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Crime… Most Canadians agree that those who commit “crimes” should be punished and the severity of the punishment depends on the nature of the crime. As straightforward as this may seem, what exactly is a crime? The first lesson of this unit on criminal law and its procedures will focus on defining crime. • How Well do you Know the Law? • Areas of Lawmaking • Conditions that must exist • Crime Defined • Immoral Behaviour • Legal Rights and the CCRF
Criminal Law • Criminal law is a set of rules designed to prohibit and punish acts that injure individuals as well as society as a whole.
Areas of Lawmaking • Criminal acts can be divided into three general areas of lawmaking: • the protection of people • examples are murder and assault • the protection of property and • protection against trespassing (entering someone's property without their permission) and theft (stealing or taking something that is not yours without permission from the owner) • the protection of moral norms of a society. • category of immoral crimes tends to change over time • prostitution, illegal gambling, distribution of restricted drugs and distribution of pornography, particularly child pornography.
How are Laws Created? • The Constitution Act, 1867, gives the right to the federal government to create criminal law. • The main body of federal criminal law is contained in the Criminal Code of Canada. • Federal criminal laws tend to address more serious criminal actions, and the penalties seem to be greater than for provincial or territorial offences. • Provinces and territories in Canada also have the right to legislate some aspects of criminal law. • Highways, for example, fall under provincial jurisdiction, so every province and territory in Canada creates its own traffic laws. • Provincial and territorial offences are generally punishable by less than two years of imprisonment.
Activity 1: Crime Defined • In your notebook, provide your own definition of "crime" and give an example. • You may not use murder, assault, trespassing, or theft because they were already mentioned in this lesson.
Activity Two: Applying the Definition • Using your definition of a crime, identify whether or not a crime has been committed in each of these cases. • In each case, explain fully why this is or is not a crime. • Keep your response in your notebook for reference later on in the Unit.
Scenario 1 • Ken, a 6 year old boy, was pretending to be a cowboy while playing with his father’s pistol. He loaded the pistol as he had seen his father do in the past. He then took the pistol and shot his brother.
Scenario 2 • Jeremy, while in the boys’ washroom at school, sets fire to a roll of hand towel. As a consequence of his actions serious fire and smoke damage occurred in the school.
Scenario 3 • One evening while coming home from a friend’s home, Joyce was stopped by a police officer for driving her moped without lights and reflectors.
Scenrio 4 • One evening while home alone, Heather heard a noise downstairs in her kitchen. Nervous, she grabbed her husband’s revolver from the bedside table. While terribly frightened, she made her way down the darkened stairs. Seeing a shadow, she fired the gun in its general direction. Unknowingly, she killed her husband who returned home two days earlier than expected from a business trip out of town.
Scenario 5 • While walking across someone's lawn, a postman fell down a large hole that had been dug because of a blocked sewage pipe. The hole was uncovered, and not indicated by a warning sign. The postman had always walked the same route while delivering mail to his customer for years.
What is a Crime • The Law Reform Commission of Canada states that four conditions must exist for an act to be considered a crime • The actions or behaviour of the person must be considered immoral (wrong) by most Canadians • The person’s actions must cause harm to society and any individual victims • The harm caused by the person’s actions must be serious • The person must be punished by the criminal justice system for his or her actions.
Immoral Behaviour • The Criminal Code reflects what actions the government, and often the majority of Canadians, consider to be immoral behaviour. • The government amends or makes new laws according to what most Canadians want. • E.g. 1967 Pierre Elliot Trudeau (then Justice Minister) makes changes to the Criminal Code and makes an appeal to decriminalize ‘homosexual acts’ • There are often areas of the criminal code that are up for debate. These gray areas may be debated over a period of time until the majority of Canadians agree with one side or another. • E.g. Possession of marijuana and euthanasia (assisted suicide) are still in the Criminal Code but seriously debated • The government can respond to changing public opinion by criminalizing, decriminalizing, or legalizing specific types of behaviour.
Legal, Illegal and Criminal • It is important to recognise the difference between the three • Legal behaviour is anything that is not against the law and does not harm others • Illegal behaviour is more serious but does not warrant jail time • Illegal behaviour that is criminalized (criminal behaviour) involves acts for which you could be imrpisoned • Test your knowledge – where does the behaviour belong?
Legal Rights and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms • Review:Court decisions are known as common law • Many of the rights found in the Charter are long-established precedents set by Canadian courts. • Since the creation of the Charter, these rights have been constitutionally entrenched (set and protected). • Sometimes an individual's Charter rights conflict with the duties and limits (restrictions) of the Criminal Code. • If the court feels that the Criminal Code limits on a person's behaviour has gone too far, they will rule that the law is unconstitutional.
Limits, Duties, and Rights of Individuals The Criminal Code identifies specific duties that an individual must do. If an individual fails to carry out these specific duties (for example, by failing to care for a newborn baby), he or she is criminally responsible. Limit The Criminal Code restricts what an individual can do (steal, assault someone, smoke marijuana, and so on) Duty Right The Charter states what an individual is free to do (the right to liberty, the right not to be arbitrarily detained, and so on).
HOMEWORK • ISSUE – Pg 140-141 • Should Marijuana be Legalized? • Questions 1-6
