BACK PREVIOUS SECTION NEXT SECTION BACK PREVIOUS SECTION NEXT SECTION | 25. (1) Protection of persons acting under authority - Every one who is required or authorized by law to do anything in the administration or enforcement of the law | ||
| (a) | as a private person, | |
| (b) | as a peace officer or public officer, | |
| (c) | in aid of a peace officer or public officer, or | |
| (d) | by virtue of his office, | |
| is, if he acts on reasonable grounds, justified in doing what he is required or authorized to do and in using as much force as is necessary for that purpose. | ||
| (2) Idem - Where a person is required or authorized by law to execute a process or to carry out a sentence, that person or any person who assists him is, if that person acts in good faith, justified in executing the process or in carrying out the sentence notwithstanding that the process or sentence is defective or that it was issued or imposed without jurisdiction or in excess of jurisdiction. | ||
| (3) When not protected - Subject to subsections (4) and (5), a person is not justified for the purposes of subsection (1) in using force that is intended or is likely to cause death or grievous bodily harm unless the person believes on reasonable grounds that it is necessary for the self-preservation of the person or the preservation of any one under that person's protection from death or grievous bodily harm. | ||
| (4) When protected - A peace officer, and every person lawfully assisting the peace officer, is justified in using force that is intended or is likely to cause death or grievous bodily harm to a person to be arrested, if | ||
| (a) | the peace officer is proceeding lawfully to arrest, with or without warrant, the person to be arrested; | |
| (b) | the offence for which the person is to be arrested is one for which that person may be arrested without warrant; | |
| (c) | the person to be arrested takes flight to avoid arrest; | |
| (d) | the peace officer or other person using the force believes on reasonable grounds that the force is necessary for the purpose of protecting the peace officer, the person lawfully assisting the peace officer or any other person from imminent or future death or grievous bodily harm; and | |
| (e) | the flight cannot be prevented by reasonable means in a less violent manner. | |
| (5) Power in case of escape from penitentiary - A peace officer is justified in using force that is intended or is likely to cause death or grievous bodily harm against an inmate who is escaping from a penitentiary within the meaning of subsection 2(1) of the Corrections and Conditional Release Act, if | ||
| (a) | the peace officer believes on reasonable grounds that any of the inmates of the penitentiary poses a threat of death or grievous bodily harm to the peace officer or any other person; and | |
| (b) | the escape cannot be prevented by reasonable means in a less violent manner. | |
| R.S., 1985, c. C-46, s. 25; 1994, c. 12, s. 1. | ||
| 26. Excessive force - Every one who is authorized by law to use force is criminally responsible for any excess thereof according to the nature and quality of the act that constitutes the excess. | ||
| R.S., c. C-34, s. 26. | ||
| 27. Use of force to prevent commission of offence - Every one is justified in using as much force as is reasonably necessary | ||
| (a) | to prevent the commission of an offence | |
| (i) | for which, if it were committed, the person who committed it might be arrested without warrant, and | |
| (ii) | that would be likely to cause immediate and serious injury to the person or property of anyone; or | |
| (b) | to prevent anything being done that, on reasonable grounds, he believes would, if it were done, be an offence mentioned in paragraph (a). | |
| R.S., c. C-34, s. 27. | ||
| 28. (1) Arrest of wrong person - Where a person who is authorized to execute a warrant to arrest believes, in good faith and on reasonable grounds, that the person whom he arrests is the person named in the warrant, he is protected from criminal responsibility in respect thereof to the same extent as if that person were the person named in the warrant. | ||
| (2) Person assisting - Where a person is authorized to execute a warrant to arrest, | ||
| (a) | every one who, being called on to assist him, believes that the person in whose arrest he is called on to assist is the person named in the warrant, and | |
| (b) | every keeper of a prison who is required to receive and detain a person who he believes has been arrested under the warrant, | |
| is protected from criminal responsibility in respect thereof to the same extent as if that person were the person named in the warrant. | ||
| R.S., c. C-34, s. 27. | ||
| 29. (1) Duty of person arresting - It is the duty of every one who executes a process or warrant to have it with him, where it is feasible to do so, and to produce it when requested to do so. | ||
| (2) Notice - It is the duty of every one who arrests a person, whether with or without a warrant, to give notice to that person, where it is feasible to do so, of | ||
| (a) | the process or warrant under which he makes the arrest; or | |
| (b) | the reason for the arrest. | |
| (3) Failure to comply - Failure to comply with subsection (1) or (2) does not of itself deprive a person who executes a process or warrant, or a person who makes an arrest, or those who assist them, of protection from criminal responsibility. | ||
| R.S., c. C-34, s. 29. | ||
| Note - See also s10, Charter. | ||
| Judicial Consideration - | ||
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Gamracy v The Queen
- [1974] SCR 640, 12 CCC (2d) 209, 37 DLR (3d) 405, aff'g [1972] 3 OR 110, 7 CCC (2d) 221 (CA)
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| - An arresting officer is under no duty to obtain a warrant for an arrest or ascertain its contents. In a majority decision, the SCC held: "The provisions of s29(2) are to be read disjunctively, so that when an arrest is being made without possession of a warrant, but pursuant thereto, the duty of the arresting officer is fully discharged by telling the arrested person that the reason for his arrest is the existence of the outstanding warrant. It [is] no part of the officer's duty to obtain the warrant or to ascertain its contents to tell the accused. | ||
| 30. Preventing breach of peace - Every one who witnesses a breach of the peace is justified in interfering to prevent the continuance or renewal thereof and may detain any person who commits or is about to join in or to renew the breach of the peace, for the purpose of giving him into the custody of a peace officer, if he uses no more force than is reasonably necessary to prevent the continuance or renewal of the breach of the peace or than is reasonably proportioned to the danger to be apprehended from the continuance or renewal of the breach of the peace. | ||
| R.S., c. C-34, s. 30. | ||
| 31. (1) Arrest for breach of peace - Every peace officer who witnesses a breach of the peace and every one who lawfully assists the peace officer is justified in arresting any person whom he finds committing the breach of the peace or who, on reasonable grounds, he believes is about to join in or renew the breach of the peace. | ||
| (2) Giving person in charge - Every peace officer is justified in receiving into custody any person who is given into his charge as having been a party to a breach of the peace by one who has, or who on reasonable grounds the peace officer believes has, witnessed the breach of the peace. | ||
| R.S., c. C-34, s. 31. | ||
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