your own home without fear of prosecution. Your home holds those you love most, and if an armed intruder enters, they are alone responsible for what happens to them. Actions meet consequences. If someone is breaking into your home, you are a victim, not an aggressor.
Self-defence is not assault, protecting your children is not a crime, and you shouldn’t have to weigh the legal consequences of either. Every Canadian should have the clear right to defend themselves and their loved ones. It’s time for Parliament to change the criminal code to allow Canadians to defend themselves. This ties into the overarching problem in the Canadian justice system that kneels to criminals and ignores the victims. Repeat offenders are let out on bail, foreign criminals are allowed to stay, meanwhile, the ordinary Canadians defending their families are branded as criminals.
Having stronger self-defence laws isn’t about encouraging violence. It is about standing with victims, not criminals.
Ryan Comeau is a contributor to TrendingPolitics.ca
