Chapters 7-10

• Principal Offender


  Commits the offence
• Party to an Offence

  Aids, abets, has common intention, counsels, or is an accessory after the fact
• Types of Criminal Liability

  • Principal Offender
  • Party to an Offence
  • Aiding
  • Abetting
  • Common Intention
  • Counselling
  • Accessory After the Fact
• Parties to Offences


  1. 21 (1) (a) Actually commits the offence

  2. 21 (1) (b) Does or omits to do anything for the purpose of aiding any person to commit it

  3. 21 (1) (c) Abets any person in committing it
• Aiding


  Providing assistance to the person who actually commits an offence
• Aiding


  • Crown must prove the accused person actively rendered assistance to the person who actually committed the offence (actus reus) and did so with the intent to provide such assistance (mens rea)
• Abetting


  Instigating, urging, or encouraging another person to commit an offence
• Abetting


  • Crown must prove the accused person actively encouraged the person who actually committed the offence (actus reus) and did so with intent to provide such encouragement (mens rea)
• Cuttle yelled "Yippee!" three or four times while Snawley was assaulting Bucket
• Bucket believes Snawley understood Cuttle's "Yippee!" as encouragement to continue the attack
• Common Intention


  Where two or more persons form an intention in common to carry out an unlawful purpose and to assist each other therein, and any one of them, in carrying out the common purpose, commits an offence, each of them who knew or ought to have known that the commission of the offence would be a probable consequence of carrying out the common purpose is a party to that offence
• Perker acted as the lookout while Fang robbed the store, but Perker abandoned the robbery before Fang fatally stabbed the store owner
• Dedlock broke into a vehicle to use as a getaway car for a bank robbery planned with Crisparkle and Evremonde, and Dedlock ran over and killed the vehicle's owner
• Counselling


  Where a person counsels another person to be a party to an offence and that other person is afterwards a party to that offence, the person who counselled is a party to that offence, even if the offence was committed differently than counselled
• Accessory After the Fact

  Knowing a person has been a party to an offence, receives, comforts or assists that person for the purpose of enabling that person to escape
• Sections 21 to 23 apply even if the person the accused aided, abetted, counselled or received cannot be convicted of the offence
• Counselling Offence Not Committed

  If a person counsels another to commit an indictable offence that is not committed, the counsellor is guilty of an indictable offence and liable to the same punishment as an attempted offence; if a summary conviction offence is not committed, the counsellor is guilty of a summary conviction offence
• Attempt


  Having an intent to commit an offence, doing or omitting anything for the purpose of carrying out that intention, whether or not it was possible to commit the offence
• Nubbles and Rudge were arrested with firearms and masks near the bank they planned to rob, but had not yet entered the bank
• Mantalini attempted to smuggle computer chips into Canada, but they were now allowed to be imported duty-free
• Blimber, Creakle, and Winkel were arrested near the bank they planned to rob, but the bank had already closed down a week earlier
• Lancelot tried to break into Arthur's house to steal a ring, but was unsuccessful, and Guinevere later entered the house but the ring was not there
• Conspiracy


  An agreement for a common criminal purpose between two or more parties
• Magwitch, Merdle, and Murdstone made an agreement to kidnap Guppy, but Murdstone later exposed the plot to the police
• Fitness to Stand Trial


  Question about the accused's state of mind at the time of his or her trial
• Unfit to Stand Trial


  Unable to on account of mental disorder to conduct a defence at any stage of the proceedings before a verdict is rendered or to instruct counsel to do so, and, in particular, unable on account of mental disorder to (a) understand the nature or object of the proceedings, (b) understand the possible consequences of the proceedings, or (c) communicate with counsel
• Test for unfitness to stand trial


  • Requires limited cognitive capacity to understand the process and to communicate with counsel
• Not Criminally Responsible on Account of Mental Disorder (NCRMD)

  No person is criminally responsible for an act committed or an omission made while suffering from a mental disorder that rendered the person incapable of appreciating the nature and quality of the act or omission or of knowing that it was wrong
• Every person is presumed not to suffer from a mental disorder so as to be exempt from criminal responsibility by virtue of subsection (1), until the contrary is proved on the balance of probabilities
• The burden of proof that an accused was suffering from a mental disorder so as to be exempt from criminal responsibility is on the party that raises the issue
• Automatism


  A state of impaired consciousness…in which an individual, though capable of action, has no voluntary control over that action
• Categories of Automatism


  • Automatism caused by "normal conditions" like sleepwalking/hypnosis
  • Automatism triggered by an external trauma
  • Automatism that is involuntarily induced by alcohol or drugs
  • Automatism that is voluntary (self-induced) by alcohol or drugs
  • Automatism caused by a mental disorder (disease of the mind)
• R v. Brown, 2022 SCC 18 struck down s. 33.1 of the CCC as unconstitutional
• Extreme intoxication


  Intoxication that renders a person unaware of, or incapable of consciously controlling, their behaviour
• Automatism Outcomes


  • Acquittal for self-induced automatism, automatism caused by "normal" conditions, and automatism caused by external trauma
  • Recognized as Defence as of 2022 in light of SCC decision in R v. Brown for automatism involuntarily induced by drugs/alcohol
  • NCRMD for self-induced automatism and automatism connected to a Mental Disorder
• Mistake of Fact


  Mistake of Fact must always be honest
• Offences requiring subjective mens rea

  Defence will be rejected if Crown can prove that the accused was reckless or willfully blind
• Offences requiring objective mens rea

  Accused must show that mistake of fact was both honest and reasonable
• Mistaken Belief in Consent


  Where belief in consent not a defence
• 273.2 It is not a defence to a charge under section 271, 272 or 273

  1. If the accused's belief arose from self-induced intoxication or recklessness/willful blindness

  2. If the accused did not take reasonable steps to ascertain that the complainant was consenting