Certain offences require the consent of the Attorney General of a Province before proceedings may be instituted. For example, the charge of “nudity in a public place” requires the consent of the Attorney General before proceedings may be instituted pursuant to subsection 174(3) of the Code. As we have seen in the section related to re-elections, in some circumstances, the Crown’s consent is required to re-elect1 or to have a trial by Judge alone where, absent the consent, the trial would be before a Judge and jury. Requiring the Crown’s consent to re-election has withstood Charter scrutiny. The Crown’s decision as to whether or not to give consent is not, however, immune from judicial scrutiny. It may be examined for abuse of process in very limited circumstances.
The above is the an excerpt of Patrick J Ducharme’s book, Canadian Criminal Procedure, available at Amazon or in bulk through MedicaLegal Publishing along with Criminal Trial Strategies.
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