NCJ Number
101713
Date Published
1986
Length
75 pages
Annotation
This 1986 report by the Law Reform Commission of Canada critiques current Canadian law proscribing acts that threaten the security of the state and its basic institutions and proposes law reform.
Abstract
The law reviewed pertains to treason, intimidating Parliament, sedition, and sabotage, presently found in Part II of the Criminal Code; and espionage and leakage, currently addressed in the Official Secrets Act. The current law is judged to be flawed in both form and content. Shortcomings in form include poor arrangement that results in the overlapping of and inconsistency between provisions, excessive complexity and detail, and uncertainty in scope and meaning. Content defects are out-of-date provisions lacking in principle, overcriminalization, and the possible infringement of some sections on the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The proposed redrafting of the legislation reformulates the offenses based on fundamental principles applicable in the current Canadian context. The current context would limit crimes against the State to those that involve the threat of violent attack by foreign invaders and internal revolutionaries, with the scope of offenses strictly limited by individual rights and freedoms. The proposed legislative scheme would retain offenses that meet these criteria, including espionage and leakage. The redrafted crimes would combine offenses into one minicode contained in the Special Part of the new Criminal Code. This would eliminate problems of overlap, complexity, and inconsistency. 59-item bibliography and tables of statutes and cases.