CRI225H1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Condom, Semi-Automatic Pistol, Hybrid Offence
3 Oct 2016
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Two main sources of restrictions on power to enact criminal law: s. 91/s. Courts play a role in defining what sorts of things can be crimes (as opposed to regulated some other way: canadian charter of rights and freedoms. Parliament cannot create a crime that violates any provision of the charter. Criminal law is valid if it is in the right form: prohibition + penal consequence. And if it is aimed at some public evil in respect of: public peace, order, security, health, morality. Criminal law cannot be overbroad (or grossly disproportionate) Criminal law must give notice to potential accused. Others can develop over time; courts can devise new principles of fundamental justice: example: crime cannot create more harm than it eliminates (bedford v. a. g. ) Parliament is not entitled to enact criminal law that constitutes an unjustified violation of one of the rights guaranteed in the charter. Not all charter violations make a law unconstitutional.
