Federal Law and Common Law

Federal Law

• Law refers to rules that protect everyone's rights.

Common Law

• Common Law is early traditional law that is not written down.

Summary Conviction Offences

• A charge for a summary conviction offence must be initiated within six months after the offence date.

Criminal Information

• A criminal information is a document sworn to that initiates the charge against the accused.

Classification of Offences

• There are three classifications of offences: Summary Conviction, Hybrid, and Indictable.

Elements of Offence

• Everything that must be proved after deciding to charge a person is called the elements of offence.

Rights and Freedoms

• Rights and Freedoms under the Charter are not absolute.

Peace Officer

• The definition of peace officer includes a justice of the peace and an auxiliary officer with the police service.

Psychological Detention

• Psychological Detention is a suspension of a person's individual liberty by psychological restraint.

Arrest

• An arrest is accomplished when you take or get physical control of someone with the intent to detain.
• An arresting officer must have reasonable grounds on which to base the arrest, and those grounds must be justifiable from an objective point of view.

Suspicious Circumstances

• Suspicious circumstances will not always be enough to satisfy reasonable grounds.

Finds Committing

• Finds committing means having reasonable grounds to believe a person has committed an offence and immediately/continuously pursuing them.

Criminal Offence

• A criminal offence is a violation of any federal law.

Dual Procedure Offences

• For the purposes of arrest, all dual procedure offences will be considered indictable.

Charter of Rights and Freedoms

• S.24(2) of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms deals with the exclusion of evidence.
• S.11(b) states a person must be tried within a reasonable time.
• Everyone has the right upon arrest or detention to be informed promptly of the reason and their right to retain and instruct counsel without delay.
• Everyone has the right to be secure against unreasonable search or seizure.

Self Defense

• S.35 CC refers to self-defense.