Description

Quickly find important cases so you can present your arguments with confidence. Authoritative commentary, case summaries, and cross-references help you understand how the parts of the Criminal Code interact. Defence, Crown, and the judiciary all trust the indispensable annotations and commentary in this acclaimed resource.

Key features:

• Thousands of Supreme Court of Canada and Court of Appeal decisions
• Cross-references to appropriate specimen jury instructions (Watt's Manual of Criminal Jury Instructions)
• Offence Sentencing Tables, published as a separate volume, for ascertaining maximum and minimum sentences, assessing ranges, and evaluating options and orders

This edition incorporates a wealth of new annotations and commentary updates based on recent and significant case law, including the following decisions of the Supreme Court of Canada:

• R. v. Ali, 2022 — In order for a strip search to be lawfully conducted as an incident to arrest, there must be reasonable and probable grounds to justify the search, in addition to the reasonable, and probable grounds that justifies the arrest.
• R. c. Bissonnette, 2022 — Regarding parole ineligibility periods, section 745.51 offends s. 12 of the Charter, is not saved by s. 1, and was declared to be of no force or effect immediately, retroactive to the date of its enactment.
• R. v. Brown, 2022 — Regarding self-induced intoxication akin to automatism, section 33.1 infringes ss. 7 and 11(d) of the Charter, and the infringements are not saved by s. 1.
• R. v. J.F., 2022 — Only in exceptional circumstances may an accused, for the first time, raise unreasonable delay as a breach of s. 11(b) of the Charter on appeal.
• R. v. Jaffer, 2022 — The inducement branch of the entrapment doctrine provides that, even if the police have a reasonable suspicion about an individual or act under a bona fide inquiry, they cannot employ a means that goes beyond providing an opportunity to commit a crime.
• R. v. Lafrance, 2022 — On the question of detention, in assessing the reasonable effects on the accused’s perceptions of an encounter with police, the court should consider whether the police were making general inquiries of the public about a particular event, vis-à-vis singling out the accused for a focused investigation.
• R. v. Ndhlovu, 2022 — Section 490.012 and subs. 490.013(2.1) offend s. 7 of the Charter, were not saved by s. 1, and the declaration of invalidity of those provisions took effect immediately.
• R. v. Stairs, 2022 — The common law standard for search incident to arrest must be modified to comply with s. 8 of the Charter where the area searched is outside the accused’s physical control but sufficiently proximate to the place of arrest.
• R. v. Tim, 2022 — The police need correctly identify a particular drug as one listed in the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act before they may lawfully arrest a suspected drug offender – the concept of “reasonable and probable grounds” for arrest relates to the facts, not the existence of an offence in law.
• R. c. Vallières, 2022 — Although a fine in lieu of forfeiture is technically part of a “sentence” under s. 673, it differs from the principal sentence in that its purpose is to replace the proceeds of crime rather than to punish the offender.
• R. v. White, 2022 — Even if the accused’s right to elect mode of trial were lost in a manner amounting to a procedural error under subs. 536(2), the Provincial Court retains jurisdiction to conduct a trial since it has jurisdiction “over the class of offence” under subpara. 686(1)(b)(iv).

Legislative Developments

The 2024 Annotated Tremeear's Criminal Code reflects the following legislative developments that occurred since publication of the last edition. Amendments not in force as of April 26, 2023 appear in the work as shaded text.

[1] On December 15, 2022, An Act to amend the Criminal Code and the Identification of Criminals Act and to make related amendments to other Acts (COVID-19 response and other measures), S.C. 2022, c. 17 (former Bill S-4), received Royal Assent. Its amendments to the Criminal Code and to the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act came into force January 14, 2023.

[2] On December 15, 2022, An Act to amend the Criminal Code and the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (trafficking in human organs), S.C. 2022, c. 18 (former Bill S-223), received Royal Assent and came into force.

[3] On November 17, 2022, An Act to amend the Criminal Code and the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, S.C. 2022, c. 15 (former Bill C-5), received Royal Assent and came into force.

