An Act to amend the Criminal Code (violent home invasion)

Summary#

“An Act to amend the Criminal Code (violent home invasion)” would amend the Criminal Code by creating a new offence. Its stated goal is to create a separate offence of violent home invasion. The supplied material describes a bill; it does not establish that these proposed changes are in force.

• A person would commit the new offence by entering or being in a dwelling-house without lawful excuse, knowing or reckless as to whether it is occupied, and doing at least one of the listed acts: intimidation or violence or threats; causing bodily harm or property damage; confining, imprisoning or forcibly seizing someone; or carrying, using or threatening to use a weapon or imitation.
• The offence would be indictable, with a maximum sentence of life imprisonment and a mandatory minimum of five years in prison.
• When sentencing someone for certain listed Criminal Code offences in relation to a dwelling-house, a court would have to consider a violent home invasion an aggravating circumstance (a fact that makes the offence more serious).
• The bill would also add the new offence to the Code’s definition of “primary designated offence,” and to a list in subsection 515(6)(a). The supplied material does not show the full provisions that give those lists their effects.
• It would extend the opening part of the Code’s “entrance” provision to cover the new offence.

What it means for you#

• People accused of the new offence: If convicted, they would face a mandatory prison sentence of at least five years, up to life. Entry alone would not meet the stated test: the other conditions in the new offence would also have to be met.
• People in a dwelling-house: The bill does not directly change your rights as an occupant or create a new service or process for you.
• Sentencing courts: For a conviction under section 98 or 98.1, subsection 279(2), or section 343, 346 or 348, relating to a dwelling-house, the court would have to consider a violent home invasion an aggravating circumstance.
• People affected by the added statutory lists: The bill adds the offence to those lists, but the supplied material does not include enough of the surrounding Code to explain the full consequences.

Money#

No cost information is in the available material.

• The bill proposes no appropriation, fee or funding arrangement.
• It sets prison penalties, but gives no estimate of resulting court or custody costs.

What is unclear#

• The bill does not define “without lawful excuse,” “reckless,” or “violent home invasion” in the supplied text.
• The supplied text does not include the rest of section 350, so the exact meaning of “entrance” as it would apply to this offence cannot be checked here.
• The surrounding Criminal Code provisions are not supplied. The exact consequences of adding the offence to the “primary designated offence” definition and subsection 515(6)(a) list are therefore unclear.
• The supplied material gives no commencement date and does not say whether the bill has passed.
• The parent Act is not supplied, so the proposed changes could not be checked against the full current Criminal Code.

Case for#

• A possible argument for the bill is that it would name and define a specific offence for serious conduct in an occupied dwelling, rather than relying only on other offences.
• The bill lists the conduct that would qualify, including threats, property damage, confinement and weapons. This could make the offence’s stated scope clearer.
• The bill would require courts to treat a violent home invasion as aggravating when sentencing for the specified offences relating to a dwelling-house.

Case against#

• A five-year minimum sentence would limit a sentencing court’s ability to impose a shorter prison term after conviction.
• The offence covers several alternative forms of conduct. For example, the text includes property damage and carrying an imitation weapon; it does not require that someone be physically injured.
• The bill does not explain how the new offence would interact with the existing offences listed for aggravating circumstances, or with the other Code provisions whose lists it changes.
• Because key terms and the effects of the added lists are not clear from the supplied material, the practical reach of the new offence is difficult to assess.