[4] On October 18, 2022, An Act to amend the Criminal Code (disclosure of information by jurors), S.C. 2022, c. 12 (former Bill S-206), received Royal Assent, with its amendments to have come into force on January 16, 2023.

[5] On August 31, 2022, the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act was amended by SOR/2022-185, by adding novel fentanyl precursors as an item to its Schedule V.

[6] On June 23, 2022, An Act to implement certain provisions of the budget tabled in Parliament on April 7, 2022, and other measures, S.C. 2022, c. 10 (former Bill C-19), received Royal Assent, and amended ss. 2.3, 7, 183, 319, and 462.48 of the Criminal Code.

[7] On June 23, 2022, An Act to amend the Criminal Code (self-induced extreme intoxication), S.C. 2022, c. 11 (former Bill C-28), received Royal Assent, and replaced s. 33.1 of the Criminal Code.

[8] On June 9, 2022, An Act to implement certain provisions of the economic and fiscal update tabled in Parliament on December 14, 2021, and other measures, S.C. 2022, c. 5 (former Bill C-8), received Royal Assent, and amended para. 462.48(2)(c) of the Criminal Code.

Auteurs

The Honourable David Watt, K.C. is widely recognized as one of Canada’s pre-eminent criminal law authorities. He distinguished himself as a leader of the bar and as a trial and appellate judge during his illustrious 50-year career. David is currently a Jurist in Residence with Greenspan Humphrey Weinstein LLP. For over 14 years, he was a Judge of the Court of Appeal for Ontario. He also served as a Judge for the Superior Court of Justice for 22 years. He was Crown Counsel in Ontario for 13 years, including eight years as Senior Crown Counsel (Criminal Law), Ministry of the Attorney General. David Watt is a well-known lecturer who taught criminal law, evidence, and procedure to law students, practitioners, and judges at several Canadian law schools and in Continuing Legal Education programs across Canada.

Madam Justice Michelle Fuerst was appointed to the Superior Court of Justice for Ontario in 2002 and assigned to the Central East Region, where she presides primarily over criminal law cases. From October 1, 2013, until January 1, 2021, she was Regional Senior Judge of that Region, serving as a member of the Superior Court’s Executive, and having responsibility for the scheduling and assignment of the judges in the Region. She is a 1979 graduate of Osgoode Hall Law School.

At the time of her appointment to the Bench, she was a partner in the Toronto law firm of Gold & Fuerst, where her practice was restricted to criminal and quasi-criminal trials and appeals. She is a past President of both the Canadian Bar Association-Ontario, and the Criminal Lawyers’ Association (Ontario). She was a member of the Adjunct Faculty of Osgoode Hall Law School for over a dozen years, where she taught Advanced Evidence, and Criminal Law II. For six years she was an Instructor in Trial Advocacy at the University of Toronto Law School. She was the 1998 Milvain Chair of Advocacy at the Faculty of Law, University of Calgary. She was co-Chair of the Federation of Law Societies’ annual National Criminal Law Program for over a decade, until 2017.

She is a co-author of the annual annotated Tremeear’s Criminal Code, a co-author of multiple editions of The Law of Evidence in Canada, a co-author of The Trial of Sexual Offence Cases, a co-editor of multiple editions of Ontario Courtroom Procedure, and a co-author of the Police Powers Newsletter. She currently chairs the Criminal Law Program of the CIAJ/NJI Seminar for New Federally Appointed Judges. She is a member of the Judicial Education Committee of the Canadian Judicial Council, and a member of the Education Committee for the Ontario Superior Court of Justice. She also is a member of the Court’s Criminal Law Working Group. She was a Director of the Ontario Superior Court Judges’ Association from 2008 to 2013. She has chaired the Canadian Bar Association’s International Development Committee, and the Canadian Bar Association’s Judges’ Forum. She is a Fellow of both the American College of Trial Lawyers, and the International Society of Barristers. In 2021 she received the Alumni Gold Key Award from Osgoode Hall Law School. She was awarded the degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, by the Law Society of Ontario in June 2022.

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